Hopes, experiences, optimism, evidence, critique, challenge and expectation- we present in this section reports from those at the World Social Forum held in Nairobi in January 2007. We welcome opinion pieces, reports on sessions relating to health issues, position papers or comments on the WSF and would like to hear your experiences and impressions of the sessions that had relevance to health. Please write to us at admin@equinetafrica.org and we will include inputs in our next newsletter.
Equity in Health
A call for reflections on health at the World Social Forum Nairobi
We would like to hear from you!
Contact: admin@equinetafrica.org
A critical review of the World Social Forum
Rasheed KJ: Phambazuka News 288, 17 January 2007
The World Social Forum first met in 2001 in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, as a challenge to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and 'claimed to organize an alternative to capitalist neo-liberal globalisation. The author further describes their experience as they scoured for analysis of the World Social Forum, and came across critiques accusing the WSF of being a glorified discussion group for the emerging class of career activists and NGOs, to an incubator for the domestication of possibly explosive actors.
Fight for your rights, despite globalisation, women urged
Integrated Regional Information Network, 22 January 2007
Women, especially in the developing world, who continue to bear the burden of the negative impact of globalisation, must fight for their rights, a Kenyan civil rights activist said on Monday at the World Social Forum (WSF). Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of UN Habitat, said globalisation had contributed to the suffering of women as they continued to bear the burden of its negative impact. Participants spoke against violence, saying they wanted the world to continue to hear their voice. A woman from Bangalore, India, who asked to be referred to as Shokun, said violence was a major cause of death for women in India.
Hear our voices
Integrated Regional Information Network, 25 January 2007
Duncan Otieno, 22, lives in Huruma, one of four main slums in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Otieno has lived there since coming to the city in 2003 after finishing school in Kisumu, in the west of the country. Otieno attended the last day of the World Social Forum. He expressed hope that the gathering will achieve outcomes on issues affecting ordinary people, including access to water, high rentals and insecure jobs. "However, if the forum is just a matter of people talking, just for the sake of gathering, then it will be of no use."
The 7th edition of the World Social Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum On Health Policital Agenda was held in Nairobi, Kenya on 21-23 January 2007. The theme for the 7th edition of the World Social Forum is “People’s Struggles, People’s Alternatives”. The 7th edition of the World Social Forum brings the world to Africa as activists, social movements, networks, coalitions and other progressive forces from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe and all corners of the African continent converge in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Global Health Watch and Indigenous Health 2007
People's Health Movement
The first edition of Global Health Watch (GHW) was launched last year, and the Global Health Watch 2007/8 will be published late in 2007 or early 2008. The full edition of GHW and a shorter advocacy document Global Health Action can be downloaded from the GHW website. People's Health Movement (PHM) would like to ensure that indigenous health issues are highlighted in relation to all the areas that will be covered in the second edition of Global Health Watch, and request your assistance and input in this regard. They would like to provide chapter co-ordinating authors with information on indigenous health issues that can be integrated within the various chapters.
The spirit of those early hours: From Mathare to the world
Ong'injo JA: World Social Forum 2007
The author describes a personal experience in the days of preparation for the World Social Forum 2007. After spending a few days in the company of young people like me from Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and many other African Countries, I discovered that same early spirit of my community. To me the WSF is beginning to be and will be a deeply emotional experience. It’s emotional because we have been working very hard to make this day happen.
Tutu warns ahead of World Social Forum, war on terror cannot ignore poverty
Nzwili F: Ecumenical News International, 19 January 2007
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has warned it is not possible to win the war on terror as long as conditions that drive people to desperation continue to persist. "There is no way anybody is going to win the war on terror as long as there are conditions in so many parts of the world that drive people to acts of desperation because of poverty, disease and ignorance," said Tutu. Some people attending the forum in the past have questioned whether it has made a difference, but church leaders say it has brought the concerns of poor communities onto the global agenda.
World Social Forum: just another NGO fair?
Manji F: Pambazuka News 288, 26 January 2007
The World Social Forum, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya for the first time in Africa, was supposed to be a forum for the voices of the grassroots. But Firoze Manji writes that, despite the diversity of voices at the event, not everyone was equally represented.
World Social Forum: Small ways to solve big problems
Mulama J: OneWorldSouth, 22 January 2007
According to global anti-debt organisations, African countries spend about 15 billion dollars per year repaying debts, in a continent where more than half of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. The continent also has been dogged with the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and illiteracy. Analysts argue that this situation could be reversed if governments spent more money on health care, education and other public service sectors, rather than on debt repayment. The issue of HIV/AIDS dominated the addresses at Uhuru Park, as speakers reiterated that it remained the greatest challenge African countries, and offered suggestions for countering the challenge.