Informal Africa Consumer Protection Dialogue

CUTS-ARC, Nairobi is founder member and regular participant in the informal Africa Dialogue on Consumer Protection. This is an initiative by the US Federal Trade Commission under the council for international consumer protection-office of international affairs.

The first Informal Africa Dialogue Conference was held on August 17-19, 2009 in Johannesburg South Africa during which CUTS-ARC, Nairobi presented an the overview of consumer protection regime and competition law in Kenya and guided the discussion on strengthening consumer movements in Africa. Among the initial priorities for the Africa Consumer Protection Dialogue include: (a) Development of Africa Dialogue Newsletter-the edition of the first newsletter is at the final stage and contribution towards the second newsletter is underway. (b) Legal Framework Toolkit for Africa (c) African “Rapid Alert” Fraud System (d) Videoconferences for African Dialogue (e) Information Sharing and Policy initiatives (f) Proposed Joint Letter to the African Union (g) Consumer Education Initiative for African countries (i) Child Online Safety Bi-monthly Reports -Creating bi-monthly reports in the development of Child online safety and wellness campaigns for children’s advertising and developing an African Internet Governance Forum information group (j) Outreach programs to Francophone and Arab Countries- developing outreach programs to Francophone countries and French translation of certain African Dialogue materials and future website.

Daniel Asher of CUTS Nairobi participates in the teleconferences on every last Thursday each month. The next general conference is scheduled for 28th- 2nd June 2010 in Arusha Tanzania.

Newsletter:

Consumer Education Initiatives: