As the 2026 IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings begin in Bangkok, Thailand, the Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative – MEDI joins movements and communities across the Global South to mark the Global Day of Action for Self-Determined and Sustainable Development.

MEDI calls attention to the realities behind global economic policies: the growing burden of debt, extractive development, shrinking policy space and environmental destruction that continue to affect communities across Africa.

From Ogoni and the Niger Delta, our experience shows that development cannot be measured by loans, economic growth figures or extraction alone. Communities must have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting their resources, livelihoods, environment and future.

We therefore call for greater economic sovereignty, debt justice, environmental accountability and development policies determined by the needs and aspirations of African people.

The IMF and World Bank must not be allowed to define Africa’s development choices without meaningful participation and accountability to the people most affected by those choices.

Today, we stand in solidarity with peoples’ movements across the world demanding a development pathway that puts people and planet before profit and debt.

Africa is not without resources. Africa needs justice, sovereignty and control over its future.

Our resources. Our future. Our choices.

LET AFRICA BREATHE.

In solidarity

Dr. Aduku Elizabeth

Programs Manager

Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative – MEDI