Name

Organization

Topic of Expertise

Emem Okon

Emem Okon is a women's rights activist and advocate from the Niger Delta’s oil impacted region of Nigeria. Ms. Okon is the founder and the Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre. She is a gender analyst, a trainer, a researcher, and a campaigner against all forms of violence including that directed at women and the environment. Ms. Okon was a leader of the powerful women’s protests of Chevron Corporation for its environmental and human rights abuses in Nigeria which garnered international media attention when a group of women took over an oil installation and threatened to take off their clothes if the company did not negotiate with them. She has coordinated several women’s networks and coalitions in the Niger Delta region, including Civil Society on HIV & AIDS, Gender and Constitution Reform Network, International Network on Women and Environment, and National Coalition on Affirmative Action, to mention a few.

Listen to a taped interview Emem did on KPFA's Africa Today with host Walter Turner on Monday, June 8, 2010  CLICK HERE   (second half of the hour)

Human rights

Women’s rights

Niger Delta

Resource extraction

Oil spill

Environment Justice

Corporate Responsibility

HIV/AIDS

Democracy and Governance

Esther Mwaura

GROOTS Kenya is a network of women self-help groups and community organizations in Kenya. It formed as a response to inadequate visibility of grassroots women in development and decision-making forums that directly impact them and their communities. GROOTS Kenya bridges this gap through initiatives that are community-centered and women-led

Read Esther's keynote address on:

SHIFTING AIDS RESOURCE MOBILIZATION AND FUNDING IN SUBSAHARAN AFRICA - on September 2003

Grassroots Dev’t

Women’s rights

Women’s leadership

Hopewell Xwayani

ZIMCODD - Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development

Hopewell Gumbo aged 35 is a Social and Economic Justice Activist based I Harare, Zimbabwe. He is a leading campaigner with the Anti-Privatization Forum in Zimbabwe (APF). The APF is a member of the Zimbabwe social Forum, (ZSF). He currently works for the Zimbabwe coalition on Debt and Development, (ZIMCODD).

Hopewell is a graduate of Industrial Engineering, and a holder of a Masters of Engineering in Manufacturing Systems and Operations Management. He is currently studying for a Masters in Development Studies with the Center for Civic Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. His current studies are exploring Civil society, engineering and sustainable development: Proactive technical engagements that strengthen movements for sustainable development in the Global South. As a student, Hopewell led the Zimbabwe National Students Union, as its President against the economic Structural adjustment Programs, ESAP’s in the late 90’s. He was instrumental in the formation of the movement for Democratic Change, a party rising from the working class struggles against the neoliberal trajectory the country was taking under Robert Mugabe. He was subsequently harassed and detained by the regime for his activism on various occasions. He is currently a member of many community and national social movements, and a very influential figure in the Zimbabwe Social forum. Hopewell is married to Tanatsiwa and they have one child Tinotenda aged 5.

Africa Debt cancellation

Economic Justice

Anti-privatization

Sustainable dev’t

World Bank

Democracy & Governance

Liepollo Pheko

Liepollo Pheko

Gender & Trade Network

Liepollo L Pheko is a policy analyst, social entrepreneur and social activist. Liepollo Pheko has worked in the public and development sectors and consulted for governments, funders, NGOS and International bodies.  Pheko serves as Policy and Advocacy Director at an NGO/Think Tank called the Trade Collective. In this regard she is exploring Social accounting as a tool for measuring institutional behavior as it affects women, the environment,  the economy , low-income communities, employees and other social indices. Pheko is exploring different models of citizenship, social inclusion and human dignity and is Africa co-convener of the World Dignity Forum. She is also part of the African Social Forum Secretariat.  Liepollo has participated at several international including as the leader of South African civil society  delegation to the World Trade Organization 6th Ministerial in Hong Kong in December 2005, World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 ,as well as at World Bank meetings, UN meetings, SADC meetings ,dozens of  local and international conferences and has twice addressed the European Parliament.

She has also been a SADC election observer as well investing much of her private time in mentoring young people. She is a visiting lecturer at CIDA University in the department of Finance Investment & Commerce offering alternative perspectives on the global economy and development.

Pheko is also a regular media commentator and writes essays, articles and commentaries freelance . She is a columnist for two  publications.  She contributed to a book on International Trade and another on Gender and Politics. She is respected as part of a new generation of dynamic leaders and thinkers locally and internationally.

Watch a video interview Pheko did on "South African Economy in Crisis" 2009

Human Rights

Women’s rights

International trade

Environment Justice

Sustainable Dev’t

World Bank policy

SADC

Madjiguène Cissé

REFDAF & African Diaspora of WSF

I have a very long engagement for women rights and for human rights. And in my soul I am against injustice and discrimination.  I was one of the african people who organized from 1996 to 2000 a very big protest for regularization and rights for migrants and refugees in France and extended in Europe. The sans-papiers of Saint-Bernard were worldwide knewn.

I was very active in Paris in the "Committee for the rights of political prisoners in the USA" which was created first to support Mumia Abou Jamal with Julia Wright.

