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African Social Forum Debt Workshop - 6,7 January 2003
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Introduction
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The debt workshop was held on the afternoon of the 6th of January and the morning of the 7th. It was attended by more than 40 people on the 6th and more than 60 on the 7th. There was enthusiastic participation as well as a high level of consensus on the issues discussed. This reflected a renewed feeling of the importance of the issues of debt and reparations.
People identified a certain sense in which action around debt and reparations had decreased in the last year or two, due to, amongst other reasons, a conceptualisation held by some that the Jubilee campaign would only run to the year 2000 and a diversion of the energies of many involved in debt issues into participation in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).
There was agreement that we need to make every effort in putting debt and reparations firmly back on the agenda. Central to this is the need to build the movement against debt and for reparations from the grassroots up. It is only on the basis of the strength of the movement on the ground that we will be able to generate the pressure to attain our demands.
The workshop adopted a methodology of building on the debt workshop held in Bamako, Mali, in 2002 and, as such, this report should be read in conjunction with the 2002 report.
It was structured as follows:
- An update on the current situation, particularly developments since the Bamako workshop
- Discussion on our alternatives and consideration of proposals put forward by other debt groups
- Strategies to implement our alternatives at the national, regional, continental and international levels
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