WELCOME

Welcome to AFJN's blog site for discussions on health, trade, and conflict resolution in Africa. We encourage you to comment on whatever element you wish - if you see something missing from our advocacy, alert us! If you are particularly struck by something we've done, we'd like to know! If you read about something that you wish we were still working on, please say so! We look forward to reading your comments.

Health Roundtable

The HIV/AIDS virus began to affect Africa in a substantial way at approximately the same time that AFJN was coming into existence. However, for the first several years at least, AFJN was not working on it. Perhaps at that time it was not easy to see the connection between the sickness on the ground in Africa and US policy. It was only with time that various aspects of US policy began to catch the attention of people who were working with AIDS patients in Africa or working on advocacy in the U.S.

At a meeting in 1988 the Board of Directors named AIDS as one of the ‘areas of concern’ that AFJN was to take on. The Annual Meeting in October 1989 featured Maryknoll father and doctor, Scott Harris, who gave a much appreciative and informative keynote speech on the disease and its implications for the Church in Africa. One of the more interesting anecdotes in AFJN’s history is that at one point in 1992 Dr. Gallo, of the National Institute of Health (NIH), was threatening to sue AFJN over claims AFJN had made that Gallo was experimenting with AIDS drugs on children in Zaire without informing the government. A consultation was held on the subject with representatives of the NIH, the State Department and the French and Zairean embassies in collaboration with the CTFA and the USCCB. A later meeting between Dr. Gallo and the Chair of the Board of Directors calmed spirits but AFJN had definitely touched a nerve. Undaunted, Maura Browne and her staff continued to monitor the situation in Africa, collecting articles and publications on AIDS and sending questionnaires to people in Africa who were dealing with AIDS.

The 1991-92 Operational Plan listed AIDS under areas of Justice and Peace needing to be singled out for special attention and action. In 1992, we find that the Annual Meeting featured a talk by Dr. Jean Mouch on the subject of AIDS. Other than that, the office continued a low level information gathering and sharing, collaborating with other groups until Carole Collins came on staff in 2000. She became very involved in the HIV/AIDS Working Group of the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA). That group produced six ‘one-pagers’ on different aspects of AIDS in Africa. Those documents were hand delivered to all the offices of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The AIDS Working Group also helped to publicize the regrettable court case in South Africa wherein 39 companies had sued the government to question the constitutionality of beginning “parallel importing” and “compulsory licensing” measures that would have provided AIDS medication at more affordable rates. The United States was threatening South Africa with trade sanctions for allowing these practices that were legal under the WTO. Eventually, the United States backed off the threat but tried to achieve their objectives by other means. The pharmaceutical companies lost their case in the courts.

AIDS work rather quickly then became entwined with Trade work as WTO regulations were making it difficult for many African countries to get hold of affordable medicines. In 2001, AFJN lobbied with others to support compulsory licensing, which gave countries that were in a medical crisis the right to license AIDS drugs and sell them at cheaper prices. Much of this work ended up in the HR 933, “The Affordable HIV/AIDS Medicines for Poor Countries Act.”

With the Catholic Task Force on Africa, AFJN wrote letters to President Bush and to the Congress arguing the need for greater appropriations for bi-lateral HIV/AIDS programs and for the Global Fund. Throughout the last few years, the newsletter and the website have provided several informational articles on the HIV/AIDS situation in Africa and the state of policy in Washington. Bishop Kevin Dowling was invited to address the 2005 Annual Meeting in Tucson, Arizona. His personal witness and his intelligent discussion of the touchy particulars surrounding funding and treatment of HIV/AIDS inspired the members, who awarded him with the 2005 Faith & Justice Award.

Different staff members have worked over the last few years with the Health Care Working Group in Washington, DC. They have concentrated at different times on issues of AIDS and children and more recently on the lack of health care workers in Africa. Their efforts helped produce Senate Bill 850 calling for more funding for the training of health care workers for Africa. Cincinnati members of AFJN directly lobbied their Senator, urging him to co-sponsor this particular bill. Their efforts resulted in his co-sponsorship. At that point, he was only the second Republican in the Senate to sign on. The Cincinnati members got involved in this issue beacuse of their association with a parish in Ghana and their desire to do something positive and long-lasting for the parish.

Conflict Roundtable

In the beginning, “conflict resolution” did not exist. In fact, the concept of conflict resolution came later in AFJN’s history and was met with some initial resistance. In a 1993 Board of Directors’ meeting, the chair of the Board stated that, “There appears to be a new momentum to replace “justice and peace” issues with conflict resolution approaches, but conflict resolution needs to be fully explained since it is a novelty.” The AFJN staff was tasked with exploring the subject further.

