WSF Dakar 2011

By Cecilia Fernández and Nicole Bidegain

ICAE, Dakar 10/02/11.- The 2011 World Social Forum started on February 6th. with the usual march where all networks, organizations and global civil society movements expressed and shared their dreams and struggles through songs, banners, music and you could feel the enthusiasm and the shared belief that a deep transformation is urgently needed if we want a world worth living in.

On February 7, 8 and 9, activities were held at the university but also in other spaces outside the university. Each morning participants anxiously looked for information about the activities to be held on that day, in the forum journal which was not easy to obtain in time and venues were not always easy to find. But once the activity finally started, participants showed great interest and participated actively.
That was our experience in the roundtable organized by ICAE and PAALE: “A world worth living in: the right to education, dignity and social justice for all” on February 8 in the morning and in the afternoon, in the ICAE-GEO / FEMNET / AAWORD roundtable under the title: “Towards the construction of a women’s agenda for a world worth living in”. Both activities are part of the preparatory process towards ICAE World Assembly.

The audience was mainly composed of African men and women who participated, made comments, asked questions and were in dialogue with panelists who made interesting provocations from their different contexts leading to deep reflections on new possible and necessary ways of learning. At ICAE workshop in the morning, Fatou Sow made us reflect on the importance of youth and adult education to eliminate stereotypes, discrimination and xenophobia. Claire Courteille from ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) shared the challenges of workers within the context of multiple crisis and Babacar Diop Buuba from PAALAE and ICAE particularly emphasized on the challenges of migrant workers in the north and the need to think about citizenship and human rights beyond borders.

The experiences of Morocco, Burkina Faso and Senegal presented by three IALLA graduates made us rethink our practices and develop our creativity so as to meet the learning needs of young people, women and rural communities.

Thematic assemblies are taking place on February 10 and 11. 38 different assemblies have been registered, among them: the “Assembly of Education: Convergence of Global Agendas for Education” organized by the World Education Forum, the International Council for Adult Education, the Global Campaign for the Right to Education, The Latin American and Caribbean organization of Students, the Education Network of the European Social Forum, the European Network of Education and the EFA Network of Angola. We will share news about it soon.

Greetings from Dakar

Cecilia y Nicole
Texto en español

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