Environmental Justice & Governance: African Perspectives – Seattle
| April 15, 2009 | ||
| 3:45 pm | to | 5:30 pm |
| April 16, 2009 | ||
The African Studies Program of the Jackson School of International Studies is pleased to announce a two-day symposium on Environmental Justice and Governance: African Perspectives in the Neo-Liberal Era, April 15-16, 2009. Major sponsors of this event include the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Washington, the Graduate School, the Program on the Environment, the University of Washington School of Law and the Asian Law Center.
Interdisciplinary in nature, the symposium will explore the inter-relations between the environment, peace, development, and legal and political governance technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Participants will inquire, from cross-disciplinary perspectives, into whether events in Sub-Saharan Africa in the last two decades demonstrate the need to prioritize, as a matter of policy, development, and legal intervention, issues related to environmental management, conflict resolution, and peace building over “traditional” economic development.
Students and faculty from various University of Washington units (including the Program on Environment, African Studies Program, and the School of Law) as well as invited guests from various professional disciplines will participate. Participants will be united in their interest in Africa, the environment, the role of law in economic development, and development studies generally. Please join this opportunity for a constructive dialogue about the multi-directional influences of the environment, peace, law, governance, and development on each other.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2009 (William H. Gates Hall, Room 138)
Keynote address: 3:45-5:30 pm
Prof. Kidane Mengisteab
Head and Professor of African and African-American Studies, Penn State
Commentary: Prof. Bill Rodgers
Reception: 5:30-6:30 pm
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2009 (William H. Gates Hall, Room 115)
Panel One: 9:00 am – 10:45 am:
Environmental Governance, Democratic Participation, and Economic Development in African Countries: Prospects and Challenges
This panel will explicitly interrogate the existing regimes of environmental governance in international law and in individual African countries, what shapes them, and their relationship to economic development, equitable distribution of natural resources and intra- and intergenerational equity.
Panel Two: 11:15 am – 12:45 pm
Indigenous Technologies of Governance, the African State, and Democracy: Conflict or Synergies?
This panel will explore the potential, feasibility, and challenges of redeploying African customary laws, norms, and customs to respond to the environmental degradation wrecking the African continent.
Lunch Address: 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
Prof. Dongsheng Zang, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Washington
Topic: China’s Environmental Footprint in Africa: A Critical Look
Panel Three: 2:15 – 4:30 pm
The Role of Civic Society in Environmental Governance in Africa
This panel will explore the role, strategies, successes, challenges, and failures of civil society (including environmental non-governmental organizations) in pressing for environmental justice and equity in various African countries.
For more information, contact:
Joel Ngugi
Associate Professor of Law
Chair, African Studies Program
University of Washington
William H. Gates Hall, Rm 315
Box 353020
Seattle, WA 98195
Tel. No. 206-543-7611
Email: jngugi [at] u.washington.edu
