154 Scenes
Ph: DR: Family photo of AfCoDD IV participants in Mapouto (Mozambique)
“The Debt Crisis in Africa: Pan-African and Alternative Feminist Perspectives” this is the main theme of the Fourth African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD IV) which will be held from August 28 to 30, 2024 in Maputo (Mozambique). The Conference calls on women to join the fight against public debt which has been slowing down the development of African countries for years. The perspective of a feminist approach to debt will be explored in all aspects to bring out innovative and intelligent options to support women in the campaign “Stop the Bleeding” and in the campaign to create a new financial architecture build for African economies.
Maputo, Aline ASSANKPON
The fourth edition of the African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD IV) opened this Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at the Radisson Blu hotel in Maputo, the capital of the Republic of Mozambique. This great continental meeting, of giving and receiving, appears as a journey that brings on board Lusophones, Anglophones and Francophones, civil society, the media, trade unions, parliamentarians and people -law to study the main subject in all aspects together. “The debt crisis in Africa: Pan-African feminist perspectives and alternatives”.
This forum on the debt crisis puts women’s power at the heart of the discussions. This is the need “Addressing the gap in the spillover effect of alternative proposals on the debt crisis and the strategies to implement it for deconstruction take roots extractive colonial economic models that perpetuate the domination of African women”.
Rich panels and sessions to guide reflection
Subtopics are scheduled for the second day of work. Through analyzes and debates in various panels, participants must make their contribution with innovative ideas about tolerance for a better future for Africa. These include: “Feminist Approaches to Changing the Global Financial Architecture: Lessons from International Taxation and Trade”; “The G20 Common Framework and the Development Finance Landscape in Africa: Implications for Realizing Feminist Aspirations for Public Debt Management in Africa; “Stop the Bleeding Citizens Forum on the Debt Crisis in Africa and its Impact on Communities”; “Thinking about sovereign debt through a human rights lens: Lessons from Mozambique”; “Another African perspective for multilateralism: Strengthening the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to address global challenges”; “A Legal Perspective on Public Debt Management in Africa and its Implications for the Mobilization of National Resources”; “Pan-African Feminist and Youth Perspectives: Alternatives to the African Debt Crisis”; “Fight against predatory lending and encourage debt restructuring without austerity in Africa”; “Campaigns and Movements for Debt Advocacy: Engaging Citizens for Sustainable Change from a Feminist Perspective”; “Women’s Debt Barometer: The Women’s Observatory”; “Feminist Perspectives and Practices on Public Debt and Women’s Rights”; “Examining debt financing and illicit flows from a pan-African feminist perspective”; “A Debt Debate, Extraction and Gender Inequality in Africa”. (Editor’s note: We will come back in more detail on the content of specific topics)
At this forum, it is therefore a question of adopting new strategies that are different from those that have existed for a long time on macroeconomic modeling. It is also a question of proposing under a gender prism that takes into account women, men and young people, “Building a new financial architecture beyond debt and broken global finances, prioritizing profits over crowd or even indirectly d“African women disproportionately affected”.
Therefore the conference on African debt opens up to feminist economics and is particularly important because of the historical connection of the city of Maputo with initiatives for equality between men and women.
The official opening of the work was punctuated by several interventions; in particular: the welcome speech by Professor Adriano Nuvunga, Director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Maputo (Mozambique). He takes the opportunity to describe the negative impact of debt on the development of Mozambique, a country that is very rich in mineral resources, but is economically poor and weak under the burden of public debt. By highlighting the interconnectedness of debt management with wider development agendas, Mr Nuvunga underscores the urgency of the collaborative efforts that need to be made to restore “the hope of future generations stolen by the public debt”.
Among other interventions, the most famous was Khanysile Tshabalala Litchfield, a woman from the African Parliamentarians Network. She takes the platform to ask women to be bold, to be involved in the fight against public debt and to take as a model of bravery, African women who have the courage to be expressing themselves for the exercise of power. She pays a moving tribute to those African women, the heroes, those fighters who are still remembered in the history of African nations as “Queen Tassi Hangbe of Dahomey Agodjie”, (today’s Benin) and many other women on a continent as a model of today’s Amazon. women, of daring women. “Long live women, long live Africa!” she sang for disappointment the female gender.
A film showing the devastating effects of public debt
As a prelude to the opening of the conference, there was a pre-conference screening of a film that was both informative and inspiring. A film that examines the devastating effects of public debt on the citizens of a nation and its governance. The trailer gives us a glimpse of the intense drama and individual struggles faced by those involved in the economic turmoil. Made in Nigeria, this film follows the economic mismanagement and neglect of the Governors on their responsibilities towards their people who are facing serious problems. This is an example of how (poor) Africans struggle under the weight of public debt with inadequate public services. Watch the movie with this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUw3DJphCUc (AA)
Framing the African debt challenge through a feminist lens
Indeed, the various interventions highlighted Africa’s debt challenge from a feminist prism. These interventions revolve around three main points: Emphasize the importance of political awareness of the female perspective when analyzing the debt challenge so that there are other recommendations such as solutions; Focuses on exactly what a feminist lens means from the perspective of politics, power, production and productivity for Africa’s debt challenge. “Et in context lthe absence of this scene maybe very well whatr comprehensive and peripheral solutionsYes. Because of some policies avoidn.t encore contributions of women and girls to the economic development of the area or even of the state“. And finally, insert a feminist discourse into the general analysis of the African debt problem and into the development of solutions to this problem. So the sub-theme,“Framing the African debt challenge from a feminist perspective. “
