During the Global Protest to Fight Inequality during the week of 14 – 21st January 2023, AFRODAD highly engaged on social media platform through sharing text messages and illustrations that explain the link between the rising debt trend that is affecting majoring of African countries, and inequality. AFRODAD is a member of the Fight Inequality Alliance, and it has been contributing to the alliance’s movement over the years.
We also hosted a webinar we titled “Faces of Unsustainable Debt in my Country” which sought to highlight voices of participants from different countries sharing how debt is affecting people therefore fostering inequalities as the people, especially women, youth, people with disability, the elderly and generally the marginalised, continually miss out on their rights such as healthcare, education, food shelter among others because their government prioritise debt repayment over social protection. Moreover, there was a section that looked at solutions that countries can embrace to at least reduce the effects of unsustainable debt on the people. The conclusion focused on a call to partnership to achieve a unified voice from the continent to demand for radical change in the global financial system that has been fostering more borrowing by African governments, thus just making profit from lending rather than promoting true development that puts people first. Principles of the African Borrowing Charter were reference during the conversation.