Previous to 1993, AFJN had very much been in interested in the threats to peace and in the causes of conflict on the continent of Africa. In 1985, in fact, AFJN participated in and sponsored the “Famine &War in Africa Tour,” which was organized by Churches and missionary organizations. As early as 1986, AFJN published “The Militarization of Sub-Saharan Africa”, even though most of the other early work of the network was concentrated on hunger and refugee issues.

Nevertheless, the conflict in Liberia grabbed staff’s attention from the beginning, notably because of the presence of the Society of African Missions and the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Liberia. In the spring of 1985, the 7^th Action Alert of AFJN concerned the jailing of Liberian students, including future AFJN staffer, Ezekiel Pajibo. Liberia’s on again/off again war was a source of much lobbying, alert sending and demonstrating on the part of AFJN staff and members from 1985 through the fall of Charles Taylor and up to recent times as Liberia attempts to position itself to become (one of) the headquarters of the newly minted US Africa Command (AFRICOM). AFJN was considered an expert on Liberia because of the vast personal experience of Ted Hayden and Ezekiel Pajibo who were often contacted by the media and by policy makers to get analysis and information on the different evolving situations. In 1997, the office staff helped form the Interfaith Dialogue on Liberia and a Liberia Lobby Day. Several times AFJN sponsored the archbishop of Monrovia and AFJN award winner, Michael Francis, as he visited the offices of think tanks, the administration and the Congress.

Early efforts on issues of conflict resolution sprang from Africa herself as AFJN published documents from the African Bishops General Assembly in 1985, “A Call to Reconciliation and Peace.” Action Alert #1 from AFJN was a call for telegrams and phone calls to P.W. Botha, George Shultz and National Security Council chair, Robert McFarlane, demanding the release from detention of the Secretary General of the South Africa Bishops Conference. He had been critical of the apartheid government. All the attention that AFJN garnered in collaboration with other Catholic organizations resulted in the release of the detainee. AFJN continued to work with others on apartheid but not on a major level, as the Washington Office on Africa (WOA) was taking the lead on it. AFJN did organize a press briefing in late 2004 in which American Bishops called on the US to denounce apartheid and to not collaborate with the South African government. Though it was disrupted by Lyndon Larouche supporters, the briefing was the first on-the-record statements by US Bishops.

Since the late 80s, AFJN has also been active on Sudan issues, though again in mainly a secondary role. In 1988 information was sent out on Sudan of which a staff member said, “It was Marion Hughes, MM (member) who alerted AFJN to the critical situation in Sudan. The following year, AFJN was active along with the US Catholic Bishops Conference and members on the ground in Africa. In Washington, they had the ear of Sen. Mikulski’s office on Sudan issues. Bishops Macram Max Gassis and Paride Taban came to Washington several times and were hosted by AFJN. Bishop Gassis gave the keynote address at the 2004 Annual Meeting in Louisville. In the 1997 office report, congressional testimony of the Sudan Working Group (of which AFJN was an active member) states that “AFJN has worked on conflict resolution in Sudan for more than ten years.” AFJN’s excellent sources in Sudan were its Comboni and Maryknoll members.

In 1990, the staff report mentions that the office produced good material on the Horn of Africa and was consequently queried by Congress and the media. That same year, the office received material from members in then-Zaire and distributed that material to US members. From January-May 1992, according to the office report, AFJN had the ‘best updates on Zaire’ because of AFJN’s African and European contacts. Archbishop Mongsengwo was hosted in Washington several times to eloquently plead the cause of the struggling people of Zaire and later, Congo (DRC). In 1997, action alerts and a policy position on the new Kabila government were posted. The latter called for democracy, a government of inclusion, help for refugees and attention to the root causes of the conflict. After the genocide in Rwanda, AFJN encouraged its members to write to President Clinton and to the Congress for financial support for Rwandan justice and rehabilitation. Staff member Carole Collins was active in the Congo Working Group which prepared a letter to Secretary Powell and a press briefing on the Kivus. Meetings at the State Department were organized for the Spiritan fathers who had been working in Congo.

In 2000, AFJN was very active in lobbying on Angola, giving needed visibility and support to several civil society groups that came to Washington to discuss various issues of the Angolan situation, be it ending support for Jonas Savimbi, be it demanding more transparency in the management of lucrative oil contracts.

