On June 23- 26, 2006 the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) hosted The Third Annual Bill Sutherland Institute for Africa Advocates conference at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.  The conference, "The Challenge of Creating People-Centered Economies in Africa," was a training event designed to improve activists, advocates, and educators’ abilities to change U.S. policies toward those that promote peace and justice in Africa. 

John Bomba, who has been prominent in the struggle for democratization in Zimbabwe and has been working to build a strong youth movement to teach the necessity for a new democratic constitution, gave the keynote address. His presentation laid down the basic framework of the conference, which was building people-centered economies.  He believes that this means that economic activity in Africa should be aimed at furthering social activity to serve the people of Africa and providing them the ability to have input with the direction of the economy. He said, “If people go hungry it’s not because food isn’t there, it is because someone is eating your share.”

I attended the workshop Africa’s Natural Wealth: Not for Africans that was presented by Ian Gary from Oxfam and Arvind Ganesan from Human Rights Watch.  They presented astonishing facts on some of Africa’s natural resources and the problems that have arose from this tremendous opportunity for wealth. For example, oil was discovered in Equatorial Guinea in the mid 90s. Before the discovery, their GDP was 133 million, which came mostly from agriculture. As of 2004, Equatorial Guinea is the third-largest oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its oil production has risen to 360,000 barrels/day, up from 220,000 only two years earlier. Although Equatorial Guinea's wealth has increased dramatically and they have the 21st highest GDP in the world, they still remain at 121st when it comes to the people's standards of living.

So why would a country with so much wealth be unable to supply their people with basic services? There are problems of corruption, mismanagement, conflict, and transparency. In order to improve situations and reclaim Africa's wealth there needs to be good governance, and the problems of corruption and human rights need to be addressed. Look at the links below to find out how you can get involved and help to reclaim Africa's wealth for its people.

No Dirty Gold Campaign:
This campaign calls on the global mining industry to end destructive practices and respect the rights of communities and the environment. 

Publish What You Pay
The Publish What You Pay coalition of over 300 NGOs worldwide calls for the mandatory disclosure of the payments made by oil, gas and mining companies’ to all governments for the extraction of natural resources.