The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) convened an AU press briefing in preparation for the 39th African Union Summit on global financial architecture reforms and debt relief to finance Africa’s water needs and development. Our Strategic Campaigner, Lavender Namdiero, joined the panel to situate water security within the broader struggle for accountability, reparations, and structural reform.
Lavender’s intervention highlighted:
- Africa is being asked to power the global green transition while many of its own citizens lack safe water. 418 million Africans still lack access to clean drinking water.
- This problem is not only about scarcity, but rather who controls water, who benefits from its use, and how debt pressure distorts those decisions.
- Africa’s water crisis sits at the intersection of debt, climate change, and extractive development models, including some green pathways. Without debt relief and financial reform, water will continue to be sacrificed for repayment and export.
This is why reparatory justice is not just about history. It is about correcting a financial system that reproduces extraction today. The press briefing received media coverage, and the articles are available to read here: