Mali to host the fourth Forum of the People

FANA, Mali – Hundreds of activists will gather in the Malian town of Fana today for an anti-G8 summit to remind the world’s leading industrialised nations of what’s at stake in their negotiations to end poverty in Africa.

Like the African Social Forum, the Southern Jubilee and the annual World Social Forum that occurs prior to the gathering of the economic elite in Davos, Switzerland, this fourth Forum of the People aims to focus attention on the world’s poorest countries and their own solutions for their social and economic travails. “We want to contribute to reinforcing citizen power and strength, and put governments on notice both in Africa and in rich countries for their responsibilities,” said Barry Aminata Toure, President of the organising coalition of African Alternatives to Debt for Development.This year’s forum in Fana, expected to attract some 2 000 people from around the continent as well as Europe and the Americas, will run parallel to the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations, which opens today in Gleneagles, Scotland.The choice of Fana, about 120 kilometres east of Bamako was a strategic one as the city is a producer of cotton, one of the primary exports from Africa that suffers under the weight of unfair trade subsidies.”We chose Fana as a symbol of a place to take a stand to say ‘no’ to savage privatisation of our cotton industry and ‘no’ to the deterioration of the terms of exchange,” Toure told AFP.Subsidies and an unfair playing field have robbed Africa of some 600 million euros in revenue from cotton in the five-year period from 1998 to 2003, Toure said.Over the four-day summit, participants will join workshops on themes including debt, the dangers of genetically-modified organisms for African agriculture and the continent’s progress towards anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations.Representatives from development groups as well as peasant-advocacy organisations will also push for greater focus on the problems in Africa’s rural zones, where poverty, illiteracy and exposure to epidemic disease are rampant.Attendees will be keeping a close watch on Scotland, where heads of state from Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States will weigh proposals to double annual development aid to 100 billion dollars, and to wipe clean the multilateral debt slate for all countries in Africa.”It is not enough to announce the annulation of part of the debt or to say that Africa is a priority,” said Malian lawyer Ibrahim Maiga, a supporter of the Fana forum.”There must be concrete actions taken to line Africa up with a proper fate, not a grand show that will allow world leaders to sleep at night with a clear conscience.”- Nampa-AFP”We want to contribute to reinforcing citizen power and strength, and put governments on notice both in Africa and in rich countries for their responsibilities,” said Barry Aminata Toure, President of the organising coalition of African Alternatives to Debt for Development.This year’s forum in Fana, expected to attract some 2 000 people from around the continent as well as Europe and the Americas, will run parallel to the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations, which opens today in Gleneagles, Scotland.The choice of Fana, about 120 kilometres east of Bamako was a strategic one as the city is a producer of cotton, one of the primary exports from Africa that suffers under the weight of unfair trade subsidies.”We chose Fana as a symbol of a place to take a stand to say ‘no’ to savage privatisation of our cotton industry and ‘no’ to the deterioration of the terms of exchange,” Toure told AFP.Subsidies and an unfair playing field have robbed Africa of some 600 million euros in revenue from cotton in the five-year period from 1998 to 2003, Toure said.Over the four-day summit, participants will join workshops on themes including debt, the dangers of genetically-modified organisms for African agriculture and the continent’s progress towards anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations.Representatives from development groups as well as peasant-advocacy organisations will also push for greater focus on the problems in Africa’s rural zones, where poverty, illiteracy and exposure to epidemic disease are rampant.Attendees will be keeping a close watch on Scotland, where heads of state from Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States will weigh proposals to double annual development aid to 100 billion dollars, and to wipe clean the multilateral debt slate for all countries in Africa.”It is not enough to announce the annulation of part of the debt or to say that Africa is a priority,” said Malian lawyer Ibrahim Maiga, a supporter of the Fana forum.”There must be concrete actions taken to line Africa up with a proper fate, not a grand show that will allow world leaders to sleep at night with a clear conscience.”- Nampa-AFP