(Last year's challenge: "Instead of meeting in a hotel and marching to
an out of sight nature reserve we could have had public meetings,
walk-abouts and leafleting in the poor communities. Malawian movements
could have taking important steps forward with the help of the energy,
political clarity, public attention and resources they would have gained
from such regional solidarity efforts. This is the approach that will
maximise the impact of the next SAPSN summit. It is well within SAPSN's
capacity.")
CSOs demand natural resource revenue accountability
via CSOs demand natural resource revenue accountability -- *NewsDay
Zimbabwe*
<https://www.newsday.co.zw/2014/07/09/csos-demand-natural-resource-revenue-accountability/>
July 9, 2014 by Paidamoyo Muzulu
THE Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd) says it will
next month host several civic society groups from Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) at a regional conference aimed at forcing
African governments to account for revenue realised from exploitation of
natural resources.
The conference, dubbed Sadc People's Summit, will be held in Bulawayo
under the theme "Reclaiming Sadc for People's Development: Sadc
Resources for Sadc People".
Zimcodd executive director Patricia Kasiamhuru said the conference would
run concurrently with the Sadc Annual Summit in Victoria Falls.
"The meeting seeks to influence the building of an alternative regional
bloc through people-driven processes and also aims at carving out space
in the Sadc policy-making processes for peoples' participation,"
Kasiamhuru said.
The civil society organisations taking part in the meeting fall under
the umbrella of the Southern Africa People's Solidarity Network (SAPSN).
"SAPSN is modelled in a way that seeks to revive the solidarity of the
people of Southern Africa in the fight for economic independence and for
a better life," she added.
The meeting comes as communities in the region still live in abject
poverty yet foreign multinationals are making millions in profits from
natural resources like minerals and oil.
SAPSN is made up of regional civil society organisations,
non-governmental organisations, trade unions, faith-based organisations,
economic justice networks and community-based organisations.
Participants for the regional meeting will come from South Africa,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
SAPSN was formed in 2000 with funding from among others Open Society
Institute of Southern Africa (Osisa), MS Zimbabwe, DIAKONIA, Africa
Groups of Sweden (AGS) and Action Aid Southern Africa.
These organisations, among other things, raise awareness in the region
on issues relating to unfair economic relations existing between the
North and South like trade injustices and the existence of external
debts that lead to subjugation of the general citizenry in the region.
ZIMCODD to host Sadc people's summit
by Portia Sigauke
09 July 2014 | 1541 Views
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PNG Formations <https://www.pngformations.co.uk/>
Harare, July 09,2014 - The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development
(Zimcodd) has said it will next month host several civic society groups
from Southern African Development Community (Sadc) at a regional
conference to be held in Bulawayo next month, lobbing for governments to
be accountable for revenue collected from exploited natural resources.
The conference will be held under the theme "Reclaiming Sadc for
People's Development: Sadc Resources for Sadc People" and will run from
the 15-16 August 2014, at ZITF grounds.
The conference would run concurrently with the Sadc Annual Summit in
Victoria Falls.
"The meeting seeks to influence the building of an alternative regional
bloc through people-driven processes and also aims at carving out space
in the Sadc policy-making processes for peoples' participation," Zimcodd
executive director Patricia Kasiamhuru.
The meeting comes as communities in the region still live in abject
poverty yet foreign multinationals are making millions in profits from
natural resources like minerals and oil.
Zimcodd is a civic society group aimed at ensuring that citizens of
Zimbabwe enjoy their social and economic rights (education, housing,
health, clean environment, social security, food, decent work) without
hindrance.
This is meant for Zimbabweans to enjoy social and economic justice and
to promote decent and sustainable livelihoods for marginalized citizens.
