The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has again brought the world’s attention to Africa as thousands of movements from across the globe gathered in Montreal, Canada in the ongoing World Social Forum (Fórum Social Mundial in Portugese) (FSM2016) holding from August 9-14, 2016. The 2016 Forum is themed: “Another World Is Possible”
The goal of the WSF 2016 is to gather tens of thousands of people from groups in civil society, organisations and social movements who want to build a sustainable and inclusive world, where every person and every people has its place and can make its voice heard.
The Alliance, besides joining the global march organised by the Forum, made a case for Africa on several burning issues at various global organised events at the Forum. Some of the issues the Alliance took to the global scene at this event include Climate Justice and the Fight for Peoples’ Right to Food, Water and Land; Transforming the Energy Systems for People and Communities; Climate Justice, Land Rights and Food Security in Africa in the context of Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals; Implementation of SDGs, Accountability and the Role of Civil Society Organisations.
The Alliance called on world leaders to listen to the voices of the people and act now in the interest of the planet and save the world from further humanitarian and environmental crisis.
“To achieve the goal of keeping the global temperature rise to well below 20C and pursuing efforts to keeping it below 1.50C as enshrined in the Paris Agreement and to further achieve the objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it will require a lot of sacrifices in the way we live,” says Samson Samuel Ogallah of PACJA.
“The sacrifice will require switching from the current unsustainable production and consumption lifestyle especially by the industrialised countries as the business as usual scenario will lead the world to a 30C and above scenario by 2030 thereby eroding any gain that may have been made from the implementation of SDGs by 2030,” Ogallah adds.
“Civil society fought hard to get the human rights language into the SDGs, they must now work even harder to ensure its operationalisation beyond the adoption of the SDGs by governments across the world,” says Mr. Savio Carvalho of the Amnesty International at the Forum.
In his submission during the Forum, Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of PACJA, called for global solidarity among civil society organisations to ensure that they hold governments accountable to their commitments in the SDGs and Paris Agreement. They era of paying lip service to commitment governments signed up to is over especially in the light of Paris Agreement that have spelt out clear role for all Parties in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), everyone and all Parties now have a role to play, Mithika added.
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of CSOs. First held in Brazil, it offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalisation. Some consider the World Social Forum to be a physical manifestation of global civil society, as it brings together non-governmental organisations, advocacy campaigns as well as formal and informal social movements seeking international solidarity.
