tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22360532431452914562024-03-08T15:22:14.157+01:00Africa-Europe Relations #Post2015A Blog on Africa - Europe Relations ---- #AfricaEU2015 #EYD2015 #Post2015Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17919103273301098942noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-29563508323050333842015-02-19T21:53:00.002+01:002015-02-19T21:53:37.819+01:00EU Fisheries Partnerships with Senegal: Lessons Learned for PCD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /><b><i>The effects of the EU’s fisheries policies on the livelihoods of West Africans is a stark and urgent example of where ‘Policy Coherence for Development’ can be a matter of life and death. </i></b><div>
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<b><i>by</i> </b><b>Kukka Ranta</b><b><i><br /></i></b><br />Senegal was the first sub-Saharan African nation to sign a fisheries agreement with <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:21982A0121%2802%29">European Community back in 1979</a>. The agreement was not renewed in 2006 after the local fish stocks collapsed - a result of massive overfishing by European and other foreign vessels in the region.<br /><br />After an eight-year pause, the EU and Senegal have recently signed a new five-year <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/mare/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=19285&subweb=343&lang=en">Fisheries Partnership Agreement starting in 2015</a>. According to the agreement, up to 38 EU boats catching mainly tuna enter Senegalese waters in return for a EUR 8,69 million EU payment. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/Press-Centre-Hub/Press-releases/Greenpeace-supports-Senegals-artisanal-fishermen-decision-to-say-No-to-the-renewal-of-EUSenegal-fishing-agreements/">Local fishermen</a> were not included in the negotiations and they have strongly opposed the agreement.along with <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/Press-Centre-Hub/Press-releases/Greenpeace-calls-on-the-government-of-Senegal-to-reconsider-the-terms-of-the-new-fisheries-agreement-with-the-European-Union/">Greenpeace</a>. By looking back to the recent history can one find a better understanding why?<br /><br /><b>The Reality for Senegalese Fishermen</b><br /><br />According to Senegalese fishermen I interviewed during the winter of 2011-2012, in the 1990s there was enough fish for everyone. You could get a decent catch within a few hours just five to ten kilometers offshore. <br /><br />By 2000, the fishermen began noticing the alarming disappearance of local fish population. Now fishermen in Senegal must travel at least forty kilometers out to sea, which means more fuel costs but usually less incomes with dramatically declined catches. <br /><br />By 2005 the incomes of local fishermen crashed and centuries-old fishing beaches began to fill with deserted boats. Every day local fishermen watched European and Asian trawlers ploughing the coastline. Handmade wooden boats can’t compete with these subsidised industrial vessels. <br /><br />Added to this, local fishermen have often been forced to turn back their boats because of vast rafts of bycatch by foreign vessels. Tons of unwanted or juvenile fish, dolphins, sharks and turtles, are often dumped back in the sea already dead. Bycatch in West Africa is estimated to be at its worst 75 percent from the total catch.<br /><br />Fishing now employs some 600,000 or nearly one million Senegalese when you take into account all the entire production chain. In comparison, the <a href="http://epthinktank.eu/2014/03/29/overfishing-and-employment-in-fisheries/">European fisheries sector generates about 139,000</a> full-time jobs, mainly in Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and France.<br /><br />Many Senegalese fish processing factories have recently had to close down because of insufficient catch. Clients from the EU and Asian markets are disappearing, and when local factories close down, everyone in the local fisheries sector loses.<br /><br />The annual consumption of fish continues to increase in most continents, especially in the largest fish markets like the EU and China. But in sub-Saharan Africa consumption is declining. This may have a knock on effect on nutrition security in a region with a fast growing population, as it is represents a vital source of animal protein. <br /><br />Senegalese fisher families now have to survive on one or two meals a day, depending on what the sea provides. If there is no fish, many are forced to eat only sugared rice. Fewer families can afford to educate their children or cover medical expenses. For many, poverty has become a self-perpetuating cycle.<br /><br /><b>Developments in EU Policy</b><br /><br />While the EU was renewing its Common Fisheries Policy in 2002, the World Wildlife Fund reported a <a href="file://localhost/UN%202009/%20UN%20Africa%20Renewal%20Magazine%2007:2009.%20http/::www.un.org:africarenewal:magazine:july-2009:safeguarding-africa%25E2%2580%2599s-fishing-waters">50% decline of deep-sea fish stocks in West Africa</a>. But, from the European side there was not enough political will to change the course to reflect on the impact of their policies in West Africa. <br /><br />Now many overfished species like shrimps, cephalopods and small pelagic species like sardine, sardinella and horse mackerel are being left out from the EU-Senegal Fisheries Partnership agreement, as an improvement in sustainability.<br /><br />But the problem is the use of the <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/peg/publications/report/PEGOSDFADsEnglishFinalpdf.pdf">Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs)</a> in EU tuna seiners that cause high amount of bycatch. Also there are two bottom trawlers targeting demersal hake, regardless the <a href="http://www.aprapam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Document-introductif-du-conseil-intrminist%C3%A9riel-sur-la-p%C3%AAche_version-final.pdf">CRODT – Oceanographic Research Center</a> recommend to limit fishing that overfished stock in the inter-ministerial council.<br /><br />According to the European Union’s new common fisheries policy (CPF) agreed in 2013, one core principle is a ban on discarding fish at sea, which will be set in EU waters starting gradually from 2015. But the discard ban is only applicable in EU waters, not in the territorial waters of Africa.<br /><br /><b>Where Coherence in Fisheries Policies Matters for Development, and Life</b><br /><br />When the fish stocks collapsed in 2005, around 5,000 West Africans fled poverty in wooden boats to the Canary Islands, with a hope of better future in Europe. That number rose to over 31,000 in a year, some 6,000 people drowned in the Atlantic Ocean. <br /><br />Most of these migrants were from Senegal and Mauritania, the EU ’s two biggest fisheries agreement partners. When there is a total collapse of fish stocks, it causes an eco catastrophe and destroys food security and livelihoods for millions of the world’s poorest people. Do we ever learn that bad politics and the endless contest for markets is no good for our collective interest and the common good?<br /><br /><b><a href="http://kukkaranta.com/">Kukka Ranta</a> is a PhD Candidate and Researcher at the University of Helsinki, Investigative Journalist, Nonfiction Author and Photojournalist from Finland.<br /><br />The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of ECDPM<br /><br />Photo Courtesy of Kukka Ranta</b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-56896476547557773692014-11-28T09:54:00.002+01:002014-11-28T10:05:04.646+01:00Is the EU-Africa Free Trade Agreement Inimical to Africa’s Economy?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666;">By Emmanuel Iruobe</span></div>
