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International conference “The Post-2015 Development Agenda – African Perspectives on Global Challenges”
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Event information
| Address | JugendKulturZentrum PUMPE | Lützowstraße 42 10785 Berlin |
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The historical and structural causes of global injustice, especially between Africa and Europe, were insufficiently considered when the MDGs, which expire in 2015, were first drafted. The declared goal of the post-2015 agenda is to involve both the Global South and north in the negotiation process. Despite public declarations that a broad dialogue will be held and include representatives of global civil society as part of an open and participatory consultation process on developing the new agenda, voices from the Global South are still insufficiently involved in this process. The UN’s approach essentially consists of stating the Global North’s goals for the Global South. Historically and structurally conditioned unequal distribution is largely ignored when analysing the problems. And an alternative, self-determined perspective on “development” is being totally ignored. Thus, a sustainable and socially just fight against global poverty and hunger, as a part of an equal north-south partnership, is still impossible.
Against this backdrop, AfricAvenir is launching its two-year project entitled "African Perspectives on Global Challenges (as part of the post-2015 agenda processes)". We aim to create an opportunity for presenting African views on the post-2015 agenda to a broad public in Germany. Together with our partners, we will formulate and discuss African-European goals and visions for the coming post-2015 agenda. We would also like to contribute to the decision-making process and learn from African experiences with a view to managing common and specific development challenges in the future.
As part of this project, an international conference will be held in Berlin from 5th to 6th December 2014. Notable speakers from academia and civil society will raise questions about African perspectives on the post-2015 agenda and the SDGs and discuss indigenous, independent developmental paths. Another aim is to encourage networking between African activists and representatives of German non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and associations in the development and climate policy sectors. The following guests will be attending: Dr. Chika A. Ezeanya, Nigerian political scientist and blogger, Boniface Mabanza, literary scholar, philosopher and theologian from the Church Work on Southern Africa (KASA) in Heidelberg and Dr. Dereje Alemayehu, development economist and chairman of the Tax Justice Network Africa and the Global Alliance on Tax Justice.
For more information on the conference, please contact:
Karenina Schröder
k.schroeder(at)africavenir.org
Tel: 030-26934764
Registration:
Natalia Kolodziejska
n.kolodziejska@africavenir.org
Registration fee: 30 Euro (20 Euro reduced)
Our bank details:
AfricAvenir International e.V.
Badische Beamtenbank
IBAN: DE91660908000016721303
BIC: GENODE61BBB
Conference Agenda
5th December 2014
16 Uhr Arrival and registration, welcome and introduction to the conference program
16.30 World Café: Exchange, getting to know each other, expectations and ideas for the conference
17.30 Coffee break
18.00 From MDGs to SDGs. Expectations and reality of the global development discourse from an African civil society perspective
Introductory lecture with questions and discussion
Dr. Boniface Mabanza
Kirchliche Arbeitsstelle Südliches Afrika (KASA), Heidelberg
19.30 Dinner
20.15 Selected African short films
Informal get-together
6th December 2014
09.00 Welcome and introduction to the day
09.15 What comes after 2015? Political visions from an African perspective
Lecture with questions and discussion
Dr. Chika Ezeanya
University of Rwanda
10.15 Coffee break
10.30 Future workshop I: Visions for global sustainable development and the new agenda
12.00 Curbing illegitimate outflow of resources from Africa to finance sustainable development after 2015?
Lecture, questions and discussion
Dr. Dereje Alemayehu
Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) and Global Tax Alliance, Nairobi
13.00 Lunch
14.30 Future workshop II: Visions for global sustainable development and the new agenda
16.00 Coffee break
16.15 Presentation of the results from the "future workshop" working phases
18.00 What would a partnership on equal terms between the Global South and North mean for Europe?
Resume and concluding remarks
Dr. Philani Mthembu
Absolvent der Graduate School of Global Politics, FU Berlin
19.15 End of the conference
Speakers:
Dr. Boniface Mabanza is an experienced expert for development studies. He studied philosophy, literature and theology in Kinshasa, Democratic Republik Congo and received his PhD by the University of Münster. Currently, he is engaged as coordinator at the “Kirchliche Arbeitsstelle Südliches Afrika” (KASA) in Heidelberg, which initiates lobbying and campaigning concerning issues connected to socio-economic justice in southern Africa. Until 2013, he was a teacher for development politics at the German Academy for International Cooperation (AIZ), including courses on MDGs/SDGs. He published a variety of articles and books, among them “Gerechtigkeit kann es nur für alle geben. Eine Globalisierungskritik aus afrikanischer Perspektive” (2009) which offers a critical African approach to globalisation and global injustice. As staff member of the Eine Welt-Forum in Münster, he coordinated a campain on the challenges of the MDGs for state municipalities.
Dr. Chika A. Ezeanya is a researcher, writer and public intellectual, whose works focus on determining appropriate strategies for Africa's authentic and sustainable advancement, based on indigenous knowledge and home-grown strategies. Chika received her PhD in African Development and Policy Studies from Howard in Washington D.C., and has worked as a World Bank consultant in Washington D.C., Rwanda and Nigeria. Chika was part of the UNDP Consultations on a Post-2015 Development Agenda for Africa in Johannesburg in 2013. She has taught, conducted research and worked in several countries across three continents. Chika is a fiction and non-fiction writer in addition to being an international conference speaker. She is currently engaged at the University of Rwanda.
Dr. Dereje Alemayehu is a development economist of Ethiopian origin. He holds a master's degree in Development Studies and received his PhD in Economics from the Free University Berlin and has taught both subjects
for more than twelve years. He was a founding Chair of the Tax Justice Africa Network for seven years, where he has now taken the position of Senior Advisor for Economic Policy. He is also the current Chair of the Coordination Committee of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice. He works for the UK NGO Christian Aid as a Senior Economic Justice Advisor.
Philani Mthembu is a scholar of international relations from South Africa, where he attained his Master's degree at the University of the Witwatersrand and tutored first-year students under the Academic Development Programme (ADP). Mthembu is also a co-founder of the Berlin Forum on Global Politics and recently submitted his PhD at the Graduate School of Global Politics (GSGP) at the Freie Universität Berlin (FU). His dissertation focuses on “The Rise of Emerging Powers as Sources of Development Cooperation in Africa”.
The conference will be held with the financial support of Engagement Global and Landestelle für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit.