Communiqué issued at the Africa GCAP Consultation held in Harare, Zimbabwe from 7-10 November, 2005.

More than 40 representatives of youth, women’s networks, national coalitions, faith-based organizations organized in Africa under the Global Call to Action against Poverty, representing NGOs, civil society organizations who gathered in Harare from Monday to Thursday 7-10. The meeting reviewed the status of the campaign in Africa and tentatively agreed on priorities that would guide their activities for the next two years. The meeting acknowledged that a lot of positive gains had been made in mobilizing communities in Africa to participate actively in the designated White Arm Band Days and that GCAP had been widely embraced by key poverty campaigners in Africa.

The Harare meeting received a special boost from the participation of the General Secretary of the All Africa Council of Churches, Bishop Mvume Dandala and the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and Southern Africa, Njogonkulu Ndungane who expressed their churches’ solidarity and support of Africa GCAP. It was also recognised that activities in 2005 were severely hampered by, among others, unfavourable political conditions, lack of financial resources, unequal distribution of information on policy demands and low levels of mobilisation. The meeting therefore recommended that more resources needed to be mobilised and committed in support of GCAP activities, mainly at the national level. Key supporters of the campaign namely NOVIB, ActionAid International and Oxfam reaffirmed their commitment to continue supporting GCAP activities in Africa by increasing resources to this cause. Current GCAP coordination mechanisms were also extensively reviewed and it was recommended that the Campaign must enhance coordination and ownership by developing a comprehensive coordination and governance structure to facilitate this.

It was thus agreed that GCAP Africa forms an Interim Coordination Group to operate for the next six months, with two representatives from the four sub-regions, namely, Central, Eastern, Southern and Western sub-regions. There was also a proposal to include in this Interim Coordination Group, faith-based organization, Labour Union and other thematic network representatives. The meeting reviewed the Johannesburg Declaration with a view to grounding messaging in national and regional contexts to enhance opportunities for public policy change and movement building between 2006-7. The following criteria was agreed to ensure that: - Policy change objectives keep existing GCAP members together and allows for new convergences and unity with mass based movements that share our interest for the poor - Greater focus be accorded on national and regional actions around MDGs and rights standards - Objectives build on the successes and challenges of 2005 and are relevant in future - All policy proposals address women’s empowerment, promotion and protection of the full enjoyment by women of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In the area of Financing for Development, it was highlighted that governments and international institutions must urgently provide the major increase in resources necessary for the achievement of the MDGs and poverty eradication by:

Completely cancelling un-payable debt of poor countries, by way of a fair and transparent process with all debt cancellation funds being additional non-ODA resources

Adopting a collective debtor country strategy for the repudiation of all odious and illegitimate debts where debt cancellation measures are inadequate or failing to enable poor countries to reach the MDGs and provide basic social services

Deciding on innovative taxes and mechanisms for raising finance for development

Ensuring grants and debt cancellation are not tied to contracts with donor countries or linked to economic conditions that hurt people in poverty

Realising the 0.7% target on aid

Fully honouring the Paris principles on harmonisation for all donors

It was agreed that this would be achieved by:

Advocating for effective parliamentary and people’s oversight mechanisms for monitoring resources from aid/debt cancellation through budget tracking and Parliamentary hearings

Ensuring that aid supports rather than undermines, community and country defined development priorities

Regulating aid flows through national budgetary instruments in line with priorities of poor people

Lodging complaints with World Bank Inspection Panel/IMF Article 4 reviews, media campaigns on harmful policies and programmes

Establishing a GCAP African working group on Monterrey Summit +5, active representation before APF, OECD and CFA,

Undertaking peoples report cards and country case-studies on aid harmonisation and effectiveness.

On promoting National Accountability, the meeting agreed that national governments must:

Get on track in achieving global Millennium Declaration and MDGs with national MDGs plans developed by 2006 in each national context

Secure rights of poor and vulnerable people enshrined in international and regional instruments

Ensure gender justice and uphold women’s rights

Establish re-distributive policies, budgets and mechanisms to ensure equity (for example, land reforms, progressive taxation, fiscal reforms, and prevent economic wastage/leakages)

Actively involve civil society, particularly poor and excluded groups, in the formulation of national development priorities, policies and plans

Ensure that adequate domestic and external resources are raised, allocated and utilized in providing accessible basic services to all, particularly the poor

Be fully accountable and transparent in the use of public resources and aggressively fight corruption (including private corporations)

Develop participatory national monitoring and evaluation frameworks

Exercise their right to determine national policies and practices that benefit the majority of citizens, and resist potentially harmful,
externally driven conditions imposed by international institutions and agreements.

On Trade, the meeting reaffirmed the GCAP policy proposed campaign actions and demands. It was reiterated that trade had become the vehicle for indiscriminate liberalization of developing country economies and the imposition of harmful conditions, instead of supporting sustainable development, poverty eradication and gender equity. GCAP Africa wants trade rules and policies that ensure the right of developing countries to pursue their own development agendas, putting their people’s interest first. The meeting endorsed the GCAP call on the WTO, international financial institutions and national governments to:

Enact measures to protect public services from enforced liberalization and privatization, secure the right to food and affordable access to essential drugs, and strengthen corporate accountability

Increase accountability and transparency of governments and international organisations to their grassroots constituencies in the formulation of international trade rules and national trade policies

Immediately end dumping and rich country subsidies that keep people in poverty

Reject harmful Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

Participants committed themselves to attaining this by:

Monitoring the impact of economic preference agreements/campaigning against the harmful policies attached to EPA agreements

Calling for the amendment of the Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) to enable access to the production of generic medicine and food security

Encouraging and supporting producers to protect agricultural sectors against dumping

http://www.whiteband.org/News/gcapnews.2005-11-15.3154579953