CSOs rally in Accra for debt cancellation and trade justice

By Konrad K. DJAISI

Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Aygeman will join African Trades Union – under the banner of the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) – together with other civil society organisations for an historic Pan-African rally for Debt cancellation and Trade Justice on August 29 in Accra.

The rally is part of Africa’s on-State Actors, particularly the Stop Bleeding Consortium that gives pragmatic expression to the African Union’s theme for the year – ‘Reparative Justice for Africa and Peoples of African Descent’.

It is in view of the fact that debt is part of colonial and neo-colonial shackles undermining Africa’s socio-economic progress,  this is what the forthcoming rally will address. The May 2025 African Union Summit on debt in its Lome Declaration affirmed this reality; hence the call for total cancellation of Africa’s odious debt.

Africa’s sovereign debt reached US$2.14trillion in 2024, with 22 countries at high risk of distress. Today, seven countries on the continent spend more servicing interest on debt than on education and health.

The rally also seeks to stand against trade injustice and more than 50% of the unions warn that unenforeceable labour and social protections risk repeating patterns in the continental trade agreement (AfCFTA) if not adequately addressed.

ITUC believes trade must deliver decent jobs, not just GDP growth. A powerful coalition of ITUC, TUC AFRODAD, FEMNET, Pan African Lawyers, Tax Justice Network and others will throng Obra Spot to demand ‘Stop Bleeding Africa’

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