Over the last few decades, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has increased its investments in infrastructure and large-scale projects to “improve” the living conditions of Africans. The reality for many communities across the continent is far different. Women and their communities are combating the AfDB’s maldevelopment model, which is capitalist, neo-colonial and neo-liberal in nature. They are rising up to say NO to profit-centred “development” that harms them and their livelihoods, strips them of their common wealth, and destroys nature.
At a recent political education school in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, activists from across West and Central Africa came together to craft pathways to real alternatives and reparations. From 9-14 September 2024, over forty community women activists and leaders from seven countries in West and Central Africa met at the African Women Popular School for Economic and Development Justice in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
This feminist popular education and learning process on development and economic justice space was hosted by JVE-Cote d’Ivoire and facilitated by WoMin African Alliance. It was a critical space for women fighting against AfDB and other maldevelopment projects to exchange strategies, analysis, and build solidarity across their struggles. Participants shared their own experiences of neoliberal policies imposed by International Financial Institutions (IFIs), including the AfDB, and the multinational corporations implementing mega ‘development’ projects, which undermine the wellbeing of communities and their right to determine their own alternatives to such “maldevelopment”. Together, they explored the costs borne by women and their communities both in their bodies and territories, as well as where the accountability lies for such impacts.
AfDB funding has been a white elephant, especially for African women
The so-called ‘development’ projects sponsored by the AfDB – such as agro-industry, hydroelectric dams and other mega-infrastructure – are almost always in the service of profit, not people. For communities across Africa, the ecological, social, economic and cultural costs are not worth it.
In the Segou region of Mali, the women of the Sanamadougou community have lost access to their farmland and their community is confined to an area that does not allow them to carry out their economic, social, and cultural activities. To prevent the communities from gaining access to their farmland, the Moulins Modernes du Mali company built a canal without consultation or consent. Sponsored by the AfDB, Moulins Modernes has grabbed and is illegally occupying more than 800 hectares of community lands. Women from the communities have testified that several people have died trying to cross the canal to gain access to their lands.
The loss of livelihoods created by this land grab in the Sanamadougou communities has been, and continues to be, the source of profound upheaval within the community. Many have lost their farm lands, which has worsened levels of poverty and hunger. Young people have started to migrate to urban areas in search of decent jobs. The environment has been severely destroyed. Women, who are caregivers and bear the responsibilities of social reproduction, are no longer able to provide for their families, plunging the community into precariousness and misery. They bear in their bodies and on their territory the scar of what the dominant development model imposes from illnesses, psychological pressures, poverty and more.
The same company has set up an industrial production unit in an urban area a few kilometres away from Sanamadougou, generating noise and health problems for neighbouring communities as well as safety challenges for women living near the factory.
The story of Sanamadougou is echoed in hundreds of communities across the continent. This neo-colonial development model, imposed by multinational corporations, Public Development Banks (BDPs) like the AfDB, governments and their allies, holds African economies and states hostage and aggravates the debt burden on women and nature.
Ironically, the AfDB, like other IFIs and BPDs, has developed policies and safeguard measures, including one specifically on gender, which are supposed to serve as guidelines for the bank’s funding and project implementation. Yet the reality for communities is different. Neither the AfDB nor its clients including governments and multinationals, are held responsible for their projects and the impacts on people, nature and future generations. For many African women and their communities enough is enough! They are asking how an ‘African’ bank can be so indifferent to the real harms of the development it finances in the lives of African peoples? Why does this institution finance a development model that does not serve people’s interests?
The wisdom and resilience of women on the frontlines of these destructive projects is undeniable. Through their organising, they have picketed, and closed roads for three days having coordinated with the community logistics around food and water; they have mobilised protests with 400 women and children walking to the next city; they have staged videos for social media; and they have strategised with the youth in their communities understanding the importance of including their vitality and expertise with smartphones.
In the face of often overwhelming pressures and being labelled as “troublemakers”, they have stood their ground. After a week of deep conversation, learning, sharing Herstories of resistance, and solidarity, the women emerged with a roadmap for an AfDB Reparations campaign, energised to continue their organising. “We never set out to create trouble,” shared one participant. “The trouble was created and we do not have the luxury to sit back.”