In 2001, the new Executive Director, Marcel Kitissou brought his expertise and interest in conflict resolution to AFJN. Having written and taught extensively on the subject, he developed the “Dealing with Transition and Coping with Change Project,” which was funded by several of the organizational members. Marcel chaired the Peace & Security Working Group of ADNA that met with the coordinator of the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI). He gave a briefing to the staff of the House sub-committee on conflict in West Africa. He trained students at SUNY-Oswego in mediation and in conflict resolution as well as presenting talks at Cornell University, Ithaca College, Colgate University and the Africa Studies Association. He contributed to the work of the Catholic Task Force on Africa on peace and security issues and chaired the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA) Working Group on Peace and Security. He also took part in the work of two Washington-DC wide working groups: Arms Transfer Working Group, and Foreign Military Assistance Working Group and participated in discussions organized by the Great Lakes Forum.

The Dealing with Transition and Coping with Change Project organized a summer lecture series, called "AFJN Summer Institute”, in Washington, DC on the Mano River countries at two think tanks (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Brookings Institution) and at the National Press Club. In 2004 at Cornell University, AFJN sponsored a symposium entitled Security, Reconstruction and Reconciliation: When the Wars End,” which was well attended by African scholars nation-wide. This symposium was later followed by a book published in 2007:

Muna Ndulo (ed.), Security, Reconstruction and Reconciliation: When the Wars End, University College London, 2007.

In April 2003, AFJN sponsored guest speakers on peace issues in Washington such as Sultan Somjee (he addressed three different groups at the Catholic Task Force on Africa, students and faculty at Cornell University and Utica College), Carolyn Nordstrom (for the very first Advocacy Days) who spoke on arms trafficking in Africa, and Cathy Majtenyi (AFJN correspondent who was working in Kenya) who spoke on Somali at AFJN 20^th anniversary in McLean, VA and on the Horn of Africa at a peace studies conference at Ithaca College. The same year saw the beginning of a reflection and information sharing on the link between water and conflict. Marcel was one of the first in Washington to write and to speak about the issue which will become more and more important as the years advance. Marcel gave two congressional briefings on the issue. In all, AFJN gave three briefings on Capitol Hill to congressional staff on water and conflict in relation to the Dealing with Transition and Coping with Change Project.

Under Marcel’s initiative, AFJN sponsored a symposium on water issues at the Institute for African Development at Cornell University with participation of scholars in the US and Africa. Continued reflections on the topic resulted in a 2007 book:

Marcel Kitissou, Muna Ndulo, Mechthild Nagel, Margaret Grieco (eds.), The Hydro politics of Africa: a Contemporary Challenge, Cambridge Scholars Press, UK, 2007

In 2003, AFJN alerted the executive branch about the seriousness of the developments in Darfur and potential grave humanitarian consequences. Letters were sent to Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, and Condolezza Rice, then National Security Advisor to alert them about the looming generalized violence and potential humanitarian crisis. Later on, Marcel and Phil Reed participated in demonstrations in front of the Embassy of Sudan (Phil, then Chair of AFJN’s Board, was once arrested). The demonstrations stopped at the time after Colin Colin Powell qualified the Darfur situation a genocide.

The resolution of the war in northern Uganda became the principle project of AFJN in 2005 with the hiring of Michael Poffenberger and collaboration with UgandaCan. However, already in 2004 AFJN, with the Catholic Task Force on Africa (CTFA), began diffusing in Washington information from the Church in Uganda. Over the course of the year, information was published and in June of 2004, a briefing on Capitol Hill was given. During that same time, AFJN and CTFA were also bringing some of the first attention to the conflict in Darfur to a larger public as well as participating in demonstrations at the Sudanese embassy.

AFJN organizing perhaps reached its nadir with the northern Uganda campaign of 2005-2006. Staff very successfully drummed up support in Washington through the use of briefings on Capitol Hill and collaborations with dynamic organizations such as Invisible Children and Gulu Walk. The preparation of the Northern Uganda Lobby Days took many hours of hard work by staff and interns, but by October 2006, seven hundred mainly young activists came to Washington to learn more about the situation in northern Uganda from policy makers and Ugandan witnesses. At least four hundred of those people stormed Capitol Hill the next day creating quite a sensation with their brightly colored t-shirts and their focused message. The event was a huge source of information and publicity about AFJN. Many new readers signed up for the AFJN website and donations and new memberships were recorded in large numbers. Like many other successful AFJN projects, this one grew, in part, out of a staff member’s (Michael Poffenberger’s) experience in northern Uganda before coming to AFJN and out of his continuing contacts on the ground. Bishop John Baptist Odama came to the Annual Meeting in 2006 and received the AFJN Award for his peace making efforts in his country. When Michael left to form Resolve Uganda, the leadership of the campaign went with him and AFJN moved on, having helped birth a new coalition.

