Prior to the World Social Forum in Nairobi, as people from African and Asian countries in “the South” we met and discussed over two days our conditions, our experience and how we can work to construct an Africa and an Asia where we can control our resources and make decisions in the interests of ordinary people. We recognised that we live in a world where lives in one country are influenced by dominant nations and powerful groups in other countries, and by global institutions. A participant from the Nubian Community told of how “9/11” in the USA had changed life in his community, with a response that has led to increasing tension and conflict amongst communities. He talked about the work they are doing at the grassroots to build interfaith relations to maintain peace and human dignity. In a violent world he talked about the peoples struggle to confront power in a non-violent manner. We shared common experiences of how privatisation and company investments have led families to lose land, made water scarce and unaffordable for poor people, and left people deprived of rights to basic services. At the same time as these economic policies race ahead, we discussed experiences of how some of the most basic issues like marriage contracts, to safe guard women so they are not left with nothing after divorce, are still not implemented in some of our societies. Here too people talked about their struggles to claim these basic rights. There were many examples of where ordinary people’s struggles have made a difference. Stories from liberation struggles, to struggles over debt cancellation, to the victories at Doha to defend health at the World Trade Organisation were raised to demonstrate this point. On the one hand, we recognised the need to forge solidarity across communities, and across Africa, Asia and Latin America, if these struggles are to have an impact on the policies that affect us. People's movements are still fragmented, sometimes oppose each other and have not set a common agenda. While we discussed these alliances across countries, a representative from the Union of Slum Dwellers in Kenya pulled our attention back to the core of the issue- whose voice and whose victories? He said that grassroot citizens are tired of listening and seeing nothing happening. He continued, “We people who live in slums have not seen any MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) coming to us. Who needs who? All of us need each other, but people are trying to talk on our behalf. It should be like today when I talk for myself. I am one of the survivors at the grassroot level. We are talking today here about dropping the debt – but for whose benefit? It is not for someone like me; it is done only for those up there as we see no impact of it.” "What is seen here is that we need to campaign not only on dropping the debt, but on how that money from debt relief is used. We need to see that these resources reach to the common citizens at the grassroot level to root-out their poverty."