The 50 Years Is Enough Network is embarking on a transitional process: Sameer Dossani will become the Network’s new Director as Njoki Njoroge Njehu prepares to leave after nearly nine years (the last seven as Director).

Immediately following the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank, members of our U.S. steering committee, the board, and our South Council will be meeting in Washington along with Sameer, Njoki and the other two staffers to take stock of the Network’s direction. We hope to have the support of all the Network’s friends around the world as Sameer takes on this new task.

Njoki will be heading back home to Kenya and starting a new organization, Solidarity Africa Network in Action. Soren Ambrose, her spouse and also a Network employee, will join her and help build the new organization. Solidarity Africa will be focusing both on advocacy strategies around the international financial institutions in Africa and on grassroots work with women’s organizations, food security projects, and environmentally sustainable development at a local level. Njoki will have more to say about her departure, and what she’ll be doing in Kenya, in the next issue of Economic Justice News.

For now we have the following message from Sameer Dossani, sent to us from Manila, the Philippines:

Greetings! I am honored to be taking over the role of Director, and I look forward to getting to know you and your ongoing struggles and campaigns over the next few weeks and months.

I have been aware of the work of the 50 Years Is Enough Network since its inception in 1993-4 and first participated in activities and demonstrations as a student activist in my university days. Since that time, I have remained committed to the struggle for social, environmental and economic justice for all, and against the imperialist and one-sided policies of the international financial institutions, including the IMF and World Bank.

Most recently, I have had the honor of serving as Executive Director of another network, namely the NGO Forum on the ADB, an Asian-led coalition of NGOs and grassroots people's movements combating the destructive policies, programs and projects of the Asian Development Bank. My work at the NGO Forum has been of great value to me, and I hope has given me the experience necessary to take on this role.

I do not claim to be able to fill the very large shoes of Njoki Njoroge Njehu, whose work I have been an admirer of for many years, and under whose leadership the Network has grown and incorporated more space for voices from the Global South to be heard. However, I am sure that as I become accustomed to the duties required of me, 50 Years will continue to play a leading role in opposing the devastating impacts of corporate-led globalization. I look forward to getting to know more about you, your struggles and campaigns and to the great challenges that lie ahead.