On 26 and 27 May, 2015 TrustAfrica’s International Criminal Justice (ICJ) Fund hosted the first in a series of pan-African convenings it is organizing this year for advocacy and human rights groups on best practices in advancing international criminal justice on the continent. This meeting took place in Dakar, Senegal on the theme “Engaging with International Criminal Justice in Africa: Lessons Learned in Mobilization and Advocacy”.
This convening will review ICJ advocacy strategies by showcasing our partners’ accomplishments, identifying the challenges they face, and fine-tuning our engagements to add value to their work.
Co-hosted by the Institute for Security Studies and TrustAfrica.
Africa is still at the heart of international criminal justice and the need for proper and holistic delivery of justice on the continent is high. While the International Criminal Court remains a key institution to ensure accountability and provide justice for many African victims, including in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali, African countries must also step up to the challenge. By strengthening national legal systems and regional mechanisms, countries can ensure justice and close the impunity gap.
In West Africa, valuable efforts are already being made to do just that. For example, the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Courts of Senegal will start the trial of former Chadian President Hissène Habré. At the same time, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice, in its individual complaints framework for human rights violations, provides reparative justice to West Africans.
Johannesburg – June 25th, 2015
On March 10 – 12, 2015 over five hundred delegates from Africa and beyond gathered in Dakar, Senegal, for the first summit on Africa’s higher education. The summit was a remarkable platform for defining an agenda for the African Higher Education Sector, and ended with a Declaration and Action Plan on revitalizing higher education for Africa’s future.
Read the message from the Executive Director
Africa loses approximately US$50 billion annually through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). The AU/ECA’s High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows report and other studies argue that Africa lost over US$1 trillion through IFFs in the last 50 years - an amount similar to Official Development Assistance in the same period. Many, including ourselves at TrustAfrica, have always been cautious about the over dramatised narrative of “Africa Rising” especially as it mostly uses Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of growth. Other Human Development indicators such as Gross National Income (GNI), access to affordable health care, education, and decent jobs are rarely considered in the ongoing optimism surrounding Africa.
Africa has the world's youngest population and the term "youth" covers a wide age range from 15 to 35. While acknowledging the diversity among communities and across African countries, unemployment, access to education and health care, social equality andengagement in the political process emerged from the discussions as cross-cutting concerns that must be addressed to leverage the potential of Africa's current and next generation.
Philanthropy has a role to play and the conference ended with a challenge to funders to engage in the same intentional collaboration and partnership they so often encourage the organizations they support to do.
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| Tendai Murisa |
During the 2015 AGAG conference on “Generation Next: Youth Shaping Africa’s Future” we spoke with Tendai Murisa Executive Director of TrustAfrica based in Dakar, Senegal about his views on the impact of young people in shaping Africa’s future.
Executive Summary
Preamble
We, the participants, in the African Higher Education Summit on Revitalizing
Higher Education for Africa’s Future, gathered in Dakar, Senegal on March 10 -12, 2015, confirm our commitment to the objective of creating a continental multi-stakeholders’ platform to identify strategies for transforming the African higher education sector.
Stop the Bleeding, an african Campaign to Curb Illicit Financial Flows from Africa
Africa loose massive financial resources, about U$$50 billion each year through Illicit activities of multinational companies and rich individuals. These resources, if retained in the continent could be invested in productive sectors of these economies to lift the Africa's growing population from under-development and poverty.
This convening will review ICJ advocacy strategies by showcasing our partners’ accomplishments, identifying the challenges they face, and fine-tuning our engagements to add value to their work.
Summary
TrustAfrica, in partnership with Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA), is currently accepting proposals under the auspices of the “Assessing the extent and impact of illicit financial flows in key economic sectors in Southern Africa” project. The project seeks to address the problem of substantial knowledge gaps on illicit financial flows in Southern Africa. It specifically covers the lack of in-depth sectorial research, data and analysis on the patterns, dynamics, actors, channels, magnitude, and development impacts of illicit financial flows in the sub-region. The ultimate goal of the project is to expand the data, knowledge and analysis available to advocates and policymakers, and thereby prepare the ground for synergy-based communities of practice that can provide effective responses to curb illicit financial flows from Southern Africa. The initiative also seeks to contribute to strengthening the capacity of researchers and policy advocates. The project will also contribute to sharpening the methodologies in the study of illicit financial flows in Southern Africa.
The purpose of this Call for Proposal (CFP) is to solicit proposals from various organizations, individuals and/or consortiums to undertake in-depth research studies on how resources are being illicitly transferred in the following sectors:
1) Agriculture
2) Mining
3) Wildlife and Tourism
