Dear Readers,
Welcome to the 2020 African Coalition for Corporate Accountability newsletter.
Despite having been a year marked by major global challenges mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 also marks the 7th anniversary of the ACCA.
Established in 2013 by several civil society organizations with the support of international donors, ACCA has become the voice of Africa on business and hum
an rights and counts today nearly 130 members in more than 30 African countries.
During the past 7 years, ACCA has focused on 4 main working streams which are Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), Access to Remedy, the Treaty Process and Chinese Investments in Africa.
ACCA also collaborates with many other partners around the world, whose work focuses on business and human rights and the protection of the rights of communities against illegal or harmful activities of multinationals
Several reports have been published such as the report on FPIC which was published in 2018. The ACCA also contributed to the process on the zero draft and the first revised draft of the binding treaty for companies and human rights and is currently contributing to the second revised version which was published recently. The secretariat is also preparing for the launch of the access to remedy report in collaboration with Accountability Counsel, a partner organization based in the US.
A comic book and an animated video on FPIC have been produced and has been disseminated to all ACCA members with the aim of informing their respective communities about their rights.
In 2019, in collaboration with the Center for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) organized, training sessions in different regions of Africa. The first training session from East Africa took place in Tanzania, the second session for members from West Africa took place in ACCRA and the third took place in Egypt in Northern Africa.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, training sessions planned for the year 2020 have been postponed as well as the General Assembly which was initially scheduled to take place in November 2020.
However, the secretariat, like most organizations around the world, has been able to adapt to the new normal and organized online activities such as webinars, workshops and consultations intended for both the members and the public.
This newsletter provides a brief overview of the activities carried out throughout the year 2020.