Recently, much staff time has been spent on organizing around the crying needs in Congo. AFJN has many members in the Congo. At the same time, it was determined to be an area of Africa that does not get a fair amount of attention considering the seriousness of the problems it faces. The Executive Director in 2005, Rev. Bill Dyer, began this new emphasis on Congo. Present Executive Director, Rev. Rocco Puopolo, is on the executive committee of Congo Global Action, a new coalition of which AFJN is the fiscal sponsor. At this time, an office and website have been set up and preparations are being made for a lobby day similar to the one held on the northern Uganda issue.

Finally, a mention must be made of two new areas of work. The first is the recent engagement of AFJN staff in research and advocacy on the newly founded Africa Command (AFRICOM). The Board of Directors has made monitoring this entity a priority of AFJN for the next couple of years. Informational articles have been written both in the newsletter and on the web and a new coalition has formed in Washington of which AFJN is a major player. Secondly, AFJN is helping to gather people interested in advocacy on restorative justice. This has grown out of discussions at the ADNA meetings and a resolution has been put forth to Representative Donald Payne on the Africa Subcommittee.

Economic Justice Roundtable

In one of the first documents setting up the Africa Faith and Justice Network, the founders articulated the ‘scope’ of the work of AFJN. They were intent on working on issues or problems affecting Africa that had their origins in the ‘First World.’ Amongst those issues, they state that, “Trading and other economic policies are often unfavorable toward Africa.” In the very first ‘issues list’ sent to the members to vote upon (in 1984) one of the items was “Economic Questions (World Bank, IMF, exchange rates, etc.).”

From those first very broad mentions of economic policies and questions, AFJN has over the years worked on a number of different issues of economic justice. One of the first to be addressed was that of the debt of impoverished countries. At the 1987 Annual Meeting, Peter Henriot, S.J. and Prof. Brian Hehir gave talks on the debt. It was decided to put emphasis on that issue and an AFJN Issue Paper was subsequently produced. The next year, 1988, Sr. Maura Browne (one of the first staff members and the longest serving Executive Director), continued work on the debt by preparing a booklet on the subject that received several responses from members in Africa. She also presented a workshop at the 1988 annual meeting.

The operational plan of 89-90 called for work on the debt that included gathering information from Africa (materials and information from justice and peace groups as well as from missionaries), working with US coalitions, promoting a US constituency, collaborating with like-minded groups at the UN and forming advocacy positions for AFJN. In 1989, during a visit to Africa, Maura gave talks on the debt to members and interested people. Those talks were eventually printed and distributed on the continent. After the trip, she expressed the desire to work on “economic rights” rather than ‘the debt,’ realizing that problems surfacing in Africa had their roots in more than simply the debt mechanism. During this time, Maura also chaired the Debt Team of the International Economic Issues Committee. She accompanied African Church and lay leaders (invited by AFJN) to meetings at the World Bank where she met with (“confronted”) high level officials.

The office report of 1990 notes that during a visit to Zimbabwe, missionaries reported that the Uruguay Round of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) would be harmful to Africa. A Maryknoll member as well sent materials from Kenya, asking AFJN to do some education and advocacy around the issue of GATT. Although some work had already begun on GATT in 1988, that impetus from the members got the AFJN office more involved in working on GATT and other “Trade” issues. The African connection again gave inspiration to the Washington office.

Board meetings (December 1993) continued to insist on a focus on “economic rights” amongst other things. Throughout the early nineties, the office continued to publish articles and to send mailings to the members encouraging them to lobby their members of Congress. That legislative work was expanded to include work on the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and to opposing the “Debt for Development Swaps” that many were supporting at the time.

The theme of the 1995 Annual Meeting was “Economic Justice in Africa,” showing the growing importance of the subject for members. The 1996 office report notes the collaboration with the Religious Working Group on the World Bank and 50 Years is Enough, as well as numerous meetings, events and demonstrations. An action alert on debt was again proposed to the members, while an intern was researching and attending meetings on trade. Again, there was direct lobbying of the Congress, the World Bank and the US Treasury. The operational plan for 95-96 called for promotion of fair trade policies, support for the General Agreement on Sustainable Trade (GAST) and sought an amendment to the GATT to ensure justice.

