The concept of a North African Network for Food Sovereignty was first proposed in 2017 in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It was officially established in 2018 in Agadir, Morocco. The network comprises members from various backgrounds, such as trade unions, cooperatives, farmers’ associations, small farmers, and independent fishermen.

The network initially included activists from Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Later, after efforts to open up and reach out to other activists from the Arab region, the network extended to Mauritania, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, etc. It included those concerned with the issues of small farmers – fishermen, farmers seeds, water and land.

Imen LOUATI of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation interviewed Ali AZNAGUE, coordinator of the network, in September 2023, to ask him about the network, its beginnings, the challenges faced and the mechanisms of its future work.

• How did the idea of creating a North African network on the theme of food sovereignty come about?

The network was established in July 2017 and has been in existence for 6 years. The idea of establishing the network in North Africa was launched by some organizations in the region, including unions, associations and working groups, from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. Progressive activists from these countries played a prominent role in activating the idea of establishing the network after several meetings and encounters that resulted in the formulation and preparation of the political charter and the struggle strategy, to work on the issues of small food producers in our region, i.e. small farmers, seafarers and pastoralists, and to put forward the food sovereignty project as an alternative to the neoliberal orientations of agricultural policies (commercial and export agriculture) pursued by governments in our region for years. This phase of the establishment of the network was an important beginning in order to stimulate the implementation of field studies on the situation of food sovereignty in three countries: Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

After the General Assembly of Agadir in December 2018 approved the Charter of Management and Strategy, the founders agreed to name the North African Network for Food Sovereignty. At the time, the network was limited to the countries of the region, but after expanding beyond North Africa, in Sudan, Palestine and Lebanon, we held an extraordinary general assembly in 2022 and changed the name to: Sovereignty Network. The name becomes inclusive and unified for all organizations and activists of the countries belonging to the network.

• What are the goals of the network in the region?

The network’s primary objective is to promote the project of food sovereignty in the Arabic-speaking region by building the necessary tools of struggle. The network also aims to support and organize small food producers at the local and national levels. Additionally, it seeks to develop a sovereign perspective that can bring together the region’s struggles against major financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization. The ultimate goal is to establish food sovereignty as a political, economic, and social project of liberation. The network has been working towards this goal for six years and is still in the early stages of its journey.

• Why food sovereignty struggles are so common in the different countries in the Network’s target region?

This is a very valid question, the reason in my opinion is due to the severity of the neoliberal encroachments, the region has become a profit-making backyard  for global capital, and it is normal for social resistance to rise from below to these capital investments that are destructive to the environment and humans, by seizing land, displacing small peasants and depleting water and marine wealth. Our region is among the most underdeveloped, delayed, and even destroyed  in terms of political, economic, and social aspects. It has the highest unemployment rate compared to the rest of the world, which is a shocking reflection of the global and domestic capital’s seriousness in seeking profits by exploiting resources such as water, seeds, sea, etc., and grotesquely exploiting agricultural and marine labor.

• How did networking begin on the issue of food sovereignty in the region, which actors were involved?

The network structures consist of a regional secretariat, local coordination and a general assembly.

After the effective establishment of the Network in Agadir, Morocco in 2018, the structures of the Network began to operate periodically, especially the Regional Secretariat composed of representatives from all the member countries of the Network. The Regional Secretariat oversees the work of the network in each country in the region and follows up on the work of local coordination according to the capabilities and context of each country.

At the grassroots level, the network structures are made up of local coordination in each country, represented by unions and member associations. We believe that the local coordination of the sovereignty network will become an integral part of the struggles of small food producers. This will help to organize, unite and empower them with the principles of the food sovereignty project as formulated by the peasants’ way – La Via Campesina, with which we share several principles.

Networking has already begun through the launch of initiatives and campaigns in solidarity with small food producers in our region, particularly with agricultural workers in Morocco and Tunisia. In 2019 and 2020, important struggles occurred in the region, and we made an effort to engage and support them as much as possible. In Tunisia, for example, the fight of small farmers in Hawaidia against a local quarry was noteworthy. In Morocco, the wave of struggles of agricultural workers continued, with workers who join any union being expelled or beaten for defending their rights. We have launched initiatives and campaigns to support these battles and combat defamation against the agricultural workers union of in the major capitalist agricultural estates. The battle of agricultural worker and trade unionist Atika Fizazi serves as a striking example of this.

These were the early steps towards establishing networks and building connections among different actors, be it individuals or organizations. The focus of work within the Sovereignty Network is primarily on educating people about food sovereignty issues and developing a locally relevant alternative. We conduct extensive field studies and research to understand the agricultural scenario in our countries, relying on our own capabilities and limited resources. Despite the ongoing struggles in our region, we work at a respectable pace towards our goals, even though the current context puts relative pressure on the organizations under the network’s banner.

• What are the mechanisms of the network? How has the network managed the commonalities and local idiosyncrasies of its partners?

