Inhabitants, from Bangalore to Dakar
The city of Bangalore, India is welcoming the World Assembly of Inhabitants (WAI) from August 18 to 23, 2010 during this new building phase. It was preceded by an important preview on August 16 - i.e. meetings with inhabitants' organisations of Delhi's popular neighbourhoods, involved in the struggle against evictions caused by the investments of the next Commonwealth Games.
The opportunity in Bangalore was given by the Asian Citizens' Assembly - a regional process started by the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World - in particular to promote the exchange of experiences through meeting people from all of Asia in order to strengthen a network capable of offering sustainable development and in solidarity.
After the Urban Social Forum, which launched successfully the Call from Rio, several WAI's Unitary Steering Committees formed. So the moment has come for Asian inhabitants' organisations to also contribute towards this process causing this proposal to put down roots with all the local organisations, give it a regional dimension, strengthen dialogue with the social sectors that claim “another possible world” could put an end to the crisis.
For these reasons, the initiatives taken by “inhabitants” together with LOCOA - a network of inhabitants organisations from Asian countries - aim to strengthen the dialogue among the various organisations on this continent, which are severely impacted, as well as, the scene of resistance against evictions resulting from urban transformations, a result of land speculations and mega-projects.
A dialogue broadcasted by the media - a team of CIED-Bangalore Film Society - continues in fact to build the “Inhabitants' Memory,” coordinated by the Urban Popular University by carrying out interviews with urban social leaders from all participating countries.
Finally, a dialogue that leaves a lasting impression - the creation of WAI's Unitary Steering Committee whose mission is to discuss and determine a plan of action in order to implement this process in the countries of the continent, up to Dakar and beyond.
What's to come? World Zero Eviction Days in October and, in particular, the initiatives taken by LOCOA and other movements.
Thanksthe partnership with the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind, the Government of the Basque Country and Misereor.
Program
Workshop. Inhabitants, from the Asian Citizen Assembly 2010 to the World Assembly of Inhabitants 2011
First session
The Zero Eviction Campaign: how people can deal with housing right violations
The exchanges seek to strengthen the coordination of actions to resist eviction and of regional and global alternatives, following a shared agenda. From the analysis of the gap between the government responsibilities to promote housing rights and the reality of violations affecting the continent, to the proposals for a common international platform and solidarity between inhabitants movements.
Second session
Towards the World Assembly of Inhabitants 2011
Presentations and discussions bring together the region’s inhabitants organisations involved in building the WAI, to decide on the core of an international platform for the right to housing and to the city, identifying coordination strategies to develop this democratic process in the region.
Video interviews with urban social leaders
In cooperation with the CIEDS Collective and Bangalore Film Society
We plan to record video interviews with urban social leaders from across the region to build up the ‘inhabitants' memory’ as an essential contribution to setting up the World Assembly of Inhabitants. The video interviews are part of multimedia cards intended to act as an introduction to inhabitants organisations, facilitating the exchange of experiences and paving the way for a follow-up after the Dakar WAI.
Visits to the popular districts of Bangalore
In cooperation with LOCOA and local inhabitants’ organisations
We hope to make links between dialogue with the Asian People's Assembly and the process of building the WAI, on the one hand, and local experience, on the other, to promote the process of change.
We hope to meet a number of local residents and leaders to learn and exchange experiences.
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Hoysala Nagar, 3rd Main
Ramamurthy Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560016, India
080 25653170
Georeferences
The Volunteer translators for housing rights without frontiers of IAI who have collaborated on the translation of this text were: