In late September, almost 60 participants coming from 19 African countries representing 45 civil society member organizations, funders and friends of the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA) met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the Second Meeting of the ACCA. We are delighted to share with you the full report of that meeting.
Strategically planned to coincide with the first-ever African Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights, the meeting was a milestone for the ACCA and laid the foundation for the coalition to be sustainable and locally-led. Key goals achieved were:
- Defining what the ACCA stands for in a vision, mission and strategy statement that participants generated and agreed to;
- Defining the coalition’s governance structure;
- Electing seven civil society organizations to serve on the coalition’s regionally and linguistically balanced steering committee;
- Agreeing on the contours of a visionary action plan.
The meeting was convened by Global Rights, and made possible through the generous support of Australian Aid, an anonymous donor, American Jewish World Service, the Fund for Global Human Rights and Oxfam Novib. A special thanks is extended to the meeting’s three facilitators, led by Sheila Keetharuth and supported by Meetali Jain (Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria) and Lien De Brouckere (Global Rights).
As a significant demonstration of its voice and power to engage on the issues on the continent, ACCA had robust participation in the African Regional Forum on Business & Human Rights. Representatives of ACCA member organisations spoke as panelists on 9 of the Forum’s 12 sessions on a wide range of topics, and the ACCA issued a statement on the Forum.