On 21 April during the 14th Session
of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Natural Justice and the LAPSSET
Community Forum (LCF), with the support of the American Jewish World Service
and the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF), organized a side event entitled:
A New Infrastructure Boom in Africa: Community Responses to the Lamu Port and
Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET). Using Kenya as an
example, the side event aimed to shed light on the uphill battles that
communities often face in light of increasing infrastructure investment in
Africa. While the impacts of infrastructure are felt locally, much of the
planning occurs through large portfolio infrastructure investments supervised
by regional or global partnerships beyond the reach of communities affected by
their decisions.
During the side event Kanyinke Sena
from the Community Legal Resource Center, Kenya introduced LAPSSET, noting that
four to five countries in East Africa are fundraising for the project, and that
conflicts over land are some of the most critical issues that will result from
LAPSSET development. Omar Mohamed Elmawi from LCF then presented, expanding on
Kanyinke's introduction by emphasising the impact of LAPSSET on the communities
in the Lamu archipelago. He also noted that while communities along the entire
corridor face many challenges, they can join together through the LCF to share
information and experiences, and have a bigger voice in the process. Finally,
Nancy Alexander from HBF USA provided further analysis on the global
infrastructure investment climate with a particular focus on Africa, including
the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). Nancy noted that
while investors often have difficulty with a rights-based discourse, they do
understand the language of risk. Couching issues affecting communities in terms
of risk to investments is one potential avenue for increasing community voices
in the development of infrastructure.
The side event ended with
participants, including indigenous peoples affected by LAPSSET, sharing further
experiences and insight to the nature of infrastructure investment in Kenya and
beyond. It became apparent that analysing the LAPSSET corridor from its impact
on the local level to the international investment landscape behind its
financialisation was useful to put into perspective the vast uphill battles
indigenous communities face when affected by infrastructure projects and
discuss the myriad of strategies needed to get their voices heard.
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