Author: Paul Odhiambo
Date: May 23, 2006
Type of article: Letter
Source: The East African Standard - not available online

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It was a historic event for Africa in January when Bamako city hosted the first World Social Forum (WSF) in the continent. The first three WSFs had been held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The fourth was held in Mumbai, India in 2004.

Porto Alegre hosted the fifth WSF last year. This year, the WSF was held for the first time in three places: Bamako, Caracas and Karachi.

On 20-25 January 2007, the World Social Forum will be held in Nairobi. Kenya will co-host the forum together with other East African countries. It will be an important occasion for Kenya and the entire region to host such a high profile event in which social movements, NGOs, faith-based groups and other non-State actors discuss the challenges of neo-liberal globalisation.

In previous forums, debate has been on issues such as environmental degradation, debt burden, global trade, militarism, terrorism, war on terror, regime change, widening wealth disparities, and negative effects of globalisation among others.

Obviously, the Nairobi forum will emphasise on some unique issues in Eastern Africa but are also serious concerns for the rest of the world.

Matters such as land/squatter problem, environmental degradation, national and regional insecurity, unemployment and massive retrenchment of workers, widening gap between the rich and the poor, proliferation of slums, global trade, international debt burden, evictions, resource-based conflicts, HIV/Aids, marginalisation, perennial famine, abject poverty, rampant corruption and other governance issues could be considered for the forthcoming WSF.

It is high time social movements conscientised the masses on the significance of the WSF and how issues discussed on such forum impact on their lives. These issues have both internal and international dimensions meaning, solutions need a multi-faceted approach involving both domestic and external actors.

Paul Odhiambo
Nairobi