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Brief clip [2min 4sec] of Thuli Mjwara on giving the support that people need.

What is support to you? What actions do you feel will help in you seeing that you are getting supported? …Giving people the space to say how does support look like to them, what is the support that they need, and not assuming what people want.

On Tuesday 25 August 2020 ACT Ubumbano convened the 4^th Learning Hub to discuss taking time out to reflect on processes to connect with and offer support to those who need it in ways that make sense to them. In the session, Thuli Mjwara of Inclusive and Affirming ministries (IAM) shared her experiences on the practice of working slower and deeper for better results.

To watch full video click here.

Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) is a social and economic justice coalition that envisions a just Zimbabwe premised on the realisation of citizens’ social and economic rights. ZIMCODD advocates for pro poor policies both at local and national level, and believes that prudence in the mobilisation and utilisation of public resources is key in ensuring that social and economic justice prevails.
It is against this background that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the coalition upped its game in advocating for efficiency and effectiveness in the management of public resources.  ZIMCODD engaged on a massive campaign against corruption, especially in the procurement of testing kits and other medical necessities needed to fight the deadly virus. The pandemic highlighted the need for innovation, flexibility and adaptability in our advocacy work.

ZIMCODD did not stop its work when the pandemic and associated lockdowns began. Rather it embraced digital platforms to continue with its advocacy and campaigns work.  The fight for social and economic justice in Zimbabwe and beyond cannot be engaged in silos, so like-minded individuals and organisations need to work together to confront the injustices in their various forms both, at home and abroad.

You can find out more about ZIMCODD at www.zimcodd.org.

Our People’s Assemblies to Fight Inequality have begun! The resolutions of the Global Gathering in August are coming to life as we continue adapting our organising to a COVID reality.  See the updated list of national assembly plans here – find out about all the action from Nepal to Kenya to Mexico to Panama to Bangladesh and many more taking place from 15 Sept – 15 October.

Systemic inequalities and repressive regimes have been supercharged during this pandemic, but we also know that this period of history gives us potential for a future beyond Covid-19 that is radically different – equal, just, sustainable. There can be no ‘going back to normal’ when normal was the problem. It is up to us to organise for it together from the grassroots.

Helle Døssing has been with Bread for the World since 2012, and has been appointed as the Head of the Africa Department. Helle began as Programme Manager responsible for South Africa, and was integrally part of the process that has led to the establishment of ACT Ubumbano today. She has been consultant on Africa politics, and recently headed a BfdW unit for Europe, Central Asia and Churches helping Churches. She has 25 years of experience from the development sector, mainly focussing on civil society in Africa. She has worked for the UN, governmental and non-governmental organisations in different countries, has lived in Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, and has travelled extensively to countries all over the continent.

Helle is Danish and lives in Berlin with her two teenage boys. The ACT Ubumbano community is very excited by the appointment, and wishes Helle well in this challenging role.

Greetings from SAFCEI, the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute. We share with you a letter about African food security and resilience in the time of Covid-19 and beyond.

We write with a request that you consider endorsing the following letter about food security. We also ask that you share this appeal as widely as possible amongst other faith based institutions and initiatives that are concerned about establishing a just and nutritious food system for people that also restores the good Earth.

Open letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from SAFCEI and Faith community representatives from the African continent.

We, faith leaders from Africa, are experiencing first-hand how the Covid-19 pandemic is making visible failing food systems and fuelling hunger and poverty in Africa. Alongside our responsibility to be custodians of the Earth, faith networks are entrusted to ensure the just distribution and sharing of resources for all in need.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation expresses a commitment to overcoming food insecurity, but we are gravely concerned that their support for intensive industrial scale agriculture is deepening the humanitarian crisis.  We believe that our people are not being sustained by the high input – high output approach of industrial monoculture farming and food processing that the Gates Foundation promotes. We are also aware that aggressive frontier expansion of farmable land breaches human-nature barriers, enhancing the opportunistic transmission of pathogens from reservoirs in wild animal populations to humans.

In the light of evidence that community-based agroecological approaches with minimal inputs will strengthen local and informal food network systems and bring about greater ecological integrity and social and gender justice, we appeal to the Gates Foundation to reconsider how it promotes “food security”.  Locally-defined, holistic approaches, that are based on regenerative farming methods, will enable an agroecological transition to sustainable food systems in Africa.

This is a vision the faith traditions of the continent long for as we strive to ensure the just distribution and sharing of resources for all in need. It can only happen if we restore our relationship with the Earth and the community of life upon which we depend.

Please join us to raise your voice by signing on to the letter to the Gates Foundation. Please endorse this letter by 30th September.

Download the open letter here.

In solidarity and faith,

The SAFCEI team

From 10h00 to 12h15 on Monday 14^th September 2020, ACT Ubumbano is convening a Learning Hub to reflect on how community voice is amplified in calling for a universal Basic Income Grant (BIG). Isobel Frye from Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute, and Skhumbuzo Zuma from Church Land Programme will lead the conversation. Click here to register to participate.

The revival of the campaign for a universal is important for South Africa and the region. The COVID-19 lockdown has exposed the inadequacy of social security safety net provisions, and has driven poor people with few livelihood and social security options to an even more precarious position. The income support of a BIG can provide significant relief to poor communities, yet it faces strong opposition from political and economic conservatives. To successfully counter this resistance, civil society organisations and activists will need to force change by proving the technical feasibility of a BIG, and ensure that pressure is brought to bear on decision makers through mass action and other forms of advocacy.

In this advocacy work, the voice of people most affected is of critical importance.

• What strategies and coalitions will be needed to ensure their experiences and concerns are reflected in and inform policy conversations?
• How do campaigning and advocacy organisations ensure that people have the necessary technical knowledge to articulate their BIG-related demands independently and effectively?
• What role do community organisers play in connecting the technical policy issues to community struggles?
• What do solidarity networks and their participating organisations need to do to develop and implement a truly mass-based campaign?

If you have any questions, email thabo@actubumbano.org.

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The revival of the campaign for a universal Basic Income Grant (BIG) is important for South Africa and the region. The COVID-19 lockdown has exposed the inadequacy of social security safety net provisions, and has driven poor people with few livelihood and social security options to an even more precarious position. The income support of a BIG can provide significant relief to poor communities, yet it faces strong opposition from political and economic conservatives. To successfully counter this resistance, civil society organisations and activists will need to force change by proving the technical feasibility of a BIG, and ensure that pressure is brough to bear on decision makers through mass action and other forms of advocacy.

In this advocacy work, the voice of people most affected is of critical importance.

• What strategies and coalitions will be needed to ensure their experiences and concerns are reflected in and inform policy conversations?
• How do campaigning and advocacy organisations ensure that people have the necessary technical knowledge to articulate their BIG-related demands independently and effectively?
• What role do community organisers play in connecting the technical policy issues to community struggles?
• What do solidarity networks and their participating organisations need to do to develop and implement a truly mass-based campaign?

ACT Ubumbano will convene an online Learning Hub on Monday 14^th September from 10h00 to 12h15 to grapple with these questions, and to challenge participating organisations and activists to find new ways of supporting struggles for BIG…and for human dignity in communities in the region.

Click here to register to participate. If you have any questions, email thabo@actubumbano.org.