Report of the African Greens Federation meeting in Liverpool

The African Green Federation (AGF) had a full day meeting on the 29th March and half day meeting on 30th March 2017 in Liverpool in prelude to the Global Greens congress.

The first day meeting was held at Jurys Inn and the second day at the ACC congress venue. The meeting began with introduction of delegates present, then presentation of the agenda with some amendments, it was chaired by Dr Frank Habineza, AGF President.

 Present in the meeting were the delegates from the following countries:

Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, DR Congo,  Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar,  Mozambique, Morocco,  Niger, Uganda,  Rwanda, Mauritius, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

The agenda of the meeting was focused on the following items:

1) AGF progress report

2) Discussion on budget implication for the upcoming congress in 2018

3) Discussion on Global Greens future resolution

4) AGF urgent resolutions, elections in Rwanda, situation in Egypt, Mauritius 

5) Discussion on other resolutions seeking AGF stand

6) Presentation from Green Forum’s Secretary General on political maturity ladder

7) Presentation from Dr Monzer Eliwa on the political situation in Egypt

8) Brief update on Global Greens program and AGF presenters in different sessions, workshops and plenaries

9) International committee to support Dr Frank Habineza, presidential candidate in Rwanda

Amendments were made to the agenda on issues such as the absence of African young greens at the Global Young Greens congress, the problem of visas and the follow-up of the invitation of Mr. Ram Ouedraogo to attend the congress…

Agenda item 1: AGF progress report to partners

AGF President presented the activities realized by AGF with the support of different partners during 2016. He also presented the activities planned to be realized this year. Regarding the activities that will take place, Dr. Frank Habineza, reminded the participants that West Africa and East Africa have partnership with Groen Party of Belgium and Westminster Foundation for Democracy-Green Party of England and Wales, respectively.

AGF plans to organize an activity for West Africa in May 2017 in Dakar-Senegal, this is aimed at supporting the new Green party of Senegal which will present candidates in the upcoming legislative elections in June 2017. The second activity of the region for the year is planned to be held in Ivory Coast in October 2017. The activities for 2018, will start in Togo, where the party plans to participate in local and parliamentary elections in May and October 2018, respectively.

East African Greens Federation, plans to hold two activities in 2017. The parties which will participate in the elections, will have the first priority, but the logical rotational choice is Uganda

Green Forum, continues to support the remaining regions. The Southern Africa region, plans to hold an activity in Zimbabwe, while Northern Africa and Central Africa, have not yet chosen their venues. It’s expected that those venues are chosen before end of May 2017.

Democratic Republic of Congo, will host the African Greens Congress in October 2018. No other activity will be held in all the three regions supported by Green Forum during 2018.  

The Executive Secretary, presented the current state of membership fees payment for both AGF and Global Greens. Those who had outstanding debts were requested to clear them before the start of the Global Greens Congress, so that they could be eligible to vote.

Agenda item 2: Discussion on budget implication for the upcoming congress in 2018

It was noted that the last AGF congress, held in Madagascar decided that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will host the next congress in 2018. However, due to budget limitations for the three regions supported by Green Forum in 2018, we will not have enough budget for the congress. A proposal was presented to either host the congress in West Africa or East Africa, where the two regions will have planned activities in 2018.  

This proposal was not accepted, the representative of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Honorable Didace Pembe, requested the meeting to maintain the decision of Madagascar congress in DRC. As a solution to solve the problem of budget, the participants made some proposals such as search for new sources of financial support, self-support of transportation costs to DRC etc. 

The proposal accepted by the members was the one self-support for the transportation.

Four countries reacted and agreed to pay for their own air-tickets to attend the event. These are: Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Senegal and Morocco. Other parties are encouraged to do and should inform us well in advance.

Agenda item 3: Discussion on Global Greens future resolution

Participants also discussed the Global Greens future resolution, the meeting was informed that Ms. Margaret Blakers, will be stepping down as convener of Global Greens after this congress and a new convener will be needed to replace her.  All federations had to present a candidate. Other issues in the resolution were also discussed. The meeting unanimously nominated Mr. Ram Ouedraogo as candidate from Africa for Global Greens convenor.