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In recent times, there has been some ‘back and forth’ argument over the legality and long term usefulness of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and several African states, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).<br />
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The EPA encourages African countries to open up to 83 percent of their markets to European imports while tariffs and fees are planned to be gradually eliminated. In exchange for this, African states are to receive customs-free access to the European market. While there may be some economic sense here, a number of African countries are not in support of the arrangement, the major concern being that they may lose their competitive trade advantage to European companies.<br />
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Kenya was among the countries that refused to sign the deal, and it got significant import tariffs imposed on many of its products for that reason; this reportedly led to numerous layoffs in several African firms. Eventually the East African country caved in to the pressure two weeks ago and signed the trade agreement. This, in the opinion of a growing number of people, might just be called “economic bullying.”<br />
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Notable EU officials have criticized this arrangement. One of such is German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Africa Commissioner, Günter Nooke, who claims the EPA counteracts Europe’s development policy efforts. “Economic negotiations should not destroy what has been built up on the other side in the Development Ministry. Germany and Europe contribute large sums of tax money toward various development programmes in Africa, but the economic agreement with African states cancels out these efforts,” he said.<br />
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Andrew Mold, UN Economic Analyst for East Africa, believes the African economy will eventually be threatened by the agreement.<br />
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“The African countries cannot compete with an economy like Germany’s. As a result, free trade and EU imports endanger existing industries, and future industries do not even materialize because they are exposed to competition from the EU,” he commented.<br />
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On the other side of the divide, there are supporters of the deal. One of such is Michael Gahler, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), who believes the deal offers African countries the chance to strengthen their own markets while also creating flexible mechanisms, as African governments are not compelled to implement precise requirements until after two decades.<br />
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“Kenya should use this time to do its homework by building up its infrastructure, strengthening the rule of law and fighting corruption. We Europeans have experienced, first-hand, how much prosperity is brought on by the free movement of goods. We want to help African regions take similar steps,” he concluded.<br />
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Understanding that the World Trade Organization (WTO) had declared this kind of “one-sided market opening” unlawful in 2000, another MEP, Sha Keller declared “We are pointing a gun at their chest!”<br />
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“Developing countries have a gun pointed at their chest – either they sign or their market access to the EU is restricted, the EPA is the opposite of development cooperation,” Keller added.<br />
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Can African governments continue to hold up under such economic pressure from Europe? What will be the final outcome of this deal if successfully implemented? These are the sort of questions expected to be on the minds of many Africans as the drama unfolds.<br />
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<b>Emmanuel Iruobe (<a href="https://twitter.com/EmmanuelIruobe">@EmmanuelIruobe</a>) is Freelance Writer at Ventures Publishing International</b><br />
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<b>This post first appeared on <a href="http://www.ventures-africa.com/2014/11/is-the-eu-africa-free-trade-agreement-inimical-to-africas-economy/">Ventures Africa</a> </b></div>
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<b>The views represented here are those of the author and not necessarily those of ECDPM</b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-75155222830968510382014-11-28T09:48:00.001+01:002014-11-28T10:04:25.680+01:00What’s the biggest challenge for Africa in 2015?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i>By Maria Ramos</i></span><br />
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Tellingly, this year’s <a href="http://wef.ch/outlook15">Survey on the Global Agenda 2015</a> revealed education and skills development as the biggest challenge facing Africa in 2015, followed by building sustainable governance systems and the delivery of hard infrastructure. Almost every stakeholder group ranked education as the most important issue; respondents also suggested that business is the stakeholder that will be most affected by Africa’s educational challenges.</div>
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While UNESCO predicts that Africa will soon be home to 50% of the world’s illiterate population, Maria Ramos, Chief Executive of Barclays Africa Group, points to the focus of governments and businesses on creating real improvements through training programmes and scholarships.<br />
“We must make sure that governments remain focused on funding and investing in education and skills improvement, and that they encourage partnerships with donors, business and local communities,” she says.</div>