Participants for this regional meeting will come from South Africa,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
- See more at:
http://www.bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-50299.html#sthash.qy1jeI7k.dpuf
***
SAPSN in Malawi -a clash between liberalism and radical movement
building
<http://sodraafrikaidag.se/2013/08/27/sapsn-in-malawi-a-clash-between-liberalism-and-radical-movement-building/>
2013/08/27 . Angola <http://sodraafrikaidag.se/category/lander/angola/>,
Demokrati <http://sodraafrikaidag.se/category/intressant/demokrati/>,
Ekonomi <http://sodraafrikaidag.se/category/ekonomi/>, Politik
<http://sodraafrikaidag.se/category/intressant/politik/>, Sydafrika
<http://sodraafrikaidag.se/category/lander/sydafrika/> .
*ronald 150x150 SAPSN in Malawi a clash between liberalism and radical
movement building
<http://sodraafrikaidag.se/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ronald.jpg>"Tension developed
at the People's Summit when some participants expressed frustration with
the approach of the organisers, which seemed to be confined to
submitting memoranda once a year to regional state officials." -Ronald
Wesso works for Afrikagrupperna's partner organization SPP, Surplus
People Project. This is his reflection on the Southern African People's
Solidarity Network (SAPSN)*
The People's Summit was a gathering called by the Southern Africa
People's Solidarity Network (SAPSN) in Lilongwe, Malawi on 16 and 17
August parallel to the Heads of State and Government Summit called by
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the same city. Both
events are annual, and the theme of the People's Summit this year was
'Reclaiming SADC for People's Development and Solidarity: Ensuring our
Natural Resources Benefit the People...'
There was a telling moment in the commission discussing 'agriculture,
land ownership and food sovereignty in SADC'. As people were sharing
experiences and formulating demands to put into the communiqué, a woman
brought the proceeding to a standstill by saying, 'Wait a minute
comrades. These are the same things we said in the communiqué that we
submitted in Angola in 2011. Let us look at that communiqué and ask
ourselves how many of those demands were listened to. None!' After a
stunned silence participants started agreeing that this was not a
problem of 2011 only, but that in all the years of submitting these
communiqués the heads of state have consistently ignored them. Are
summits like these -- and by extension SAPSN itself -- a waste of time
and money?
The tension around SAPSN in Malawi could be understood as the conflict
between two different, though overlapping, models of striving for social
change -- the liberal civil society model and the radical movement
building model. The liberal civil society model of striving for social
change commits change agents to work within the rules and structures set
up by capitalist states and this model is often led by lawyers,
researchers and other middle class people empowered to function within
those kinds of spaces. The radical movement building model seeks to
prioritise the democratic self-organisation and direct action of the
labouring and marginalised masses and is not in principle bound by the
rules of capitalist society. Of course, although ultimately opposed,
these models have often appeared in combination in the same movement
seemingly complementing each other. However, in the neo-liberal era the
liberal civil society model have proven to be stripped of any semblance
of effectiveness.
Within this approach a gathering such as the People's Summit could be
extremely useful. Its value would not be to serve as a platform from
which skilled speakers and writers can persuade the heads of states to
adopt pro-poor policies, nor would it be as a space where the promoters
of radical ideologies can persuade and recruit a few more activists to
their particular ideological views and projects. Its value would be in
the contribution it could make to building movements in the place where
it takes place. This has been the main, and often over looked, benefit
of the World Social Forum.
The key focus of the summit would be to understand and contribute to
movement building in Malawi. Writers could have focused on describing
and analysing the civil society organisations and movements in Malawi --
the issues that the comrades confront, their strength, the actions they
are planning and the support they need. Speakers could have assisted
with facilitating popular education sessions for movement building.
Instead of meeting in a hotel and marching to an out of sight nature
reserve we could have had public meetings, walk-abouts and leafleting in
the poor communities. Malawian movements could have taking important
steps forward with the help of the energy, political clarity, public
attention and resources they would have gained from such regional
solidarity efforts. This is the approach that will maximise the impact
of the next SAPSN summit. It is well within SAPSN's capacity. The main
thing now is to adopt this orientation toward radical movement building
as the strategy to fight for social change.
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