This document describes a series of events during 2002 designed to support the emergence of a progressive social movement in Africa and the development of ACORD within that movement

After much discussion on mission, values, methodologies and mandate, ACORD knows it has to do more than work on the consequences of systemic injustice at the site of the ‘wound’ ( in our programmes, with marginalized groups etc). To do this it needs to facilitate a wider analysis of the causes of the issues it seeks to support people to address and accompany them through the process of developing responses and building alliances with other groups and agencies to enable the process of response (i.e. advocacy campaigns, cross boarder/group dialogue etc).

We are seeking to combine:

• ACORD’s unique relationship with marginalized people in Africa

• its’ engagement with the analysis of social exclusion as a means of understanding the systemic nature of discrimination and injustice

• an analysis of the current context of neo liberal globalisation

• the debates around single or alternative solutions to international relations

In this context it is clear that ACORD could play a useful facilitative role in the emergence of the African Social Movement.

As ACORD emerges as an Africa led International organisation it is setting in motion inherent processes to generate a global-Africa analysis and programme. In the next 6 months ACORD projects and country, area, region and thematic programmes are tasked with establishing common cause among programming staff, with our programme partners, and with African and International activists. Through deeper exploration and analysis of the impacts of global policy on people’s lives and sharing knowledge and skills they will enhance the capacities of programmes, partners and allies an strategies to challenge the injustice of global relations. This will not only serve to ensure our projects and programmes are responding to the current global-Africa context but will capitalise on ACORD’s unique advantage of its relationship with some of the most marginalized people in Africa to inform African and International activist struggles against systemic injustice. In this way ACORD will become an instrument of support to the emerging Africa Social Movement.

Proposal

Develop a guided and resourced process in Africa for our country/programme teams and their partners and allies to prepare for a Pan African workshop where a global-Africa analysis and programme will be developed for the organisation and the process of engaging with the emerging African Social Movement will be defined.

Each workshop should include a resource person from a local social movement/activist group to provide insight on globalisation, debt burdens and their relationship to the poverty and exclusion faced by our programme partners.

Provide each workshop with an information pack on ACORD today, our current thinking and that of other actors – activists, NGOs etc

Ask the workshop participants to:

• Read ‘send outs’ on globalisation (and anything else they can get their hands on)

• Develop a map of cause and consequence around the issues the programmes are currently dealing with

• Develop a map of links between their current programme strategies and globalisation processes in their country/ field of work bringing in the perspective of the excluded

• Identify areas of common cause with other actors, partners, beneficiaries

• Discuss-coping with globalisation? Managing globalisation? Challenging globalisation? What position should ACORD take?

• Revisit their programme strategy and discuss how might you better serve the aspirations of their partners, given the impacts (opportunities and threats) of globalisation. What would the implications be for ways of working?

• What would be the opportunities and risks of changing ways of working for them as individual staff members? How could opportunities be realised? How could risks be mitigated?

After the workshop each country enters into further dialogue with programme partners and peer agencies around the results of their workshop and prepares a 1-3 page discussion paper (including a section on managing the change) for the Pan African Workshop

Members of the new ACORD directorate should participate in at least 6 of the Reflection Workshops

In addition to attending and producing a report on the Second World Social Forum that was held in Porto Allegre, Peter Ayang Nyong’o, who attended on ACORD’s behalf, will attend the Pan Africa Workshop as a resource person/keynote speaker.

3. Pan African Workshop – Programme Design for Reflection and Activism (PAWS)

So that the PAWS can look at the role of ACORD in context and develop a global analysis it must involve more than ACORD’s own managers and coordinators. The papers from the Reflection Workshops will provide insight into the knowledge and understanding of the 600+ programming staff and the programme partners, and local activist groups. But it is also crucial that PAWS engages with the Africa Social Movement beyond organisational boundaries. Resource people, social movement activists and participants of the World Forum 2002 will be invited as resource people, keynote speakers and facilitators to enrich the process of reflection and further ACORD’s engagement with the process of establishing a strong, grounded Africa Social Movement that is inclusive. ACORD’s Board and Assembly members, drawn from a diverse cross section of Northern INGOs, will also attend so that together the participants are able to "global" perspectives on the problems facing Africa. ACORD’s history, experience and reputation places it well to facilitate information flows, dialogue and analysis between the activists, academics, development agents and the marginalized and further more programme for action from the village to the international arena.

4. Organisational Development

Beyond the PAWS ACORD will capitalise on the outputs through establishing action plans at the workshop for:

• Partner led programming, ways of working (methodology)

• The development of area and thematic programmes (mechanisms for ‘common cause’ programming)

• Developing management and personnel practices (practicing what we preach – empowerment through common cause)

• Consolidating gains made in engaging with other actors from the North and from across Africa and seeking common cause (research, analysis, networking and advocacy).

A series of follow up ‘events’ would be held that would focus on developing our policy literacy, global-local analysis, advocacy capacities and opportunities and the uniqueness of ACORD’s relationship with marginalized people on a day to day basis.

Each country/ area and thematic programme will host a Social Forum. These forum will use information generated at the PAWS to catalyse dialogue between academics, activists, development agencies and its partners at the grass roots around the relationship between systemic global, national and local processes of injustice and exclusion, and share opportunity for strategic response.

From these forum ACORD programmes and ACORD as an organisation will develop joint programming strategies with the resultant allies in the struggle. ACORD would then develop programmes that would respond to the support needs of local and national activists and the wider Africa Social Movement.

This would be mutually beneficial since ACORD would gain access to the policy literacy, communication networks and advocacy capcities of activist groups; and the activist groups would gain access to the experience, knowledge and analysis of ACORD’s grass roots partners, and ACORD’s knowledge and skills in working with grass root, CBO and NGO partners to turn their experience into data, data into information and analysis into action.

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