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But given Africa’s rapid increase in mobile phone users – 40-fold since 2000 – it is clear that technology will play a fundamental role. Ramos points to Ghana’s Open Learning Exchange which looks at innovative teaching and learning models, as well as South African experiments with digitizing the curricula and making it available on tablets.</div>
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“Apart from the fact that you take away a lot of logistics costs associated with it, mobile technology makes education accessible to young learners in remote parts of the country. It also addresses concerns about the quality of educators because you can upskill teachers quickly and provide them with ongoing support through a range of online platforms.</div>
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Education isn’t the only area where African leaders must engage with their people.<br />
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Ramos highlights the significant improvements in “governance, fiscal management, macroeconomic management and greater accountability” made in countries like Rwanda. She says accountability remains the biggest obstacle to developing appropriate governance. “When you limit democracy and you have a lack of accountability to citizens, you undermine the basic principles that facilitate economic development and ensure broad political stability.”<br />
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While investment in human capital is critical, the need to address the infrastructure deficit is equally important.<br />
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Africa is facing infrastructural challenges – not least with regards to the provision of energy – that have an impact on economic development. Countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Ethiopia have made significant progress in both the renewable and non-renewable energy sectors, but growth and development can only be sustainable with additional targeted investments. And yet the results of this year’s <a href="http://wef.ch/outlook15">Survey</a> show pessimism around this issue. Almost 40% of respondents doubted that Africa’s infrastructural problems would be dealt with in a meaningful way in the near to mid-term future.<br />
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More optimistic observers point to the fact that the build-up of infrastructure is supported through foreign direct investments and trade with other emerging economies – such as the record $200 billion China-Africa trade flows – and agencies such as the African Development Bank and the World Bank. But for Ramos, a significant development is that regional and local investors are starting to chip in. This also helps to shift from traditional investments based on the extraction of natural resources to more “strategic investments focused on a broader set of development opportunities and long term sustainability”.<br />
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<b><a href="http://wef.ch/outlook15">The Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015 report</a> is now live.<br /><br />This article was written for the World Economic Forum’s <a href="http://wef.ch/outlook15">Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015 report</a>, based on an interview with Maria Ramos.<br /><br />Author: Maria Ramos is Chief Executive of Barclays Africa Group.<br /><br />Image: Students share a desk during a mathematics class at the Every Nation Academy private school in the city of Makeni in Sierra Leone, April 20, 2012. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly </b></div>
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<b>This Post first appeared on the <a href="http://forumblog.org/">World Economic Forum Blog</a></b><br />
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<b>The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of ECDPM</b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-2051728034531413892014-11-28T09:41:00.000+01:002014-11-28T15:19:01.685+01:00What are Africa Diaspora doing about Ebola?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666;"><b>by Sadia Sisay</b></span><br />
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I have been asked this question by both Sierra Leonean and Liberian Diaspora as I am from both of these countries. I also note that the comment pages following Ebola articles are rife with the question – What are ‘they’ doing for themselves?<br />
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I will get to what the Diaspora are doing later. The helping ourselves question is a tough one. There is no one I know who would like us as Africans to be in a position where we appear to be so helpless, where our health systems are breaking down, our economies collapsing and our children not being educated due to schools being closed.<br />
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Unfortunately, Ebola is a worldwide problem. Yes, we need help caring for our sick but more importantly; western intervention will help stop the spread around the world. So Ebola is not just Africa’s problem, it is the world’s problem.<br />
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No matter how much we complain about bad governance in Africa , the fact that western governments were slow to act and what could have been, the situation is what it is today. Every hour 5 more people contract <a href="http://www.africaontheblog.com/ebola-sierra-leone/">Ebola in Sierra Leone</a>. The talk of what could have been takes time. We will hopefully take that learning forward but for now we need the help of other countries to stop this nightmare that is Ebola.<br />
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This leads me to the Diaspora. I cannot talk much for the Liberian Diaspora. I have limited knowledge of what efforts are in place. I can say there are Sierra Leoneans who are incredibly committed and passionate to do their bit for the Ebola crisis. Now I am not saying everyone is doing what is the ‘right’ thing in times like these but if governments and international organisations could not get it right immediately then individuals need to be cut some slack.<br />
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There are two sides at play here, many in the Diaspora do not trust what is being done by other Sierra Leoneans. Fighting the Ebola fight can sometimes be met with criticism from our own communities and you are deemed to be jumping on the Ebola bandwagon. This I find strange. Do we say that Bono, Bill Gates or any influential person that has had a cause jumped on a bandwagon? Or is that term only for individuals with a passion to help but do not possess the world stage?<br />