With regard to regulatory mechanisms, it is framed by the Network’s Political Charter, which is updated and ratified every 3 years. The network Charter, which surrounds our ideas and principles, expresses the network’s progressive orientation. The General Assembly, which is held every three years, is also the highest reporting body to approve new memberships. Membership remains open to all organizations and movements in the Arabic-speaking region, subject to approval of the Platform and the Charter of Management.

The food sovereignty project has various mechanisms of action, some of which include:

• Regional seminars: In 2019, the Network collaborated with the Tunisian Association for Permaculture to organize a regional seminar in Tunis. The seminar was attended by several organizations from the region and abroad, providing a valuable opportunity to learn about the struggles of small farmers in countries like Palestine, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, as well as sub-Saharan countries. The seminar was also attended by the African Alliance for Food Sovereignty (AFSA), which the Network has been a part of since 2020. These seminars promote cooperation between organizations and the exchange of field visits to share experiences of struggle in each country. The ultimate goal is to collectively develop comprehensive alternatives at the regional level.

• International participations: The Network has participated in several international events focused on climate justice, including the climate justice camp in Tunisia in 2022 and the Hammana camp in Lebanon in 2023. The aim of these participations was to increase the network’s presence in environmental and climate initiatives, engage with like-minded individuals and organizations, and open up discussions about food sovereignty and the situation of small food producers. This was done through workshops, film screenings, and the distribution of the network’s publications on a large scale. The Network actively participates in various activism events across the region, including the Seed Festival in Tunisia in 2021 and the Colibri Festival organized by the Institut Français in Casablanca in May 2023. Additionally, the Network strengthens its presence by taking part in webinars organized by our partners worldwide, such as the Coalition for Food Sovereignty in Africa’s seminar and the symposium on “For a Global Green New Deal to Repair Our Broken Food Systems.” We take advantage of these opportunities to engage in discussions and showcase our progressive perspectives on agricultural issues in the Arabic-speaking region. Participating in these events not only helps us establish a global presence but also enables us to continue our work towards a more sustainable future.

• Literary publications and documentaries: The Sovereignty network runs a website (Siayada.org) in three languages that offers a collection of literary publications, studies and research concluded within the last six years. We also collaborate with other organizations and movements to provide helpful translations in Arabic. Furthermore, we publish a regional yearbook of the magazine “Siyada”, which is printed in Morocco and Tunisia and covers a variety of topics. So far, we have released four issues of the magazine. In addition to that, we create documentaries that showcase grassroots issues related to food sovereignty in our region. You can find them on our YouTube channel.

• Organizing training courses: One of the most important ways the network operates on a strategic level is by organizing training courses. These courses greatly enhance the understanding and capabilities of trade unionists, seafarers, agricultural workers, activists, and researchers in the agricultural industry. This is achieved through workshops, discussions, and participation in education schools. The network memebrs has contributed to three sessions of a popular education school. Additionally, in collaboration with the International Institute TNI and the Forum for Modernity and Democracy, the network organized a training course on agricultural political economy in Morocco in 2023. The majority of the network members participated in the training process for a whole week. We plan to continue this training for our activists and organizations, and we welcome the involvement of friendly associations and unions. This will help us to broaden the base of the popular sovereignty project, gain a deeper understanding of the strategic choices made by our countries in the agricultural sector, and explore alternative solutions.

• As for the management of commonalities and local specificities, as I said earlier, the network has a charter, a ground and a clear strategy of struggle, which unites the perspectives of our political action within the project of food sovereignty throughout the region. It is worth mentioning that joint action and local or regional militant cooperation enhances the opportunities to manage commonalities among the network’s organizations, and increases the chances of coordinating their work and efforts according to the context of each country.

• What difficulties have the founding members of the Network faced in establishing the Network and the successes it has fostered over the years?

No collective action is without difficulties, especially in our region, which is arguably one of the most difficult in the world in terms of working on various issues. Regimes undermine freedoms, besieging activists, progressive and militant organizations in general. However, this does not mean that there are not many intrinsic difficulties, not the least of which is the weakening of the tradition of cooperation between organizations despite their adoption of the project of food sovereignty. Of course, this has historical roots linked to the political status of the region, and there is also a fundamental issue, which is the novelty of the food sovereignty project in the region, which has only been seriously paid attention to in recent years, especially in the second decade of the third millennium. The weakness and decline of local struggle organizations have made it challenging for them to keep up with global movements. In fact, some are so involved in these larger movements that they are more aware of developments outside their region than within it. Nevertheless, we are working to overcome these obstacles by coordinating with organizations, institutions, and networks outside our region. By doing so, we hope to gain new experiences and knowledge, which we can then share with others. Additionally, we are taking steps to translate foreign writings into Arabic to help spread knowledge throughout our region.

Despite the challenges posed by the multifaceted capitalist crisis, I remain optimistic and resolute in my support for the sovereignty network project. It is our responsibility to prepare ourselves, both programmatically and organizationally, for the struggles of small producers. Today’s sovereignty network provides education, training, solidarity, and organizational expansion, among other things, and its relative success can be attributed to two main factors. Firstly, the network’s serious handling of the issues faced by small food producers from an anti-capitalist perspective, and secondly, the direct participation of small-scale food producers in the network who passionately support those fighting on the ground.