WCC at the World Social Forum 2026
The World Social Forum is a global civil-society gathering held since 2001 under the slogan “Another World is Possible,” as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum. The WCC’s programme on Ecumenical Advocacy for Land, Water, and Food is coordinating the mission. It will bring a faith-rooted voice on land, water, and food justice into the forum’s discussions.
The WCC has taken part in the World Social Forum since 2001 and currently sits on its International Council. At the last World Social Forum, held in Kathmandu in 2024, the WCC took part in events on climate justice, land and agriculture, and debt cancellation. Cotonou 2026 will be the World Social Forum’s first return to Africa since Tunis in 2015. Organisers expect several thousand participants across 15 thematic strands.
Christian communities form the second-largest faith constituency in West Africa after the Muslim community. Churches and Christian faith-based organizations across the sub-region work daily on food security, anti-corruption, gender-based violence, climate change, and the movement of weapons.
Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food, is coordinating the mission. Rev. Michael Tete, general secretary of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, the regional ecumenical body coordinating member churches across the sub-region, will lead the West Africa mission, with support from the WCC. Toyosi Olatayo, WCC research fellow and intern from Nigeria, is coordinating the mission’s overall logistics for the World Social Forum.
Bread for the World, Germany, is supporting efforts to mobilize more West African churches and faith-based organizations for the forum. The Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa will recruit participants for the mission. Interested churches and faith-based organizations register as institutions, not as individuals.
Beyond side events, the mission will include a faith pavilion with daily programming, bilateral meetings with civil society coalitions and donors, and a joint statement drafting workshop drawing on delegates’ input across the week.
Land grabbing, water privatization, food sovereignty, and agro-ecology sit at the centre of this mission’s agenda. Churches and faith-based organizations across West Africa are invited to take part, and to take what they learn home to their own congregations and networks.
Land and water justice: Land grabbing means large-scale land deals, often by outside investors, that displace communities without their consent. Water privatization shifts water pricing and access from public utilities to private companies. Advocacy networks say this undermines water as a shared public right.
Food sovereignty and agroecology: Food sovereignty is the right of communities to decide how their own food is grown. It differs from food security, which only asks whether people have enough to eat. Agroecology applies ecological principles and farmer knowledge to agriculture, favouring diversity and resilience over industrial monoculture.
