FOOD SOVEREIGNTY IN PALESTINE: A follow up to the ReBuilding Women Owned Farms of Gaza Campaign

Join Noura Mansour of APAN (the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network), as she hosts a global discussion on food sovereignty in Palestine.

Hear from the Gaza Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP) and it's associated Urban Women Agripreneurs Forum (UWAF), as well as supporting organisations Sustain: The Australian Food Network, Just Food Collective and Global Gardens of Peace.

Coinciding with the day for International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Tuesday the 29th of November 2022, this conversation will feature guests & voices from an international network of food justice champions & agencies after the great success of the solidarity campaign that raised $25,880AUD.

THE CONVERSATION

Within the Gaza Strip, there are over 1000 women-led, small-scale agri-enterprises. These farms and agri-enterprises maintain seed banks of locally cultivated crops & produce a great diversity of foodstuffs - from fresh vegetables, fruit & herbts to poultry, livestock and traditional ingredients such as ajweh (date paste), maftool (hand rolled couscous), stevia sweetner, cheeses and pickles.

The Gaza Strip is a densely urbanised, independently governed area of occupied Palestine. Times of crisis and occupation exacerbate already difficult structures that limit women’s ability to produce food for export or local sale.

In the wake of Covid-19 and the May 2021 bombings in Palestine GUPAP reached out to organisations across the globe for “solidarity with women agripreneurs of Gaza, so they can realize their aspirations for food sovereignty”.

Organisations responded to GUPAP’s call for solidarity.

GUPAP, Sustain: The Australian Food Network, Global Gardens of Peace, Eco CARE Pacific Trust and Just Food Collective Australia formed a solidarity campaign that was promoted on radio stations in Australia, through success and resilience stories of women farmers, and an online event that was convened with the support of Free Palestine Melbourne in October 2021.

THE WEBINAR

Championing food sovereignty for all Palestinians, GUPAP have since distributed the funds to 52 women of the Urban Women Agriprenuers Forum through the purchase of their products at a fair price.

The women of UWAF decided it was paramount that people in crisis and vulnerability receive healthy food or seed packages made up from these sales, with impacted women and families receiving packages specific to their needs.

We will hear from UWAF and GUPAP highlighting the success of this solidarity model, as well as challenges arising from a global campaign.

TICKETS

Registration is necessary & tickets are free, this event will be held online and a Zoom link will be sent out after registration.

MC

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network
Noura Mansour |Community Organising and Advocacy Lead

Noura is a Palestinian educator, writer, political analyst, and community organiser, involved in community development for almost 20 years. Noura has worked with NGOs in Palestine, as well as international solidarity movements in South Korea and Australia. Her interest in Palestine is a manifestation of passion about community and human rights values.

GUESTS

Gaza Urban & Peri-urban Agriculture Platform
Ahmed Sourani | Co-Founder

Lauched in 2013, GUPAP is a multi-stakeholder, interactive and participatory forum that brings together key actors involved in the development of a resilient Palestinian agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip. Co-founder Ahmed Sourani is a member of a number of national & regional agricultural development initiatives, and has shared his expertise as a speaker at multiple UN seminars, holding several advisory managerial positions in local and international organizations including Oxfam, ICRC & PARC. His expertise focuses on organizational development, policy change and networking for agricultural development, participatory learning and action research. Joining Ahmed are the Women Agripreneurs of the UWAF, a forum centred within GUPAP.

Urban Women Agripreneurs Forum

Alaa Abu Jayab, & Zeinab Abed

GUPAP facilitated the community-led Urban Women Agripreneurs Forum (UWAF) as an empowering space that facilitates economic resilience and provides agricultural inputs, exchange and capacity sharing activities among its members. It is a space for sharing and building strategies in regard to rights advocacy for women agripreneurs in the Gaza strip. These women are the people who grow and produce the food and seed that are the forefront of creating a resilient and sovereign local food system in Gaza. They received financial solidarity as the campaign raised over $25,000, and they produced packages and healthy food baskets for their community in return. We will hear from them as to the successes and challenges of a global campaign such as this one.

Alaa is a community and institutional development activist. She holds a degree in English
Literature from Al-Azhar University; she has a higher diploma in NGOs Management and
Community Organization. Alaa is the Community Participation and Advocacy Coordinator at the
Gaza Urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP); she supervised the establishment of the Urban
Women Agripreneurs Forum (UWAF); a crucial part of GUPAP strategy to enhance socio-
economic resilience of women agripreneurs and to facilitate community-led capacity sharing,
rights advocacy and policy influencing activities. She has experience in overseeing and managing
solidarity marketing campaigns.

Zeinab is an agronomist specializing in food transformation and the first producer of
gluten-free flour in Gaza (Palestine). She developed her experience and soft skills through
different associations before joining GUPAP and becoming the UWAF coordinator. She assists
and coordinates a network of 150 agripreneurs through digital communication and projects, of
the first who advocated for a solidarity marketing approach and has experience in organizing
solidarity marketing campaigns.

Sustain: The Australia Food Network
Dr Nick Rose | Executive Director

Nick has been the Executive Director of Sustain since its establishment in January 2016. He is the editor of "Fair Food: Stories From a Movement Changing The World (2015)" and the co-editor of "Reclaiming The Urban Commons: The Past, Present and Future of Food Growing in Australian Towns And Cities (2018)." Nick is also a lecturer in food systems, food policy and governance and food movements for William Angliss Institute in their Bachelor of Food Studies and Master of Food Systems and Gastronomy.

Sustain is a “think and do” network, specialising in designing and building sustainable & healthy food systems. Sustain works for the transition to a food system that supports flourishing communities, individuals and ecosystems, and gives people, councils, and organisations the tools they need to help them become empowered food citizens.

Just Food Collective
Amy Tacey | President

Just Food Collective is about empowering youth to lead the path towards a sustainable and healthy food system, that tackles systemic inequities and promotes conviviality and collective transformation. From agriculture, social movement theory, health and wellbeing, and gastronomy the members of Just Food are not only knowledgeable but are incredibly passionate about creating a just food system. Just Food have been extremely grateful to work on this campaign with GUPAP and Sustain and others, and forge international partnerships in the pursuit of sovereignty for Palestine and solidarity with women.

Global Gardens of Peace
Gary Chan | Board Member

Gary is a highly skilled professional with substantial expertise in international relations, cross-cultural, cross-border bridging and engagement, and strategic network development and design. He holds a BSc (Hons) (Immunology) and has over 45 years of experience across the sectors of Community Development, Arts and Cultural Development, Multi-sectoral Cooperation, Government Relations and NGO relations, Australia and worldwide. Gary has undertaken multiple projects through UN Volunteers and is a Board Member and advises several not-for-profit organisations with active interest across Oceania, South East Asia, North Asia, Pacific Nations, EU-designate countries. North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is Co-Founder and Chair of Energy Circle Holdings Pty Ltd, a Co-Founder of EcoCARE Africa Trust, and is an Advisor to AfrikaRudi NGO, FIT Cambodia, and EcoCARE Pacific Trust.

Read more about the women through their success and resilience stories below