2. Presented Memorandum to the "Presidential
Task Force on Land Distribution and Utilisation" in
1990. Presented Memorandums to the "Presidential Commission
on Youth" in 1990.
3. Participated in alternative global meeting
in Brazil on "land, Ecology and Human Rights"
during the UN Summit for Environment and Development (Earth
Summit)-1992 ".
4 Engaged in island wide education and study
process on agricultural policies and impact of economic
policies of 1977. Over 500 such meetings and seminars were
held covering 18 Districts between 1990 and 1994.
5. Initiated the Movement of Mothers to
Combat Malnutrition in 1993.
6. Conducted a campaign, named "People's
Memorandum", on economic and agricultural policies,
with other organisations. Submitted petition with 150,000
signatures containing 28 proposals on agriculture and economy.
7. Invited by the President of PA Government
in January 1995 for a discussion on agricultural policies
with the Committee appointed to formulate a Policy Framework
for Agriculture. At this discussion it was stated that 95%
of the proposals made by MONLAR were acceptable to the Government.
8. Made submissions to the planning process
of Samurdhi Movement invited by the minister of Samurdhi
Mr. S. B. Dissanayake in 1995.
9. Invited by the President for discussions
and paddy marketing in Aug. 1995. Nominated a group of 150
farmers' representatives to assist in paddy purchases by
the government and proposed a plan of action.
10. Supported "Sadu Jana Ravaya"
Programme on Peace from 1995.
11. Made submissions to World Bank and Government
of Sri Lanka in Aug. 1995 and March 199E on the "Non
Plantation Sector Policy Alternatives Report" of the
World Bank.
12. Had direct discussions with the World
Bank experts Mr. Robert Hunt and Douglas Lister who wrote
the Report on the above proposals in May 1996.
13. Organised National Seminar on Food Security
in Nov. 1996 prior to the World Food summit in 1996 with
participation of prominent scientists and scholars.
14. Represented Sri. Lanka at Food Security
Regional Meetings organised by FAO and NGOs in India (for
South Asia), in Bangkok (for Asia) and Canada (FAO- 50th
Anniversary) and in Rome. Global Summit on Food Security
and participated at the World Food Summit in Rome as an
observer.
15. Appointed member of the Global Forum
and Food Security for Asia.
16. Presented proposals on Combating malnutrition
to all political parties in 1994.
17. Wrote to President of World Bank Mr.
James Wolfensohn following his speech "The other Crisis"
on the situation of World Crisis following the Asian Crisis
in October 1998.
18. Received response from World Bank admitting
that World Bank had not consulted the people sufficiently
and that planning with wider civil society participation
was needed.
19. Wrote to President of Sri Lanka suggesting
a wide dialogue on the development strategies was necessary
in Sri Lanka.
20. Participated in the First International
Conference of the "People's Global Action against GATT,
WTO and "Free Trade" held in Feb. 1998 prior to
the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Geneva.
21. Invited Government, World Bank and private
sector for open Dialogue on economic proposals of World
Bank, business community in October 1998.
22. Met the World Bank experts who were
invited by the government to work on creating a "free
land marker in Sri Lanka and discussed the adverse consequences
of large numbers of rural small farmer families losing their
land.
23. Met World Bank expert Mr. Mateen Thobani
who was invited to advise the government on creating "Tradable
Water Rights" (water market) in Sri Lanka.
24. Presented a paper on the Contribution
of Farmers Movement in Sri Lanka towards Agricultural Policy
Formulation at a Meeting of the International Federation
of Agricultural Producers (IFAP).
25. Initiated" Sri Lanka 2000 Coalition,
and engaged in the petition campaign for debt cancellation
of poor countries and for participatory processes of development
planning. This campaign was conducted in Sri Lanka since
May 1999 until the end of the year and nearly 300,000 signatures
were collected and submitted at a public gathering on 151h
Dec. 1999.
26. At the Second International Conference
of PGA held in Bangalore 1999, MONLAR was elected the convener
of PGA for South Asia for one year.
27. Participated in the international meeting
convened by the Council of Europe on the theme "Globalisation
without Poverty" Presented Sri Lanka experiences of
22 years of trade liberalisation and globalisation and its
consequences on the poor.
28. Attended International Forum of Family
Farmers held on 27 to 29 Nov. in Seattle, USA, parallel
to the WTO Ministerial Meeting from Nov.30 to Dec. 3. This
enabled us to study and join in the events in Seattle.
29. Through the Movement of Mothers to Combat
Malnutrition a National Campaign for Reduction of Prices
of Milk powders and for strengthening domestic milk production
was initiated in mid 2001, when the prices increased making
it impossible for over 2 million low income families to
feed their children.