The Nyéléni Global Forum was first held in Mali in 2007 and 2015. It was named after a legendary Malian peasant woman who has become one of the symbols of food sovereignty, a paradigm that opposes the globalized food production model dominated by large transnational corporations and instead advocates for the strengthening of local economies. This year it has been celebrated on September in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and it featured representatives from more than 80 social movements from all corners of the globe.
This was the first year that more than 60% of the more than 700 delegates from 100 countries attending the forum were women and gender diverse people. Furthermore, a third of the delegates were 35 years old or younger. The food sovereignty movement present at the forum has not been limited to the initial core of small-scale food producers, such as farmers, fishermen, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples, and rural workers; it has also expanded to include feminist and climate change movements, migrants, conscious consumers, academic researchers, and artists.
Through debates, presentations, workshops, and working groups, the effort has sought to build a unified political vision against the dominant, patriarchal, imperialist, colonialist, racist, caste-based, and supremacist capitalist system with the production of two political documents: the Kandy Declaration and the Common Political Agenda. The latter, whose official launch is planned for the People’s Summit COP30 in Brazil, is structured around six axes: building and defending democracy and people’s rights; achieving peace and internationalist solidarity; building popular economies; achieving food sovereignty and agroecology; establishing health for all; and achieving climate justice and energy sovereignty. The Kandy Declaration, read out on September 13 at the Forum’s closing ceremony, includes among its next steps actions such as a global day of mobilization against imperialism, genocide, war, and the use of hunger as a weapon. In the campaigns it is included TMP-E Global Advocacy Action on systemic narrative change on migrants and refugees.
