Program of the 4th Peoples’ Forum

Program of the 4th Peoples’ Forum / 6th -9th July 2005 in Fana, Mali

Programme complet à télécharger en fin de page

Thursday 16th June

• Official launch of the People’s Forum

Monday 27th June

• Press conference on the 4th edition of the People’s Forum

Tuesday 5th July

• Departure from Bamako at 2.00 pm

• Arrival in Fana at 5.00 pm

• Welcoming of the participants and time to settle in.

Wednesday 6th July

• Opening ceremony:

• Speech from the traditional authority from Fana
• Speech from the local authority from Fana
• Speech from the Prefect of Dioila
• Speech from the President of CAD Mali

• Drama Sketch: Siby, Kita and Fana: From Resistance to Alternatives, peoples are moving forward

• Information on the G8

• Symposium: What future for Africa? Stakes and perspectives.

  Presentation and analysis of the different programs (UK development plan for Africa, NEPAD, Millennium Development Goals, ACP/EU Partnership, African Growth Opportunity Act...)

  What are the alternatives?

• Create a new political society?
• Reinforce regional integration?
• Find a new approach to North/South relationships?

• Visit the People’s market.

• Workshop-debate I: Management of basic social services: public funding, opportunities and limits of community participation. The case of health and education.

• Workshop-debate II: Universities and the attack of the market: the need to reinvent the education system in Africa.

• Workshop-debate III: Management of basic social services: public funding, opportunities and limits of the participation of the communities. The case of water, electricity and transport. (COCIDIRAIL: 3 years after the privatization of the railway service, what evaluation can be done of the socio-economic consequences of the closure of the railway station on the villages and rural communities?)

• Workshop-debate IV: Employment policy: opportunity or disillusion for the youth (internship, youth employment program, self-employment, minimum wage ...)

• Workshop V: Management of public funding: transparency, corruption and impunity.

• Workshop VI: Political obstacles to development (neocolonialism, dictatorship) and resistance perspectives (mobilizations in Africa and in Europe). The example of Togo.

• Workshop VII: Moratorium on the privatization of telecommunication in Africa. State-Finance-Media: which kind of links in the globalized world? The stakes of media communication with regards development.

• Workshop VIII: Mining and petrol

• Presentation and analysis of the mining code (sub-regional comparison) and alternative proposals.

• What are the impacts of mining exploitation on the population?

• Petrol exploitation, hopes and threats: Chad, Mali and Venezuela

• Theater play in the evening: “Suicide”

Thursday 7th July

• Drama Sketch: Siby, Kita and Fana: From Resistance to Alternatives, peoples are moving forward

• Information on the G8

• Peasant’s popular conference

• Workshop-debate I: The stakes and challenges of the privatisation of the cotton industry in Africa (Benin, RCI, Ghana, Mali). Is withdrawal from cotton agriculture possible?

• Workshop-debate II: Over-indebtedness of the farming community: what alternatives?

• Workshop-debate III: The subtle offensive of multinationals towards the Office du Niger: the expropriation of farmers’ land and the defence of their rights.

• Workshop-debate IV: Food sovereignty: the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) of the CEDEAO, the Agricultural Policy of the Union (PAU) of the UEMOA, the CILSS strategic program Sahel 21: what consequences and differences? What are the links between the construction of free trade zones in Africa, the negotiation with the EU and the WTO?

• Workshop debate V: African agriculture and GMOs: What threats for the food sovereignty of countries? Perspectives of civil society campaigns in Africa against the introduction of GMOs in agriculture.

• Workshop debate VI: Presentation and analysis of the new agricultural law in Mali.

• Workshop debate VII: The issue of famine in the Sahel: analysis and alternatives.

• Workshop debate VIII: The cotton case at the WTO and unfair American/European subsidies: supply management, the right to protect the agricultural market, the development of local and regional processing of African cotton.

• Workshop debate IX: Valuing local resources, production and commercialisation of agricultural products: constraints, challenges and perspectives at the local, regional and international levels.

• Workshop debate X: The risks of “pops” (Persistent pollutants) in agriculture in cotton zones.

• Workshop debate XI: Insecurity of land tenure: debate on the growing threat to peace in West Africa.

• Workshop debate XII: Migration: survival strategies?

• Workshop debate XIII: The local rice market faced with rice imports from the North: what advantages and problems for the lives of farmers? What alternatives?

• Workshop debate XIV: Rural women: access to land, to agricultural inputs, to credit, to water, to education and health. The right to life is under threat!

• Workshop debate XV: Who benefits from the PASAOP ? (farmers, supporting structure, state, World Bank...)

• Workshop debate XVI: Rural women and communal power: stakes and alternatives.

• Free time to discover Fana

• Chat - debate: Culture and commercialisation

Friday 8th July

• Drama Sketch: Siby, Kita and Fana: From Resistance to Alternatives, peoples are moving forward

• Information on the G8

• Plenary conference: Debt cancellation in Argentina: an example to follow? How should we analyse the restructuring of Argentinian debt and how can this example inspire Africa? The debt cancellation announced by the G8 finance ministers: spin or reality? (Analysis of the failure of the HIPC and on the use of HIPC funds). Exploration of alternatives to the system of indebtedness and to structural adjustment policies.

• Workshop - debate I: The role of civil society in conflict management and in the prevention and consolidation of peace in Africa?

• Workshop debate II: European Union and ACP Partnership Agreement: the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) under scrutiny.

• Workshop - debate III: Informal economy and socially responsible economy: an alternative to the liberal system?

• Workshop-debate IV: Popular mobilisation in Niger: a strategy to develop?

• Workshop-debate V: What are the possible links between disarmament on a global scale, the development and progress of democracy and environmental conservation in Africa?

• Workshop-debate VI: Biotechnology and its ethical lure in «non-informed» society: activists faced with the limits of the Precautionary Principle.

• Workshop-debate VII: Fair Trade: a system to develop, the networking of regional actors of the fair trade movement.

• Workshop-debate VIII: Decentralized financial systems: local development alternatives or impoverishment of the working classes? What are the links with the international financial system?

• Debt Tribunal

• Civil society organisations’ Forum

• Cultural evening: concert for the people

Saturday 9th of July

• Sketch: Siby, Kita and Fana: From Resistance to Alternatives, peoples are moving forward

• Information on the G8

• Workshop: Fund-raising strategies and forum evaluation

• Closing ceremony

• Big march to hand over the petition on cotton and GMOs to the Malian public authorities.

Translation from indymedia.org