The blog ends, the struggle continues

50,000 people, 50,000 voices, 50,000 different perspectives. I tried to reflect some of these in the blog, along with what seemed to be positive about the event in terms of women’s participation – different groups finding a common language, uniting against external factors, developing shared agendas, strengthening their collective voice – both as women and as part of the wider social movement.

I actually found blogging every day a big responsibility. But the hardest part was daring to put into words what I had felt for the first time in several years of working in the continent: that there might, just might, be a different future for Africa.

Of course, no one person could ever pretend to give a full picture. There’s always the possibility of imposing one’s own view of reality on the south, as the WEF, G8 and the EU continue to do. So, many thanks to those who had time to contribute or comment on the blog. We had hoped to have more contributions from women in Africa but now the forum is over, they’re busy with the work of disseminating and moving plans forward in their own sphere of influence.

I’d like to thank openDemocracy for the opportunity to blog the WSF from a women’s perspective, I learned a lot from the experience. Now rejoining the real world, I’m going back to Burkina Faso to work with decentralised government officials on gender equality in community planning and strategies to address HIV/AIDS.

If anyone would like to contact me, you can always do so at P (dot) Daniel (at) wlv (dot) ac (dot) uk or check out my personal blog because, given time, I’ll have a lot more to say.