At the World Social Forum (WSF) held from 18-20 January 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya, APHD participated at the African Partners Consultation of Caritas Australia. The African Partners of Caritas Australia shared about some of the negative realties afflicting the continent, namely, poverty, environmental degradation, and HIV/AIDS. Caritas Australia presented their organizational profile and different development tools and APHD was fortunate to present and overview of our programs in Asia, highlighting its current program Against the Trafficking of Women and Children, Capacity-Building, and previous work on Peacebuilding, Indigenous Peoples and country level programs in on sustainable development. The coordinator for the APHD Pan-Asia Sustainable Agriculture and Farmers’ Rights (SAFaR) Program, Yuri Munsayac, explained some of the key results of the program.

      Judged from the questions and reactions, Caritas Australia’s partners in Africa were very interested in the Sustainable Agriculture and Farmers’ Rights Program. Many of the African Caritas’ are also focusing on sustainable agriculture, and as their concerns mirror those of the farmers in Asia, they were very keen to know of our approaches to the issues, especially our sustainable agriculture practices within the APHD network of partners. Moreover, our friends in Africa sought out our thoughts on engaging grassroots level farmers and communities in advocating for their rights as well control over their seeds. Interestingly, during the many discussions, the Africans would say that they wished there were such thing as an ‘Africa Partnership for Human Development,’ or a similar platform where the countries of Africa could unite, and share work in partnership. From an APHD perspective, it was indeed inspiring that our African colleagues showed such interest to know more about sustainable agriculture and farmers’ rights.