FSM 2011,Dakar:My Experience

Another World is Possible: My first participation in the WSF was in Nairobi WSF 2007. Librarians from East Africa were involved in the first ever documentation of the WSF memory. Since then, Librarians from across the world have been involved in the documentation of the WSF Belem WSF 2009, Porto Alegre 2010 Dakar WSF 2011.

This year's Forum in Senegal begun with the march on the streets of Dakar where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital marched with the banners, placards to show their solidarity. , .

The following activities were organised during the forum; 2nd day : Day of Africa and Diasporas 3rd day : Self-organized activities 4th day : Self-organized activities 5th day : Assemblies of convergence for action 6th day : Assemblies of convergence for action / Assembly of Assemblies

As always, the forum had a hive of activities which included panels,exhibitions, plenaries etc. I must say that I did not fully participate in all the activities because of the language barrier. Most of the activities organised were in french language and on top of that there were not interpretation facilities which made my situation worse. In other circumstances, I could not locate the venue.My health also betrayed me, I felt unwell in the middle of the Forum because of my current status and I left Dakar before the close of the Forum. Thank God I arrived safely and was able to seek medical assistance and I am now okay.

All that did not stop me from enjoying myself and interacting with wonderful and dynamic librarians and activists.

I left the forum, promising myself to learn french language because I dont want to be left out again. Please if you know of any content online which can help me to learn french, please pass it over to me

KLA Media Wiki training 3rd to 5th December 2007 at KSMS

Day One

The KLA conducted this training a the Kenya School of Monetary Studies from 3rd to 5th December 2007. Participants were taken through basics of uploading items on the wiki in order to main wsflibrary wiki. The session was very interesting as each participant updated their pages and blogs on the wiki.

The purpose of this workshop is to create a critial mass of librarians that will upload and maintain wsflibrary wiki. Kudos to KSMS, their services are very fantastic. Talk of the internet connection,, its the firstest connection I have used. The training environment is very good for participants to learn how to use the wikis.

Day Two

Day two was also good and on the bad side of it was that the internet connection was very slow compared to the previous day. We had a presentation from Julie, she works with the University of Michigan Library USA in the Special Library Branch. She is also a social change activist and she is also involved in the world Social forum activities

We also had a presentation form Rosemary, Chairperson, KLA. She took us through the physical documents collected fduring the Nairobi WSF. She alosd informed us that they managd to get two volunteers who complied the list of all materials collected. She also mentioned that the Finnish Embassy r has provided space to KLA where those materials will be kept. After the presentation participants discussed the way forward for WSFlibrary.

Summary of proposal of the wayforward for WSFlibrary

-KLA be a focal point and the custodians of the materials -Realising the information to the University of Michigan . Materials should be kept locally and accessibe -Physical documents to remain with KLA -Digitising the materials and upload them on the wsflibrary. This has alot of implications like funding and manpower -Creating intelectual linkage with other WSF activities Forming alliance with other movements inorder to strengthen the cintinuity -Found a private library and not a public library -Secure funding for wsflibrary

Day Three

Participants did final touches on the wsflibrary website before the launch especially on the actionable themes. There was a round table discussion on founding a proactive public library with the officials from the Nairobi City Council ie Director of social services Mr Shem ombura. He gaves remarks on city council library services and the history of Macmillan city council library. issues discussed also included the challenges of library services in the city council and Kenya as a country.

Participants also disscused recommendations on how to set up a proactive public library and one of the recommendations included the need to establish a working relationship between the city council and Kenya library association to to consult people before establishing a library.

In the afternoon, the website was officially launched by a presentative from the finish embassy Nairobi. She thanks KLA and all the librarins from other East African countries for the work they did during the world social forum in January 2007.

Commonwealth People's Forum

The 2007 Commonwealth Peoples Forum took place in Kampala, capital city of Uganda from 19th to 24th November 2007 under the theme Realising Peoples Potential. The purpose of the Forum is to provide a space for interaction among Commonwealth civil society organisations, and between such organisations and government.

Apart from the forum, there was an exciting, interestingThe People's Space an open, interactive area and a hive of activity. Cultural performances, mini-workshops, films for conversations, multi-media and for the first time ever at a CPF, the building of a People's Wall of Greatness, was central to the People's Space.

Thousands of people left the People's Space with renewed energy to facilitate social change with a clear sense of building the future together. It also attracted participants from other CHOGM events including government officials, the youth, and business community.

Call for a World Social Forum sciences and democracy

Towards a political dialogue between scientists and social movements across the planet

The International council of the FSM welcomes by acclaiming the announcement of the creation of the World Social Forum Sciences and Democracy Presentation at the International council of the FSM.

Since 2001, world social forums have gradually structured the agendas of thousands of NGOs, medias, unions, social movements, local authorities, institutions and even governments across the planet. Today they are considered as major events to elaborate, share and build social, cultural and economic transformations on global and local levels.

Although the impacts of sciences and techniques on our daily lives, on economic, social and environmental realities are higher than ever, we have been observing, since the origins of the WSF , a chronic deficit of scientific and technical themes in these forums.

The reason for this is neither indifference nor absence of capacity of expertise but a lack of political consideration of the stakes related to the place and future of sciences in our societies, on behalf of both social movements and scientists.

That is why we believe that the building of a space of open cooperation, of wide public and democratic debates between scientists, NGOs and social movements at a world level will open new and exciting opportunities to:

promote and develop the knowledge commons of humanity as public goods; debate upon the issues and means in order to support scientists to fully respond to their social responsibility; strengthen the autonomy of researchers; defend the public missions of research and improve the conditions in which scientific activities are led by students, researchers, engineers; strengthen the capacity of citizens movements to produce knowledge and to be partners of scientific institutions; strengthen the capacity of our societies, in the North as in the South, to take democratic decisions in the field of science and technology;

Scientists and social movements need to share their expertise and conceptions to build societies that better respect human rights, cultural diversity and social and ecological needs.

Therefore, we, members of the scientific community, organisations and citizens, are calling for the organisation of the first World Social forum on science and democracy during the WSF in Belem - Brazil, January 2009

World Social Forum 2008

Call for Day of Action Mobilisation

January 26, 2008

The World Social Forum WSF 2008 will take the form of a week of action culminating in a Global Day of Mobilisation and Action on 26 January 2008.

For the first time, the WSF will be fully decentralized, meaning that every organization and movement will carry out their own activities where they wish.

As in previous years, for the WSF 2008, organizations are joining together as a Human Dignity and Human Rights Caucus (HDHRC) to ensure that human rights issues and values receive due attention

www.wsf2008.net