SynDev

As delegates prepare to land in Santa Marta, for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, here's what needs to be said plainly: the green energy transition, as currently designed, is reproducing the extractive logic it was meant to replace.
Lithium. Cobalt. Copper. Rare earths. The materials powering wind turbines and electric vehicles have to come from somewhere — and right now, they are coming from Indigenous and communal lands in the Global South, with little or no consultation, inadequate compensation, and no binding safeguards.
In South Africa's Namaqualand, 700,000 hectares of Indigenous communal land is being eyed for a green hydrogen megaproject, designed primarily to export energy to Northwest Europe, not to address South Africa's own energy crisis.
In Uganda, a rare earths mining licence covering 300 square kilometres was granted in a region where communities depend on the land for food, water and livelihoods, with women systematically excluded from consultation processes.
This is what our policy brief calls "green extractivism." It is not a just transition. It is extraction with a different label.
Delegations in Santa Marta must grapple with this contradiction and not simply celebrate the phase-out of fossil fuels, but demand that what replaces them is built on justice, not dispossession.
Read GAGGA and WoMin African Alliance's full policy brief: https://gaggaalliance.org/resource/policy-brief-from-fossil-fuels-to-gender-just-futures-land-care-and-livelihoods-as-foundations-of-a-just-transition/


SynDev

Nouvelle publication | Pourquoi les femmes transformatrices de Khelcom/Bargny attendent-elles toujours réparation après 10 ans de lutte ?

Découvrez l’analyse de notre Directrice du Plaidoyer, Fatoumata Kiné Niang Mbodji, publiée par le Accountability Research Center. Elle y décrypte le fossé entre les audits des banques de développement et la réalité du terrain à Sendou.

Un grand merci au Centre pour cette collaboration stratégique.
📖 À lire en français ici : https://bit.ly/4sSC69X

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲-𝐭𝐨-𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐩: 𝐀 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐰

Senegal’s Sendou coal-fired power plant casts a long shadow. Built on land earmarked to resettle households displaced by coastal erosion, and funded by the African Development Bank and Dutch bank FMO, it has since its construction been a source of massive pollution.

For neighbouring fish processors in Khelcom, the consequences were immediate: ash and fine particles spoil the fish drying on racks. Constant exposure to toxic fumes has exposed women to chronic respiratory and skin diseases, while destabilizing the coastal marine ecosystem on which the very availability of the fish they process depends.

Official complaints were made to AfDB and FMO in 2016. They officially acknowledged major non-compliance issues. Since 2019, the AfDB published an audit report, a corrective action plan, and progress reports. The women fish processors of Khelcom have participated in every inspection mission to bear witness to their reality.

But they have not received remedy.

And in 2025, FMO sold its loans to Kebe Capital, a private company which is not subject to any public accountability policies or independent recourse mechanisms.

Today’s new Accountability Keywords blog from Fatoumata kiné Niang Mbodji of SynDev, who has accompanied the Khelcom women, analyzes the Accountability-to-Remedy gap. She argues for two inseperable pillars of reform that are needed: Free, Prior, and Informed Consent to become a binding eligibility requirement, and that no state or private-sector enterprise should be able to apply for new MDB loans until serious disputes are resolved.

In English: https://bit.ly/42nbKCg
En français: https://bit.ly/4sSC69X

📌Dakar 21 avril 2026: Ouverture de l'atelier sur le processus des Études d'Impacts Environnementales et Sociales (EIES).
Les EIES constituent un outil essentiel d'aide à la décision qui nécessite une implication active des communautés concernées. Au programme de la journée :Présentation du processus administratif de l'évaluation environnementale par la Direction Régional de l'Environnement et des établissements classés. Analyse des étapes pré-décision et post-projet.

SynDev

2026 Spring Meetings: Public Livestreams and Replays
From policy to outcomes across water, jobs, energy, agriculture, health, and gender
The 2026 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group brought together global leaders to focus on one central challenge: creating jobs and driving growth through better policies.

Watch the full series of event replays exploring how policy reform, partnerships, and data‑driven tools can deliver real‑world impact across sectors: https://bit.ly/4dYxU54

SynDev

2026 Spring Meetings - Building prosperity through policy April 13-18, 2026 — Watch the Spring Meetings Public Events to hear from experts shaping the future of jobs, water, and food security.