International Conference, Report and Book launch, Brussels, European Parliament, 17 November 2009

Dear Friends and supporters of the Southern Africa international conference, book and report project,

the event was officially announced last week and we would appreciate you to circulate it through your contacts network



Thank you

Best Regards

Nuno Vidal & Justino Pinto de Andrade

www.ces.uc.pt/conferenciaangola2009

Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:12:39 -0400
From: ballj@DICKINSON.EDU
Subject: Angola Conference and Book Announcement (edited)
To: H-LUSO-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Date: 25 June 2009

International Conference, Report and Book launch, Brussels, European Parliament, 17 November 2009

Southern Africa: Civil Society, Politics, Development and Donors Strategy
The cases of Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, DRC, Mozambique and Namibia

Organization:
University of Coimbra (FEUC-CES); Angolan Catholic University & Wageningen University

www.ces.uc.pt/conferenciaangola2009

Free entrance requiring previous registration and approval by the scientific and organizing commission
angola.conference@gmail.com

Provisional Program

8.30h - 9.00h: Conference registration

9.00h - 9.15h: Opening Session
- Representative of the European Union Commission
- Representative of the European Union Parliament: Judith Sargentini
- Representatives of the conference organization

9.15h - 10.30h: Angola & Mozambique

Chair: Justino Pinto de Andrade (Angolan Catholic Unversity - UCAN)
- Fernando Macedo - Angola (Association Justice Peace and Democracy - AJPD)
- Henda Ducados - Angola (FAS - Social Support Fund)
- Manuel de Araújo - Mozambique (Institute of Mozambican and International Studies - CEMI)
- Michel Cahen - Mozambique (CEAN - Bordeaux)

10.30h - 10.45h: Coffee Break

10.45h - 11.45h: South Africa & Namibia

Chair: Bob van der Winden (BWsupport)
- Dale McKinley - South Africa (Indaba Social Movements)
- Henning Melber - Namibia (Dag Hammarksjold Foundation)

11.45h - 13.00h: People, principles and practices of aid in Angola.

Chair: - Rosário Advirta (CA)
- Sérgio Calundungo - Angola (Association for Environment and Rural Development - ADRA )
- Maliana Serrano & Hilde van Dijkhorst (Wageningen University)
- Nuno Vidal (FEUC/CES)

13.00h - 14.00h: Lunch

14.00h - 15.15h: Democratic Republic of Congo & Zimbabwe
Chair:
- Leo Zeilig - DRC (University of the Witwatersrand)
- Elinor Sisulu, Pascal Richard & Steve Kibble - Zimbabwe (Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition)

15.15h - 15.30h: Coffee Break

15.30h - 17.00h: Donors strategies and Southern African countries

Chair:
- Judith Sargentini (European MP)
- Representative of the World Bank
- Carlos Figueiredo (UNDP - Angola)
- David Sogge (FRIDE-Madrid)

17.00h - 17.15: Conference analysis
- Patrick Chabal (King's College London)

17.15h - 18.00h: Book and Report presentation and public discussion

Book: "Southern Africa Civil Society and Politics: Angola and its neighbours - South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, DRC and Namibia".
- Patrick Chabal
- Nuno Vidal

Report: "International Conference on Civil Society and Politics in Angola" (Luanda 2008), including an approach to the cases of South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.
- Rene Roersma (Worldcom foundation)

18.00h - Closing session
- Representative of the EU parliament
- Representative of the EU Commission
- Representatives of the conference organization

18.30h - Cocktail/Dinner Meeting with EU Parliamentarians


Project Description
A lot of hope has been placed on civil society within the so-called Southern African development and democratization processes. Civil society organizations - CSO, have gradually shown some effectiveness since the transitions began in early nineties, acting upon several politically sensitive issues. Nevertheless, there are major constraints to the work of these organizations at the national, regional and international level that need to be discussed and addressed in order to support its role as a decisive actor for development, democracy and the respect of human rights. In the same way, donors' development aid strategies (as stated, for instance, in the Paris declaration and Accra agenda) conceal several problems as identified by civil society activists in the field, such as unwanted promiscuous alliances with not so democratic governments and regimes, that end up having detrimental effects to democratization processes, CSO and CBO.

In order to discuss these issues the Angolan Catholic University, the University of Coimbra and the Wageningen University are planning an international conference, book and report launch, centred on the relationship between civil society, democracy and development, taking into account the regional and international context as well as donors most recent policies and aid strategies. The conference, book and report launch will take place in Brussels, on 17 November 2009.

The conference is meant to be overarching, encompassing civil society activists, donor community, governmental and non-governmental organizations, academics, journalists, trade union members, opinion makers and politicians (from Europe, the US and the Southern Africa region), whose contribution might be considered relevant to the discussion. The book and report follows a similar pattern gathering myriad authors, from academics to prominent civil society activists, journalists and politicians.

The event comes in sequence of a process of reflection and publications on civil society and politics started in 2002 by the Angolan Catholic University and the University of Coimbra leading to two international conferences (Luanda, 2002 and 2008) and two books in Portuguese, gathering several authors from the region. Being a long-term process/project not only of reflection but also of advocacy, it was now decided that a new book and report in English on the issues under scrutiny should be launched at the European Parliament in Brussels in parallel to an international conference to discuss these matters and to take the message directly to a major donor decision centre.

Objectives
The main objective of the conference, book and report is an overarching public discussion around civil society issues and its potential for socio-political-economic change as well as donors' aid strategies and its impact on democratization and development.

Scientific Commission
- Nuno Vidal (University of Coimbra - Faculty of Economics/CES - FEUC) nunovidal@hotmail.com
- Justino Pinto de Andrade (Angolan Catholic University - UCAN) justinoa@ucan.edu
- Bob van der Winden (BWsupport) bob@bwsupport.nl
- Thea Hilhorst (Wageningen University) thea.hilhorst@wur.nl

Organizing Commission
Nuno Vidal nunovidal@hotmail.com
Justino Pinto de Andrade justinoa@ucan.edu
Bob van der Winden bob@bwsupport.nl
Maliana Serrano (Wageningen University) maliana.serrano@wur.nl
Hilde van Dijkhorst (Wageningen University) Hilde.vanDijkhorst@wur.nl
Daena Costa Neto (CEA-ISCTE) daenac@hotmail.com