Agenda item 4: AGF urgent resolutions, elections in Rwanda, situation in Egypt, Mauritius 

AGF proposed urgent resolutions for the cases of Egypt because of the political situation in the country, elections in Rwanda and the situation in Mauritius. Everyone agreed that it was necessary to take those resolutions. For the case of Egypt, the participants proposed that it was better to take a notified resolution. A small committee was nominated to work on these resolutions.

Agenda item 5: Discussion on other resolutions seeking AGF stand

Apart from emergency resolutions, it was necessary to discuss other resolutions as proposed by the resolutions committee. We did not have enough time to discuss about those resolutions.

Agenda item 6: Presentation from Green Forum’s Secretary General

The Secretary General of Green Forum, Mr. Chris Ormalm, made a presentation on a very important theme for the political parties called « political maturity ladder ». This presentation allows political parties to improve their capacity on a new political model.  It was an exercise that permitted political parties to grow by focusing on their own internal organization, the quality of their members, their internal structures and external environment. The political maturity ladder will be shared.

Agenda item 7: Presentation from Dr. Monzer Eliwa on the situation in Egypt

Dr. Monzer Eliwa, a big Egyptian personality, representing Dr.Ayman Nour, made a good presentation on the political situation in Egypt. In this presentation he explained how the authorities of Egypt have refused to deliver or to renew passports of opposition politicians, including that of Dr.Ayman Nour, who has no case to answer and the court ruled that his passport be renewed. He explained the political repression going on, many people in prisons, others in exile. It is a critical situation because many sons of the country are in exile at the moment in other countries and are afraid to come home back. The presenter demonstrated that there is also a big political insecurity that provokes people’s anxiety. Through his presentation, he invited AGF and all the volunteers to do something in order to encourage Egyptian authorities to stop such actions and bring peace back in the country. AGF agreed to continue standing with the Egyptian people.

Agenda item 8: Brief update on Global Greens program and AGF presenters in different sessions, workshops and plenaries

The agenda of Global greens congress was presented to the participants to allow African participants to know the details and also to take into account the different items which will be developed during the congress. Another objective of this presentation was to know the different members of AGF designated as presenters in the different sessions, workshops and plenaries in order to encourage and support mutually each other.  So Pr. Papa Meissa Dieng, Dr. Frank Habineza, ; Dr. Mohamed Farès ; Mr. Alexandre Georget ,Mr. Sylvio Michel, Mrs. Anne Marie Bihirabake, Mr. Adama Sere … were presenters in plenaries while other Africans were programed for sessions and workshops. 

Agenda item 9: International committee to support Dr. Frank Habineza, presidential candidate in Rwanda

All presents in the meeting agreed that it was necessary to support Dr. Frank Habineza as candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in Rwanda. The meeting agreed to create regional committees and all regional representatives will be in charge or organizing.

Other issues

Regarding the amendments made to the agenda such as the absence of African young people in Liverpool, the issue of visas and the follow-up of the invitation of Mr. Ram Ouedraogo to attend the congress, the meeting deplored these situations. The meeting also presented apologies to the delegates of Burkina Faso for lack of follow up on the invitation of Mr. Ram Ouedraogo and promised more vigilance in the future.

The second day, the 30th March 2017

The second day meeting was half day, because the Global Greens opening ceremony was planned in the afternoon. The meeting took place in one of the rooms at the Congress center. It started by the presentation of the resolution on the future of Global Greens and other resolutions by Mr. Adamou Garba, a member of the Global Greens Coordination(GGC). And the debates were facilitated by Dr. Frank Habineza, Pr.Papa Meissa, both members of GGC and Mrs.Anne Marie Bihirabake. The different resolutions presented were analyzed point by point with explanations from the members of the coordination. It was necessary that all the members of AGF have same agreement before voting those resolutions.

Another AGF meeting was held on 31st March in the afternoon, where member countries, presented country details to several international delegates.      

                                                         Liverpool, the 31st March 2017

                                                                Fatoumata Boussim

                                                           Executive Secretary, AGF