Overview of the REFA Festival 2022

The annual Rethinking Economics for Africa Festival is returning to its in-person format after two years of online hosting!

In 2022, the Festival will be held on Friday the 16th & Saturday the 17th of September at Wits University in Johannesburg.

The key goals of the Festival include facilitating conversations on how to rethink economic theory, policy and activism.

2022’s Festival is the fifth iteration and promises to transform progressive conversations into broader action points, by hosting a diverse range of local and international speakers including student activists, prominent academics and civil society organisations.

The Festival serves as a platform for critical engagement with the economics discipline and with the economy in general.

The format is a balance of panel discussions, debates, workshops and cultural experiences.

In addition, the festival will be an opportunity to exchange ideas and tools on how to build a movement for rethinking economics, in our universities and society more broadly. The in-person element allows for greater engagement and networking.

This year we're going to explore the following general themes

Inequality

Economic Alternatives

Power Relations

Africa in the Global Order

Climate Change Activism

You can find more details in the Stream descriptions and the programme

The event is hosted by the Institute for Economic Justice and is primarily sponsored by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung South Africa Office.

Generous contributions are also made by SARCHi Chair: Industrial Development; Wits University and Southern Centre for Inequality Studies.

Previous REFA Festivals