More than ninety NGOs and campaign groups have condemned the G7’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, warning that the initiative will exacerbate poverty by depriving farmers of control over land and seeds. Representatives of governments and multinational companies, including UK development secretary Justine Greening, meet in New York today to discuss the controversial scheme. The New Alliance was launched at the G8 summit in 2012 with the goal of lifting 50 million people out of poverty within 10 years by increasing private investment and agriculture-led growth in selected African countries. In a joint statement, the organisations say that more than two years after the launch of the initiatve, „there is no sign that the New Alliance is lifting African people out of poverty, but the promise to ‘unleash the power of the private sector’ is very visibly being fulfilled.” The second progress report, published in August, gave no data on the scheme's impact on food security or nutrition in any of the ten African countries it is targeting. According to the NGOs, the New Alliance requires these ten African countries to change their land and seed laws for the benefit of big agribusiness companies. As a result of their cooperation agreements, Tanzania and Mozambique formulated new laws that criminalise farmers who exchange seeds rather than buying them from companies like Monsanto. In Ghana and Malawi similar laws are being drafted. Many small-scale farmers depend on saving seeds to plant the following year and exchanging different varieties with each other. The UK is contributing £600 million in aid money to the scheme: “UK aid should help reduce poverty and inequality, and help the poorest people access essential resources like food, land and water. Instead, the New Alliance is helping some of the world’s most powerful companies expand their control over those resources”, warned Heidi Chow, campaigner at the World Development Movement. Last month, Coca-Cola became the highest-profile company to join the Alliance, joining companies such as Unilever, Syngenta and Yara.