WCC news: What 25 West Africans took home from the World Social Forum

Michael Tettey went to Cotonou to talk about land. Victoria Ebunoluwa Olatunde went to talk about water. Souleymane Guindo travelled from Mali to argue that water is a common good rather than a commodity. All 25 of them, one of the largest missions brought to the World Social Forum by the World Council of Churches (WCC), set out knowing the government of Benin had told organizers it would not host it. WCC encountered many faith actors at the World Social Forum 2026. Photo: World Council of Churches 20 August 2026 They came from across West Africa, with one participant travelling from India. Among them were general secretaries and programme officers, young theologians, but also farmers, food processors, a dietitian, a lawyer, and youth organizers. For several it was a first journey outside their own country. The WCC convened the mission with the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, and Bread for the World, Germany supported participants’ attendance. The forum had been scheduled for 4-8 August. On 21 July, Benin’s interior minister wrote to the organizers that the government was unavailable “to host such an event on Beninese soil, owing to certain last-minute contingencies.” The government gave its approval on 5 August, and the World Social Forum ran from 6-8 August at the University of Abomey-Calavi. “The WCC is confronting a critical challenge of our time—ensuring meaningful citizen engagement in public affairs. Delivering this level of participation with severely constrained resources represents a significant contribution to society. It is incumbent upon the churches to safeguard an open civic space,” stated Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, WCC programme director for Life, Justice, and Peace. For Tettey, acting general secretary of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, the land justice panel overturned something he had assumed for years. “I was aware that the church as an entity holds vast amount of land in its portfolio of assets, but never imagined that the church is second to governments in terms of global land ownership,” he said. He left intending to press member churches to help their communities secure access to land. Faith meets the World Social Forum: Oladapo Favour Ibukunoluwa Jacob Israel Eze, a legal researcher with Palmira FarmTrade in Nigeria, found his professional instincts unsettled. Land, he wrote afterwards, “looks orderly in law: it can be registered, transferred, acquired, and regulated.” Communities do not experience it that way. “A right may exist perfectly on paper and still mean very little to someone who lacks the power or resources to exercise it,” he wrote. Olatunde, of the Ecumenical Water Network Africa, sat on a panel on water advocacy for women and children. She left wanting to keep “uplifting the voices of women and rural communities when it comes to water policy, advocacy and decision making processes.”  Guindo plans to take the forum back to the schoolchildren of his “radio chico” (radio school network) in Mali. Salome Kadi Tetteh of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, Ghana came home with a list: protecting land from illegal mining, keeping water bodies clean, harvesting rainwater, and planting home and community gardens. Rev. Godson Samuel, the only participant from India and a lifelong Palmyra Palm activist said, “I look forward to working with African communities to improve the church’s  educational and ecological contribution for the betterment of the life and livelihood of the communities associated with the Palmyra Palm (Borassus aethiopum).” Faith meets the World Social Forum: Cesar Kuzma Behind the mission was Toyosi Olatayo, a WCC research intern who had known most of the 25 only as names in emails and WhatsApp threads. In Cotonou she met them, moderated sessions, and sat on a panel herself. It was also her first time outside Nigeria. She left, she wrote, “knowing more people, understanding some issues differently, and seeing more possibilities for collaboration.” The work continues after Cotonou, with the same partners. “The investment we made in Cotonou was in people, and it has already returned in the commitments they have taken home. WCC will be alongside them as they act on those commitments, and through every activity we plan under the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action,” said Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food. WCC mission returns from World Social Forum pledging faith into action New WCC monitor tracks food security, water justice, and land use across African regions, the Living Planet Monitor covering the same subject matter UN General Assembly Resolution 64/292, the 2010 recognition of water and sanitation as human rights Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland