Research and Other Publications
Building African Capacity to Develop and Implement Environmental Law
Building the Capacity of African Professionals and Community Activists to Use Environmental Advocacy Tools
ELI’s initiative on developing advocacy tools in Africa seeks to improve the voice of civil society in protecting the environment and human health, as well as in development decisions that affect people’s livelihoods. This initiative surveys, assesses, and disseminates information on various advocacy tools. A handbook, A Toolkit for Environmental Advocacy in Africa, has been designed to be accessible to highly educated laypeople – including citizen activists and emerging community organizations that may lack advocacy experience – as well as public interest environmental lawyers. ELI hopes to disseminate the manual through our wide network of African partners and through the various African fora in which ELI staff regularly participate. We also hope to develop a guidebook accessible to laypeople of average education in Africa that can be used to increase community based activism and public participation.
As part of this initiative, ELI participated in a workshop on “Environmental Advocacy Strategies in East and Southern Africa,” which was held in Maputo, Mozambique, on September 11-14, 2001. For this workshop, which included environmental lawyers from throughout East and Southern Africa, ELI delivered a presentation on “Public Participation in Regional and International Instruments.” The presentation focused on specific ways in which African regional and subregional agreements and declarations, as well as other international instruments, can be invoked to enhance the ability of advocates to obtain access to courts for the protection of environmental rights.
ELI also convened two workshops for pastoral communities in Kenya in November 2001. Partnering with the Resources Conflict Institute (RECONCILE), ELI staff discussed with pastoral community leaders and activists the non-legal and legal advocacy tools that can be used to protect community health and natural resources. These workshops were discussed in greater detail in the section above.
From February 26 to March 1, 2002, ELI attended the FRAME Contact Group meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. The FRAME Contact Group, of which ELI’s Carl Bruch is a member, is an informal network of partners representing a broad range of disciplines related to Africa’s environment and natural resources. During a Contact Exchange Session in Cape Town, ELI, together with former ELI Visiting Scholar Jane Dwasi, gave a presentation on “Equipping Communities for Environmental Advocacy: A Toolbox for Citizen Action.” Participants in the session offered suggestions for further improving ELI’s advocacy toolkit.
During the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, ELI co-sponsored two public events on the topic of environmental advocacy. The first event, a workshop entitled “Environmental Advocacy: A Discussion of Tools and Experiences,” was held on August 29, 2002 at Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. Partnering with the Potchefstroom Faculty of Law, ELI convened two expert panel discussions on environmental advocacy in South Africa and beyond. The workshop drew approximately 25 participants, including law professors and students, NGO representatives, local government officials, and people from the private sector. The second advocacy event held during the WSSD, “Innovative Approaches to Environmental Advocacy in Africa,” took place on September 3, 2002. Co-sponsored by the Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (NESDA), this WSSD side event featured a panel discussion by two well-known activists in Central and West Africa: Samuel Nguiffo of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) in Cameroon, and Deeka Menegbon of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in Nigeria. Over 70 people, many representing civil society organizations from across the continent, attended.
As part of this effort, ELI gathered case studies of African environmental activism from nine African advocates. These case studies discuss various approaches to advocacy ranging from local attempts to block unhealthy forestry practices to using theatre as a way to communicate a conservation message. The case studies are available on the web at http://www.eli.org/africa/advocacytools.htm, and excerpts from each case study appear in the Toolkit.
Back to Building African Capacity to Develop and Implement Environmental Law