Session information

Download the full timetable here 

Africa from exploitation to resistance

The perception of Africa that many people in the UK have is dominated by starvation, corruption and tribalism. But while Africa is at the sharp end of corporate exploitation, the story of ordinary Africans organising against injustice remains largely untold. This session will explore the African social movements who are writing their own history across the continent.

• Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Africa Jubilee South
• Firoze Manji, editor in chief, Pambazuka News
• Horace Campbell, director of the Africa Initiative, Syracuse University

Africa beyond aid

Most African countries receive more than 10 per cent of their GDP in aid. This creates huge problems, including making governments more accountable to donors than to voters. Would cutting aid make things worse or better? Some big charities are currently campaigning to defend aid spending. This session will consider whether that’s the right priority, and what else we should be doing.

• Yash Tandon, Ugandan author of Ending Aid Dependence
• Jonathan Glennie, author of The Trouble with Aid

Taking the biscuit: Is Fairtrade working?

The retail value of Fairtrade products in 2010 was over £1 billion in the UK alone. Fairtrade has gone mainstream, but is it really making an impact on poverty? Looking beyond controversial decisions over certification for Nestlé products, this session will debate the Fairtrade model and whether it can deliver economic justice and sustainable development.

• Sophi Tranchell, managing director of Fairtrade chocolate company, Divine
• Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement
• Firoze Manji, editor in chief, Pambazuka News

How Europe underdeveloped Africa

Thirty-three of the world’s 48 ‘least developed countries’ are in Africa. This session will explore how the slave trade, the exploitation of African resources and labour under colonialism, and post-colonial economic policies have all seen Europe actively push Africa’s development backwards.

• Esther Stanford-Xosei, Pan-African Reparations Coalition in Europe
• Horace Campbell, director of the Africa Initiative, Syracuse University

Where now for climate justice?

The next round of UN climate talks will take place in Durban, South Africa, in December. Yet the UN talks have proved fruitless so far in the battle for just and effective solutions to climate crisis. This session will consider the priorities for the climate justice movement and examine the concept of climate debt.

• Kirsty Wright, WDM’s senior climate justice campaigner
• Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Africa Jubilee South

Organising locally for global justice

New to WDM and interested in grassroots campaigning? A long-standing WDM group member with lots of experience to share? This session is designed for campaigners across the spectrum to get together to share experiences, ask questions, and discuss the challenges and fun of local campaigning; from social networking to effective media stunts.

• Katharine Talbot, WDM’s senior network development officer, plus WDM group members and staff

African sexualities: The struggle for liberation

Homophobic violence and state-led oppression are realities in Africa. But activists there are organising for their right to sexual diversity, at the same time as questioning what specific African sexualities are. Must they must always exist in relation to the west? This session will explore these issues, as well as discussing effective campaigning for sexual liberation.

• Adebisi Alimi, coordinator, Migrant Africa MSM Europe
• Mia Nikasimo, writer and activist
• Chaired by Sibongile Ndashe, Interights

From food crisis to food sovereignty

Bankers are speculating on food in global markets, causing price spikes and real hardship for millions. ‘Land grabs’ in Africa are seeing more farmland transferred into corporate hands. Over one billion people in the world are hungry despite decades of ‘development’. Our food system is in crisis, but a global movement of small producers is fighting for an alternative – food sovereignty. This session will explore the problems of, and possible solutions to, the global food crisis.

• Njoki Njoroge Njehu, director of Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Centre, Kenya
• Julian Oram, WDM’s head of campaigns and policy