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Well, I ask for that bandwagon to slow down and I will jump on it. If giving my time to be part of groups full of of dedicated, passionate individuals from the Diaspora, who give time and effort to Ebola, then I know I would rather be on their side than on the side of apathy. I may not know of all the efforts being made by Sierra Leoneans, particularly in the US but the Diaspora in the UK has not been lethargic to Ebola and there are so many examples of how people have mobilised efforts.<br />
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For a start, more treatment centres are being built, more beds are available for sick patients but without health care professionals they are useless. The NHS has agreed to cover full pay and benefits for all NHS workers that take the time to work in Sierra Leone. A team from the Sierra Leonean Diaspora driven by the charity SLWT has tirelessly worked the recruitment drive on.<br />
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UK-MED with the help of this team are recruiting for healthcare workers to join the Ebola teams in Sierra Leone. If anyone reading this is a healthcare professional and wants to give a minimum of 4 weeks to go and help, please go to <a href="http://www.uk-med.org/">http://www.uk-med.org</a>.<br />
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Another example is that a few weeks ago the Sierra Leonean government declared a three day lockdown to ensure that cases of Ebola were found and for citizens to be better educated. No one could go out without a pass. You can imagine what that would be like in the UK even with our fridges and larders.<br />
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There are a lot of communities that live on the hustle of daily life. They get food depending on what they do on that day, so a lockdown was going to cause hunger in these communities.<br />
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One Sierra Leonean in the Diaspora, Memuna, was not going to let people go hungry. She came up with an idea to provide meals to some of these communities. In less than two weeks she had organised with local charities on the ground, set up a team to cook and deliver food and managed to distribute 2600 meals safely. No mean feat. She worked day and night to get this done. I know because once she told me her idea I joined her cause. (or bandwagon as some might say).<br />
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The success of this has led to the birth of Lunchboxgift. We have formed this charity to provide lunchbox meals in time of crisis. Though borne out of the Ebola crisis we aim to grow this into an organisation that can provide lunchboxes anywhere they are needed.<br />
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In Sierra Leone the usual practice is for families to bring in food to the sick in hospitals. As you can imagine, that cannot happen in the treatment centres for Ebola. Our next project is one that will feed lunch every day to Ebola patients and local staff in the treatment centres in the Western area of Sierra Leone.<br />
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As this requires many hands on board, we have teamed up the diaspora led charity <a href="http://www.lethemhelpthemselves.org/">Let Them Help Themselves Out of Poverty</a> who mostly work in Uganda, a country that understands the fight against Ebola. This will enable us to pool resources and skills within the broader diaspora network<br />
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If anyone wants to support us getting our lunchboxes to people that need food, a basic requirement to survive, then please go to <a href="http://www.mycharitypage.com/LunchBox">http://www.mycharitypage.com/LunchBox</a> and find out more.<br />
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I could continue with more examples but it will be too long a blog. What is clear is Ebola needs the world to fight it. From large-scale operations only governments can provide to single individuals who can make a difference. </div>
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<b>Sadia Sisay (@2bu_ on) lives in London and is originally from Sierra Leone. She works in the pharmaceutical industry after training to be a cancer nurse. She regularly blogs for Africa On The Blog. </b><br />
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<b>This post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.africaontheblog.com/african-diaspora-ebola/">Africa On the Blog</a></b><br />
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<b>The Views Expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily those of ECDPM</b><br />
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<b>Photos courtesy of Lunchboxgift.com</b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-56763952655590704512014-11-05T16:39:00.000+01:002014-11-06T15:36:53.285+01:00AU 2063: Let’s start with good governance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="color: #444444;">By Mmusi Maimane</b></div>
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Good governance is not just about laws that ensure political stability, it’s a vehicle for changing lives at both a social and economic level. But good governance can only happen when it’s driven by good leadership. Leadership which respects mechanisms which ensure accountability.<br />
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Recent events on the continent have shown us the role of strong institutions and Constitutions or what can happen when these are ignored. The political instability in the Kingdom of Lesotho showed us what can happen in the absence of Parliament and its functions. The swift and peaceful transition between Zambia’s President Michael Sata’s death to the swearing in of President Guy Scott showed what a strong Constitution can achieve. The protests in Burkina Faso show that manipulating and disregarding the Constitution can bring a country to its knees.<br />
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What we cannot deny is that where strong governance prevails, good follows.<br />
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Good governance is not just about laws that ensure political stability, it’s a vehicle for changing lives at both a social and economic level.<br />
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Good governance is a conduit for building and maintaining infrastructure that allows for economic growth; it allows for health infrastructure that ensures healthy societies; and it ensures that those elected by voters are held accountable. Above all, good governance ensures that we achieve the targets described in the African Union’s (AU’s) Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.<br />
