Mali: Will the Bamako Meeting Tackle Africa's Sore Spots?

The African leg of the World Social Forum (WSF) kicks off next week in the Malian capital, Bamako, with a host of issues on the agenda: war and militarism, global trade and debt, to name just a few. The conference website where these topics are listed makes no direct mention of AIDS, however, or the need for good governance in African states - even though these are amongst the key development issues confronting the continent today.