In 1997, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was proposed by the Clinton administration. AFJN immediately sent a copy of the bill to African partners, as from the beginning, AFJN was suspicious of the bill, particularly its obvious benefits for corporations at the expense of Africans. AFJN joined the Africa Trade Working Group (ATWG) to collaborate with others on these issues of trade. That same year, AFJN and 50 Years is Enough presented at various workshops and held a press conference. They convinced the Congressional Black Caucus to get their “marching orders” on economic issues from NGOs. (That would subsequently change…) In late 1998, at least two alerts opposing AGOA had been sent out and radio interviews were being conducted. AFJN had also begun to initiate action around the Multi-Lateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which it also saw as strongly corporate in focus. Going into 1999, AFJN published its own statement of policy on the Debt for Poverty Reduction Act and began a long and fruitful collaboration with the Washington Office on Africa (WOA) by putting together a KAIROS document on Trade, Aid and Debt.

The Operational Plan for 1999-2000 saw a growth in activity on economic issues. It called for support of the Jubilee Campaign (AFJN became a member of the steering committee), for work on AGOA and the MAI, and for continued advocacy for reform of the IMF/World Bank, especially concerning their debt and SAP structures. Local input (from Africa) was encouraged. This prompted the creation of the Grass Roots Initiative (GRI) whose intent was to do the ‘niche’ work for which AFJN had continually been searching and to broaden the network in Africa in order to bring in more information from the continent.

The numerous trade issues and bills popping up in the Congress in the new millennium brought together AFJN and several other faith-based groups in DC to form the Interfaith Task Force on Trade and Investment. After a period of ‘self-education,’ the Task Force put down a list of ethical principles for international investment that were distributed to Congress and that have recently been updated and reprinted. Later, in 2004, a congressional resolution would come out of the work of this group. The Resolution on Just Trade called for trade based on the ethical principles outlined by this task force.

For the next few years, the GRI was the vehicle for most of the important work on economic issues. Larry Goodwin, staff member and Executive Director, conceived the GRI and found his inspiration during a six-week trip to Africa in 2000. He discovered the African Model Law being proposed in Africa to protect smallholder farmers from the patenting of their seeds, plants, etc. A Declaration of Support for African Smallholder Farmers, countering World Trade Organization provisions, was written by AFJN and sent out for signatures. Eventually, more than 600 organizations from around the world signed the declaration. It was presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg and eventually was put into a House Resolution sponsored by AFJN Award winner, Rep. Maxine Waters. Larry worked closely with the staff of Rep. Waters to gather co-sponsors and to find a Senate office that would introduce the “Africa Resolution” into that body. Rep. Waters introduced the bill twice into the Congress over a period of four years. Although it was never brought out of committee, it did serve over a period of several years as a vehicle of education for the Congress and for AFJN members.

The GRI, in collaboration with Public Citizen also convinced Rep Jan Schakowsky to introduce a congressional resolution that called for water to be considered as a ‘human right.’ Eventually, as part of AFJN’s “Seeds & Water” initiative, the Water for the World Resolution stated that water is a public trust and a public good not a private commodity.” AFJN worked closely with AEFJN in Brussels on both the water issue and that of smallholder farmers, creating a worldwide effort and a synergy in the two organizations that has not been matched since.

Along with those major efforts mentioned above, AFJN tackled a number of other issues. Research was done and information provided on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), on land usage, on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), especially concerning the patenting of life forms and the pricing and availability of AIDS medication. Through the Africa Trade Policy Working Group, which Larry Goodwin chaired, AFJN collaborated with other organizations to monitor the Free Trade Agreement with the Southern Africa Customs Union. In that, the group met with officials in the US Office of Trade Representative and wrote a letter to Robert Zoelleck calling for negotiations on the principles of human rights, the primacy of the common good and the protection of the global ecosystem.

It could be said, that during the period of GRI, AFJN led the way on many of the important trade issues being discussed in Washington and even created a body of knowledge on a subject that no one would have noticed (the plight of small holder farmers) had AFJN not concentrated so much effort upon it. AFJN’s enthusiastic participation in the formulation of the water and just trade resolutions was essential to their introduction in Congress and the attention that they received. These rather complicated and esoteric issues, however, did not always resonate with the members and oftentimes the staff found themselves trying to convince the members to get on board to lobby their members of Congress.

The wide range of groups working on the debt were eventually successful in bringing needed understanding and focus to the issue, so that debt relief is now something around which there is a general consensus that something should be done. In fact, a good deal of the debt has been canceled. AFJN was a long and important player in that advocacy.

In the last two years, trade and debt issues have received minimal attention from AFJN as advocacy shifted to conflict resolution work, particularly in northern Uganda.