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But good governance can only happen when it’s driven by good leadership. Leadership which respects mechanisms which ensure accountability.</div>
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The continent has produced great men such as Nelson Mandela, but it has also produced corrupt leaders who refuse to be held accountable. Post liberation, they enter into politics of the stomach. Self-preservation, rather than building nations that are they are custodians of, becomes the norm.<br />
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They live in R246 million houses while their nations face poverty and rising unemployment.<br />
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Critical to this is that leaders must be accountable to strong parliaments. Lesotho is an example of what happens when parliament is suspended, and democracy is suppressed.<br />
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Can we honestly say – hand on heart – that Parliament is working?<br />
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What example do we set when Parliament fails in its duty to hold the Executive to account?<br />
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What kind of message do we send out when our President fails to stick to the rules of the House and refuses to answer oral questions?<br />
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President Zuma must follow in the examples of great leaders such as Nelson Mandela who understood that in the fight for democracy, the rules enshrined in the Constitution, must be followed.<br />
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Last week, during a Joint Sitting of Parliament, a debate was called regarding a policy document of the African Union - African Union’s (AU’s) Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.<br />
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And yet we cannot even hold a debate with our own president on what is happening right here in our own country.<br />
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We owe it to ourselves, the continent and its people to ensure that that good leaders are elected. Leaders who place the needs of the nations and people before their own. We need to do away with the leaders with the “It’s our turn to eat” mentality, and elect leaders who would rather feed their nations.<br />
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We have a duty to prove the Afro-pessimists wrong, by doing what is right: building independent judiciaries, accountable executives and strong legislatures, which are guided by the Constitution.<br />
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Africa, in my view, is the next economic frontier that will unlock economic opportunities on the continent and the rest of the globe. But, again, we need good governance and good leaders. Leaders who choose trade over aid; leaders who find value on intra-Africa trade; leaders who put trade regulations in place the benefit both the import and export of goods and services.<br />
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Africa has plenty of work to do. But the good fight is never easy, and requires a united and coordinated approach in order to work.<br />
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<b>Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) is a South African politician and current Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of South Africa. </b><br />
<b><br />The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of ECDPM. </b><br />
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<b>Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/governmentza/">Government of South Africa</a>. </b><br />
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<b>This article first appeared in <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2014-11-05-au-2063-lets-start-with-good-governance/#.VFuHEIusXwE">Daily Maverick</a>.</b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-56650921388213602192014-11-05T12:27:00.003+01:002014-11-05T12:29:38.969+01:00Dr Dlamini-Zuma and the AU’s Agenda 2063<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666;">By Chris Landsberg</span><br />
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Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s assumption to the position of Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), was greeted with much controversy. There were widely-held assumptions that South Africa’s bid for this position was driven by ulterior motives, not in the least that it wished to build its international prestige so as to justify its status as an African “Lead” nation, and the more serious charge that it wished to use the Commission as an instrument for Pretoria’s foreign policy ambitions.<br />
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In one attempt to deflect attention away from the notion that South Africa was treating the AUC like an extension of her country’s foreign policy, and give credence to the idea that she was a visionary, functional leader, Dr Dlamini-Zuma soon embarked on the expansive exercise of coming up with a new vision for the continent, African Union Vision 2063. This aimed at cementing her reputation as a competent and effective visionary leader, and an organisation's person. She also wanted to bolster her reputation as a Pan-African in her own right after the bruising battle for the position against former Chair, Jean Ping, which left the continent a divided place.<br />
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Through the exercise of crafting a grand “fifty-year” vision, Dlamini-Zuma set out to “revive” Pan-Africanism and promote continental integration. She latched on to the idea of Africa “claiming the 21st Century as the African Century”, and that under her leadership, “Africa will promote peace, security, governance and economic development”. But there is little new and novel about these ideas. Since the end of the Cold War, and even before the formation of the AU, African leaders have placed hese goals at the apex of their agendas. Agenda 2063 also advanced the developmental ideas of economic growth, access to education, public health, and consolidation of democratic governance, peace, stability and human development. But these too were not novel ideas, with all Dr. Dlamini-Zuma’s predecessors advancing these ideas. In line with the new developmentalism, Agenda 2063 placed great emphasis on the state playing a prominent role in development through initiatives such as public investment and infrastructure development. <br />
