In collaboration with the Center of Concern, the Agribusiness Action Initiative and the Asian Farmer’s Association, DAWN convened 18 activists working in rural areas and the agricultural sector for the capacity building workshop A Bottom-Up Approach to Righting Financial Regulation held last 5-6 December 2011 in the Philippines. The workshop spun off from an earlier initiative that produced the Kuala Lumpur Guidelines, which linked the issue of human rights with advocacy work on trade, investment, financial rules and regulation.

With increased understanding of the growth of private sector investment in agriculture and food systems in the region, principally in the Mekong sub-region, the workshop was largely attended by delegates from the Mekong sub-region with some representatives from Indonesia and the Philippines. The workshop primarily aimed to: 1) build the capacity of its participants to develop nation-wide financial and investment regulation proposals that facilitate human rights and development; 2) establish clear links between financial regulation and selected issues undertaken by human rights, grassroots and peasant/rural-based movements; and 3) identify global issues, such as transnational agribusiness firms, coaching participants on how to mobilize globally and launch effective advocacy strategies.

The workshop represented a first step in generating Asia-wide conversations around the linkage of financial regulation and human rights. The workshop resulted in the collective identification of urgent themes for research and global advocacy building. These are:

1) Financing for production and the plight of farmers in the real economy
· conduct a region-wide mapping of the impacts of financial regulation on both women and men farmers;
· understand the financial regulation framework for the region as designed by the ASEAN; and
· organize institutional capacity building trainings and workshops on financial regulation for CSOs.

2) Food price speculation and the farmer in the real economy
· strengthen women and men farmer cooperatives and eliminate the need for brokers;
· support capacity building initiatives for women and men farmers; and
· make loan available for women and men farmers to facilitate their (financial) capacity, and boost the farming sector as a whole.

3) Public finance and budgeting for agriculture
· in Lao PDR, obtain funding for water conservation activities in partnership with the community to establish seed and domestic animal banking system and reforestation;
· provide regular orientation programs to poor farmers (women and men) on government programs and services;
· enhance existing government mechanisms that promote CSO participation; and
· provide a platform for sharing best practices on sustainable agricultural practices, linking small farmers to the market, enhancing the value chain, and integrating human rights in government agri- programs and services.

Note: This statement is also part of the DAWN Informs January 2012 Issue.