Oxfam International takes part in the World Social Forum’s focus on Africa

Oxfam has programmed various activities at the WSF concerning the Make Trade Fair, Rights in Crisis and Control Arms campaigns.

Today inaugurates the seventh edition of the World Social Forum (WSF), which will be celebrated from the 20-25 of January in Nairobi, Kenya. Oxfam International will participate in various workshops at the Forum, which for the first time is organized in Africa with the objective of permitting a larger quantity of African social movements to participate in the events and make their voices heard.

During the meeting Oxfam International will organize with its partners a workshop denouncing Economic Partnership Agreements that the European Union is negotiating with ACP (African, Pacific and Caribbean) countries. These agreements will oblige Africa to open its markets to highly subsidized European products without granting them preferential treatment although most of these countries are the poorest in sub-Saharan Africa and are also among the poorest in the world.

Other activities planned by Oxfam International will focus on rights in crisis, the next steps to take for agreeing on the International Arms Control Treaty, as well as the challenges and opportunities that are before the African Union.