Green Forum at the Center of the African Greens Success Story | Rwanda
Default environment

You are here

Status message

The webform component civicrm_contact is not able to be displayed

Green Forum at the Center of the African Greens Success Story

African Representatives at Global Greens Congress in Brazil
African Representatives at Global Greens Congress in Brazil

It was during the Second Global Greens Congress in April-May 2008 which took place in Sao Paulo-Brazil, that Green Forum Sweden recommitted itself in support the African Greens Network, as it was called then. Previous efforts in West Africa and East Africa had not been successful and this was a serious cause for concern, since without the continent of Africa, there would not be a Global Greens Movement.

After the Global Greens Congress in Brazil, Rwanda Green Society submitted a project proposal to Green Forum, which would help to unite all Greens in different parts of Africa, and as well establish a Green political federation, comprising of political parties and political movements.

The first activities were held in Benin, Morocco and Tunisia, it was later decided to hold an African Greens Movement, preparatory meeting in Benin, which was attended by 13 countries from East, South, North, Central and Western Africa. This prep meeting took place in June 2009, it was agreed that the founding congress for establishing the African Greens Federation would be held in Kampala, Uganda in April 2010.

Indeed, in April 2010, Green Forum supported this founding congress and 23 countries were present and a political federation was officially established and leadership elected. The African Greens Charter was also adopted. This Congress was also attended by the Secretary General of the European Greens Federation and a representative of Green Forum. The diversity of different cultures, languages and national political dynamics has been a source of our strength.

There has been tremendous growth and success after the official establishment, the Federation officially got registered as an international political Association in June 2012 in Burkina Faso, West Africa and a continental secretariat was established and launched immediately after. The federation was also able to host the Third Global Greens Congress in Dakar, Senegal in April 2012. This was not an easy task but when people are united they can really achieve a lot.

The federation went into its second growth phase and established five regional federations, which are:

  • the Southern Africa Greens Federation bringing together Madagascar, Mauritius, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Angola.
  • the North African Greens Federation, bringing together, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Libya and South Sudan
  • the East African Greens Federation, bringing together, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Burundi
  • the Central African Greens Federation, bringing together, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa Republic, Gabon and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)
  • and the West African Greens Federation, bringing together, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea Conakry.

The Africa Green Federation has 29 member countries, and several member parties are participating in national elections, some have won seats in parliaments and local governments. Others have been appointed ministers. The green vision is getting stronger. Green Forum has played a key role in achieving this success story.

The Federation has now entered its third growth stage, which is strengthening this regional networks and make them able to support member countries.  It has also got new partners, the Green Party of England and Wales/West Minister Foundation for Democracy and the Belgian Green Party (Groen), whom have committed to supporting both East Africa and West Africa respectively.

The journey is still long, but we are very proud of what we achieved and how far we have come from. All this could not have been achieved without the tremendous support of Green Forum Sweden and several partners. We hope more will be achieved in the coming years as we consolidate the regional federations and move to the fourth growth stage.  We are putting more focus now on participation and winning general elections and have seats in Local Government structures, national Governments and national Parliaments.

Dr.Frank Habineza 

President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda

President African Greens Federation

 Source:http://blog.greenforum.se/2016/09/13/green-forum-at-the-heart-of-the-african-greens-success-story/

African Representatives at Global Greens Congress in Brazil