Focus on the Global South

Since 1995, Focus has inspired numerous social organizations in Asia and beyond with its sharp analyses. Not that analyses immediately bring about change, but they are necessary to better understand complex themes, to expose the sore points of our current economic system and to work on alternatives to current policy.

Focus works around 4 themes

1. Protecting the 'commons', such as land, water and forests, from privatization and commercialization;
2. Developing alternatives to excessive global free trade and the proliferation of bilateral trade and investment agreements.
3. Integrating climate justice into agriculture, so-called agroecology
4. Promoting democracy and participation in a region suffering from populism and human rights violations.

Focus operates from four offices, namely in Bangkok, New Delhi, Phnom Penh and Manila, while also collaborating with civil society in various countries in South and Southeast Asia.

Strong focus on food sovereignty

Focus' strength lies in bringing together various actors, in support and capacity building. For example, together with La Via Campesina and FIAN, it is one of the driving forces behind the Nyéléni network. This network promotes the agenda of sustainable agriculture according to the principles of agro-ecology: small-scale, family, local, circular and solidarity. Through the collaboration with farmers' organizations, fishermen, small producers, women's movement, youth and indigenous peoples, there is a very lively international exchange of knowledge.

Due to their expertise, Focus is a member of the Committee on World Food Security of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN). Focus strongly advocates the principle of food sovereignty in the strict sense of the word, namely a food system that puts farmers at the center and not the corporate world, which takes an ever larger share of the food chain and uses its power to increasingly influence decision-making on agricultural policy.