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The Dlamini-Zuma inspired Agenda 2063 recognised firstly that there is a need for norm implementation and professionalization of the AU. Indeed, since its inception, the AU has suffered from a deep seated implementation crisis as it shown itself to be good at policy making and norms interpretation, but fundamentally weak when it came to operationalisation of policy and ideas. The idea of professionalisation of the AU staff and diplomatic corps is one that needs to be stressed here. There has often been the idea that many of the continent’s leaders send “dead-wood” diplomats to Addis Ababa, and not taking seriously the need for highly skilled and competent civil servants to serve the continental interests. Indeed, when Dr. Dlamini-Zuma speaks of “professionalisation” of the AU, we must assume that she has in mind overhauling the human resources and capability-enhancing dimensions of the Commission. The Commission remains a weak and moribund institution that can do with greater degrees of efficiency and effectiveness.<br />
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But Agenda 2063 is a highly-ambitious, even unrealistic vision statement. The very idea of a 50-year vision statement is somewhat far-fetched. There is of course no gainsaying that the idea is important for Africa to end all wars. But the statement that Africa should end all wars by 2020”, without backing such a statement up with the necessary policy and institutional rigour is almost meaningless. Even the promise by Agenda 2063 to speed up the idea of the Continental Free-Trade Agreement is one that has enjoyed the attention of many policy-makers before the arrival of this new vision statement.<br />
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What is needed is for the new AU Commission Chair to show just how much political muscle she has and to try and extract commitment from political leaders to pool sovereignty so as to move the continent to deeper levels of integration. On this score, Dlamini-Zuma’s greater achievement to date has probably been to unlock a series of igh-level talks between the AU Commission and regional economic communities (RECs) such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and others. For years, talks between the AU and these entities were almost like a “dialogue of the deaf”, with little progress being made on the devolution of power and delegation of authority. Many RECs have undermined the AU Commission and other organs as they believed that, given that they were much older than these bodies, they have an inherent right of existence. These breakthroughs notwithstanding, Dr. Dlamini-Zuma and her team has their work cut out to sustain this dialogue and to ensure that it results in the foundations of an African union of States, with greater decision-making powers and authority being devolved to the RECs, in exchange for RECs respecting the authority of the AU Commission more.<br />
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In short, the challenge faced by the AU Commission Chair and her team is how to turn an ambitious vision statement that is long on promise and short on delivery into one that is able to translate promise into delivery. For one, we should not work on the assumption that all states are buying into the idea of the vision. Many would pledge their commitment to the vision verbally but fail to back it up in practice. Just as she has to try and ensure buy-in into the new vision, so Dlamini-Zuma also has to work on closing the gap between promise and delivery in Africa. Vision 2063 is correct in reminding us about the need to close the policy-implementation, and the continental divide, and to ensure that continental visions are operationalised. So just as there is a need to get Africans to speak with one voice continentally and abroad, so there is a need to get states to live by continental commitments and provisions. We are desperately in need of the idea of ‘continental sovereignty’ in Africa. Given that Dlamini-Zuma was victorious in defeating Jean Ping, it would be prudent for her to take the lead in the project of building continental sovereignty.<br />
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<b>Chris Landsberg is professor and SARChI Chair of African diplomacy and foreign policy at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), and Senior Associate at the UJ School of Leadership</b></div>
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<b>The views expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily those of ECDPM</b></div>
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<b>Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unamid-photo/">UNAMID</a></b><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-72610050224472275322014-10-20T14:27:00.002+02:002014-10-24T12:21:03.455+02:00Cutting Africa’s Governance Cake: Insights From Two Key Assessment Tools<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>By Steven Gruzd</b><br />
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Does being an active member of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) help a country improve its rankings in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG)?<br />
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The just-released 2014 IIAG indicates a slow but steady governance improvement for the majority of the continent. The IIAG measures governance progress or lack thereof across four areas: Safety and Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity, and Human Development. Thus the IIAG’s view of governance is holistic, looking not only at democratic aspects, but also socio-economic factors. This approach is shared by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), the continent’s premier tool for improving governance across four thematic areas: Democracy and Political Governance, Economic Governance and Management, Corporate Governance and Socio-Economic Development. The voluntary APRM, established in 2003, now sports 34 member states, 17 of which have already undergone their first reviews. So what insights does the latest IIAG provide into how effective the APRM has been in improving governance in its member states?</div>
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The table below shows the IIAG score in the year that these 17 APRM states completed and published their reviews, and indicates whether their IIAG governance score has improved or regressed since:</div>
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The data shows mixed results. For a small majority of countries (10 out of 17 or 58%), there is some progress. Out of these, Rwanda is most improved (+8.4). Given the criticism of Paul Kagame’s increasingly autocratic rule, it is of little surprise that Rwanda’s progress was achieved mostly due to improved Human Development. The second highest achiever, Ghana with an improvement of<br />