The book I wrote following to that struggle "Parole de sans-papiers"  has been translated into spanish and german. Since july 2000 I came back to Sénégal and began to organise women around a Project called " REFDAF" Women's network for a sustainable developpement in Africa"

"Sans Papiers" in Europe by Cisse

African Diaspora

Women’s Rights

Human Rights

Migration & Dev’t

African Refugees in France

Sustainable Dev’t

Mamadou Goita

IRPAD,

Mamadou GOÏTA is a development socio-economist and a specialist in education and training systems from Mali (West Africa).  He is currently the Executive Director of the Institute for Research and the Promotion of Alternatives in Development (IRPAD), Bamako, Mali.  He is a member of the regional co-ordinating group of the “Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique Africain” (COPAGEN) (Coalition to Protect African Genetic Heritage), which operates in West Africa.  He has worked with UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Togo and Burkina Faso and several NGOs, including ACORD (Regional Director for West Africa and Africa Program Manager) and OXFAM-Belgium (regional co-ordinator for West Africa based in Burkina Faso).  He is active in social movements (FORAM, West Africa Social Forum, Africa Social Forum, WSF) and works with farmer organizations and their networks in West Africa.  He coordinated the Polycentric World Social Forum Bamako 2006 and he participated to the coordination of the World Food Sovereignty Forum which took place in Sélingué, Mali, from February 23-27, 2007.

Video of Mamadou on the future of African farmers and an African Green Revolution 2009

Globalization

African migration

Land Rights

Human Rights

Food sovereignty

Sustainable Dev’t

Mouhamadou Tidiane Kassé

Mouhamadou Tidiane Kassé is an editor at Wal Fadjri, a Senegalese press group. Working as media consultant and media trainer for Panos Insitute West Africa, he has been the editor of Flame of Africa, a daily newspaper published by the Africa Social Forum and covering all the African and World Social Forum since then.

Mr Kassé in now consulting editor for Pambazuka News, an online news service that is a voice for social activists, for Freedom and Justice, Mr Kassé is also heading the West African Bureau of Fahamu-Network for Social Justice, publisher of Pambazuka.

M. Kassé is a graduate of the School of Journalism at Dakar University in 1982.

Fahamu - Network for Social Justice - West Africa Office

9, Cité Sonatel 2, Dakar, Sénégal

Tél. : + 221 77 614 13 14/ +221 77 637 06 45

Read Tidiane’s contribution on the book “From Slave Trade to ‘free’ Trade: How Trade Undermines Democracy and Justice in Africa – chapter entitled “Women & Globalization – The Impact on their Health”

Journalist

Globalization

Maxensia Mugherera

Founder and Director of Lungujja Community Health Caring Organization (LUCOHECO) – a faith-based indigenous NGO in Uganda.

is a member of the Domestic Violence Coalition of Uganda, the Secretary General of the Council of the Laity of the Catholic Church of Kampala Archdiocese, the National Women leader of the Democratic Party – Uganda, a Commissioner Ministry of Women Affairs, people with disabilities and environmental Protection of Buganda Kingdom. I have attained all these positions our of the grassroots work that I have provided to my communities for the last five years which is visibly seen by all.

Gender violence

HIV/AIDS

Human Rights

S'bu Zikode

NOT COMING TO USSF

DENIED U.S. VISA

S'bu is the president of the South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. He was born and grew up in the town of Estcourt, in the midlands of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He was raised by a single mother working as a domestic worker. He completed Matric at Bonokuhle High School where he joined the Boy Scouts Movement.

 Watch video of S'bu on

"Statement by Abahlali baseMjondolo President S'bu Zikode" 2009

Land Rights

Human Rights

Rose Williams

Biowatch

Rose Williams is director of Biowatch South Africa, a small environmental and social justice NGO. Her working life has spanned teaching, fifteen years as curator of the KwaZulu-Natal Herbarium, freelance researching as well as many years as a volunteer activist in the NGO sector.

Rose's particular interests are around biodiversity, indigenous knowledge and biosafety, all within the ambit of social and environmental justice.

South Africa

(IDEX Partner/paid for)

Von - Dimieari Von Kemedi

Dimieari Von Kemedi is the head of the Due Process and e-Governance Bureau for Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Von Kemedi is also chairman of the Bayelsa Expenditure and Transparency Initiative, a cooperation between local government, civil society, and industry launched by Bayelsa State with support from Revenue Watch Institute.

Governance & Democracy

Environment Justice

Wendy Pekeur

unable to secure U.S. Visa

General Secretary Sikhula Sonke

P O Box 311 STELLENBOSCH 7599

98, Bird Street

Stellenbosch 7600

Tel: 021 - 8833180

Fax: 0865468071

E- mail: wendy@ssonke.org.za

Sikhule Sonke in the Western Cape, South Africa

unable to secure U.S. Visa

Speeches at National and International Platforms

Land Summit 2005

2004 TESCO – UK – Conditions of Farm Workers and Seasonal Workers

2005: Parliament – Land Reform

2006 – Zimbabwe – Another World is possible

January 2007 – Nairobi – The situation of farm women in South Africa

1996 Germany – Vroue Von Geregtigheid

2004 Netherland Women’s Group (NOVIB)

Representation on various boards and Networks

Women on Farms

South African Woman in Dialogue

Employment history

1983 to 1998

Employer:                        Timberlea Fruit Farm

Title:                                  Deciduous Fruit Packer             

Duties:                              Fruit Packing – Local Markets & Export till 1998             

1998 to date

Employer:                        Hazendal Wines

Title:                                  General Farm Worker / Cellar Work           

Duties:                              Labeling, Bottling and Packing export wines to Europe and Russia till 2010