On November 24-25 2014, TrustAfrica hosted a convening of smallholder farmers and advocates and other stakeholders engaged in policy reform processes in seven African countries. Entitled Strengthening Smallholder Agriculture in Africa: Prospects for Mobilisation and Advocacy, the meeting took place in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Published in allAfrica.com

Briggs Bomba calls for domestic resources to be mobilized to bring about inclusive development in Africa, in particular by stopping the illicit flow of money out of the continent.

A Lesson in Peace

Victor Ochen experienced firsthand the devastation caused by the ongoing conflict in Northern Uganda. It is what produced his deep compassion for victims of the conflict. And like those victims, he was looking for answers, for a way out of war. He assumed those answers could be found through peace, so he established the Uganda chapter of the African Youth Initiative Network.

Mr. Karim Tazi is a leading private sector entrepreneur who heads the Richbond Group in Morocco

Mr. Karim Tazi is a leading private sector entrepreneur who heads the Richbond Group in Morocco. He studied international law at the Sorbonne and earned his MBA at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as president of the Moroccan Association for the Textile and Clothing Industry from 2004-2007. He continues his family’s long commitment to public service and civic engagement through a number of activities. In 2002, he founded the Moroccan Food Bank, which collects and distributes food and clothing to people who need it, working with local and national NGOs and government agencies. 

Dr. Assefa Bequele, a Pan-Africanist of Ethiopian origin, is an economist by training and an internationally recognised authority on child rights and wellbeing. 

Dr. Assefa Bequele, a Pan-Africanist of Ethiopian origin, is an economist by training and an internationally recognised authority on child rights and wellbeing. His academic and professional contributions cover a wide range of areas including economic development, employment, poverty, governance and child wellbeing. He has had a long and distinguished career involving university teaching (in Ethiopia and USA), many years of service in the United Nations system, institution building, and international advocacy work on child wellbeing.

He is the author of numerous global and African reports, books and articles on economic development and child wellbeing. His path-breaking work on children at the international level includes the design and development of the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), the world’s premier technical programme on child labour, and the development of the now nearly-universally ratified international Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.   

He is the founder and first Executive Director of The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), a leading independent Pan-African policy research and advocacy centre, and the initiator of an Africa-wide movement for the wellbeing of children. He is also the architect of The African Report on Child Wellbeing, the leading independent report on children in Africa. Dr Bequele continues to serve as expert or adviser to international commissions, non-governmental organisations and regional bodies. He was for example member of the AU’s African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Youth Advisory Council of MasterCard Foundation. He continues his advocacy and programmatic work through his engagement in various international and regional bodies including as board member of Plan International and the African Institute for Human Rights and Development (IHRDA) and as director of the Board of Enat Bank, the first and only commercial bank initiated and led by women in Ethiopia. He is a Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences.

Norah Fuathom had a choice to make.  She could succumb to her impossible circumstances or she could try to rise above them.  Norah is one of thousands of people whose relatives went missing during the course of conflicts that ravaged Uganda over the last 30 years.  In Norah’s case, it was her son.  After he was taken, she nearly lost her will to survive.  Yet, through the dedicated efforts of AYINET, as well as others, she was able to find her strength and use that strength to help others in similar circumstances. 

TrustAfrica’s Fund to advance International Criminal Justice in Africa seeks to engage civil society, as well as scholars, legal advocates, and state authorities, to develop innovative strategies to improve accountability for crimes committed.  To help achieve this objective, most recently, TrustAfrica was the primary donor for the first ever National War Victims’ Conference in Uganda.  The conference was facilitated by TrustAfrica grantee African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET), an independent Ugandan NGO that has been working for the last nine years on projects that seek response to and redress for serious crimes and harms resulting from armed violence.  

The National War Victims’ Conference in Kampala, Uganda, will take place on May 28-30, 2014 at the Imperial Royal Hotel. The objective of the conference is to strengthen victims’ participation in Transitional Justice processes, and build nationwide solidarity around victims’ rights. The conference takes place ahead of the adoption of a National Transitional Justice policy for Uganda.

The conference will convene stakeholders from all sectors of society who are engaged in transitional justice processes, including the government, civil society and development partners. It plans to unite 100 victims from all Ugandan regions and over 30 victims from other African countries. Several ministers and other members of the Ugandan government will also speak at the event. Invited guests (to be confirmed) to address the plenary include:

• H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
• Video message from His Grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
• H.E. Mary Robinson (Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Former President of the Republic of Ireland),
• Professor Jeremy Sarkin, Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and human rights scholar,
• Justice James Ogala (Chairman of the Transitional Justice Working Group and Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission,
• And many others.

The National War Victims’ Conference in Kampala, Uganda, will take place on May 28-30, 2014 at the Imperial Royal Hotel. The objective of the conference is to strengthen victims’ participation in Transitional Justice processes, and build nationwide solidarity around victims’ rights. The conference takes place ahead of the adoption of a National Transitional Justice policy for Uganda.

The conference will convene stakeholders from all sectors of society who are engaged in transitional justice processes, including the government, civil society and development partners. It plans to unite 100 victims from all Ugandan regions and over 30 victims from other African countries. Several ministers and other members of the Ugandan government will also speak at the event. Invited guests (to be confirmed) to address the plenary include:

• H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
• Video message from His Grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
• H.E. Mary Robinson (Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Former President of the Republic of Ireland),
• Professor Jeremy Sarkin, Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and human rights scholar,
• Justice James Ogala (Chairman of the Transitional Justice Working Group and Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission,
• And many others.

TrustAfrica, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and Third World Network- Africa, with financial support from Ford Foundation, held a two-day Consultative Roundtable on ‘Mending the Leakages: Africa’s Battle against Illicit Financial Flows,’ at Sheraton Hotel Abuja, Nigeria from 25-26 March, 2014. The primary objective of the roundtable was to expand and deepen knowledge on the issue of illicit financial flows and their role in inhibiting Africa’s growth.