+4.1, shows a more balanced progress across the different areas, even though it has actually regressed on Security and the Rule of Law since its review in 2005. The third top country on the list is Lesotho, which improved its score by +3.9 in a relatively short period (four years). However, according to research previously conducted by the South African Institute of International Affairs and the Centre for Policy Studies the APRM would not be able to take any significant credit for this, given the extremely low profile of the mechanism in the country. Furthermore, given the attempted coup in September 2014, the country’s score may decrease significantly in next year’s index.<br />
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At the other end of the spectrum, Mali has shown the most regression in the five years since its review, with its IIAG score declining by -6.3. Although the country’s governance was given a good assessment by the APRM, the 2012 coup and the resulting instability are to blame for the decline. Safety and the Rule of Law is the biggest area of concern, falling from 62.8 (2008 – year of the APRM review) to 48.6 this year. Benin’s worsening governance score, while not as drastic, is still notable at -3.1 in the past six years. Although Human Development is on the rise, once again Safety and the Rule of Law is the culprit for the country’s overall score falling from 67.9 to 55.6 in the past six years. Mozambique and Tanzania are joint third amongst APRM member states whose governance has regressed since their reviews. However, while it took five years for Mozambique’s overall score to decrease by -0.9, Tanzania’s score worsened in just one. Safety and the Rule of Law was the area which both countries scored lower in, although Mozambique also registered a decline in Sustainable Economic Opportunity, while Tanzania saw a rapid drop in Participation and Human Rights.</div>
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Consolidation or reversal of governance for the other 11 APRM members, as measured by the IIAG, varied between -0.1 and +2.1 since the time of their reviews. This indicates relative stability and incremental improvements for most. Yet, unfortunately there is not an obvious and direct positive correlation betweenhe IIAG scores and the countries that have undergone APRM review. Nonetheless, there is value in posing the counterfactual ‘What if?’ question. What might the outcome have been if these countries had not started the intensive and inclusive societal dialogues on governance that the APRM review demands of countries that sign up to the process?</div>
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Even so, theoretical speculation is not sufficient. Given the fact that the mechanism has entered its 11th year, it needs to do more to justify its existence and show the value add to sceptics, members and non-members alike. Generally, the reviews themselves have been very thorough and successful in pinpointing governance challenges. However, systematic eradication of these challenges through implementing a National Programme of Action has been lacking in most APRM member states. </div>
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At least three things have to happen to enable the APRM to finally start living up to its potential. First, the continental leadership of the APRM should be empowered to convince their peers to prioritise NPoA implementation. This implies using the full range of peer pressure mechanisms and tools, such as monitoring and evaluation, regular and robust reports to the APRM Panel and</div>
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Heads of State, discussion of the findings in the public domain, peer exchanges on best practice and the like. </div>
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Second, the mechanism’s Secretariat should be providing increased support to individual states to live up to their commitments, for example providing sound advice on how best to integrate NPoAs into national planning priorities, mobilise resources and setting up monitoring mechanisms.</div>
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Lastly, for the APRM to enable a transformative shift on governance concerns and challenges in the region, there is a great need to support societal dialogue and participation at the country-level. It is not enough for member states to be accountable to their peers at a continental level. Accountability starts at home. Support to civil society to engage on an ongoing basis with government and other stakeholders on the outcomes of the APRM reviews is critical. Innovative financing mechanisms to support ongoing civil society engagement with the APRM are a challenge, not only to African governments and the mechanism itself, but also for external partners that are interested in good governance outcomes in the region. It is worth exploring with all the stakeholders involved – particularly in the region – how best to facilitate and enable this last objective, especially in</div>
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view of the continent and its citizens’ quest for improved governance, peace and stability and socio-economic development. </div>
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<b>Steven Gruzd is the Head of the Governance and APRM Programme at the <a href="http://www.saiia.org.za/">South African Institute of International Affairs</a>.</b> </div>
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<b>The views expressed here are those of the author, and may not necessarily be those of ECDPM. </b></div>
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<b>Photo Courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/americagov/">Bureau of IIP</a>.</b><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-83554594762371178792014-10-20T13:59:00.002+02:002014-10-22T13:42:51.337+02:00INFOGRAPHIC: What is Official Development Assistance (ODA) spent on in Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Africa received nearly €42.7 billion in official development assistance (ODA) in 2011, nearly triple the amount a decade before. But the figures also represented a 35% cut on the 2006 aid budget, when G8 leaders agreed to write off €29.9 billion of debt - which might never have been repaid - and include the largesse in their ODA declarations. <br />
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Around 40% of the European Commission's Official Development Aid (ODA) goes to Africa every year. The continent has received more than a quarter of the €2.7 billion increase in the aid budget since 2005 and, in 2009, aid for trade to the African, Caribbean and Pacific States increased to €3.6 billion. But where does the money end up?<br />
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This new infographic from Euractiv shows where Africa's ODA goes. <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"><br /></span>
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<b>This infographic was originally published by <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/sections/development-policy/what-oda-spent-africa-309323">Euractiv</a><br /><br /> The views expressed here are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of ECDPM</b></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-74795586909225725252014-09-30T15:04:00.001+02:002014-09-30T15:04:32.530+02:00Lampedusa - Why did so many Africans die?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i>By Ida Horner </i></b><br />
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The small Italian island of Lampedusa is still in shock following the death of at least 311 African migrants. The question that has preoccupied analysts as well as the rest of the world is, why did this happen?<br />
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An Interviewee on PM, a BBC Radio 4 flagship news program argued that so many Africans died because Africans cannot swim; the interviewee observed that if the immigrants were good swimmers they would have stood a very good chance of surviving because the capsized boat was very close to its destination.<br />
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Is this yet another stereotype about <a href="http://www.africaontheblog.com/why-africans-dont-swim/">Africans inability to swim</a>? After all, it is possible that the people on the boat were too tired and weak to swim after a long a journey. His comment further ignores the courage and determination displayed by a people in search of a better life for themselves and their families in Europe.<br />
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The reasons why people immigrate are complex and are to do with a confluence of factors such as poverty, human rights abuses, poor governance, and political instability in countries of origin. Irregular immigration of the kind we have witnessed at Lampedusa is risky and most observers accept that something has to be done to ensure that the Mediterranean Sea does <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24502279">not become a cemetery to immigrants</a>.<br />
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Irregular immigration impacts both Africa and Europe. We must therefore ask what the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) are doing about causes of irregular immigration. Through its <a href="http://europa.eu/pol/dev/index_en.htm">development policy</a>, the EU has an impressive array of programs intended to address most of the factors that lead to irregular immigration including a <a href="http://europafrica.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/partnership-on-migration-mobility-and-employment.pdf">Joint Africa -EU Action plan on Migration, Mobility and Employment</a> 2011- 2013 on how both continents intend to manage legal and irregular migration. [Editors Note: This has been superseded with a <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/dpap/dv/eu-africa_migration_declaration_/eu-africa_migration_declaration_en.pdf">Joint Declaration on Migration and Mobility</a> 2014-2017 at the 4th Africa EU Summit in April 2014] <br />
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On irregular migration, there would be increased dialogue between countries of origin, transit and destination to tackle issues such as human trafficking and the selling of people. An example of such dialogue started with talks between <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/01/eu-muammar-gaddafi-immigration">Italy’s Berlusconi and Libya’s Gaddafi </a>in which the EU is said to have promised Gaddafi 5 billion Euros a year to stop African immigrants over running European capitals and turning them black.<br />
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In spite of such measures irregular migration continues. Why is this?<br />
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According to <a href="http://www.africaontheblog.com/our-bloggers/jimmy-kainja/">Jimmy Kainja</a>, Blogger and Media scholar based in Malawi:<br />
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“The EU has taken a lead but the ultimate problem and solution lies within African boundaries, not Europe. The African Union should take a lead. These are African citizens running away from their homelands. Solutions ought to be there. It is a shame that it is Europe that seems to care. The AU is happy to convene and discuss saving African leaders from the actions of the ICC than discussing the plight of its people. Folks buried in unmarked graves far away from their homelands.”<br />
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I would add that, one of the reasons for increased irregular migration is that whilst the EU has transferred a huge amount of resources to facilitate development in African countries, those resources are not always used appropriately nor evenly distributed.<br />
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Some amongst the African leaders siphon off the resources for personal use, with impunity in most cases. When this happens, citizens are left poor and unable to meet their basic needs such as access to food, health and education. Citizens that are preoccupied with putting food on the table are consequently unlikely to have time to engage in the political process and such become politically excluded and voiceless<br />
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In addition, some of the resources transferred to Africa by European countries find their <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21745528">way back to Europe</a>.<br />
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Another issue for consideration is to do with decisions taken within the EU with respect to trade, agriculture, and security, particularly how well such policies fit in and or compliment the stated aims of the EU’s development policy and their impact on African countries. [Editors Note: See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_Coherence_for_Development">Policy Coherence for Development</a>] <br />
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It is worthwhile too, examining the structure of EU trade agreements with African countries from the point of view of the extent to which such policies are equitable and how they contribute to mitigating the reasons why irregular migration is on the increase.<br />
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For instance a report by the <a href="http://www.tni.org/">Transnational Institute</a>, entitled the <a href="http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/european_union_and_the_global_land_grab-a5.pdf">European Union and the Global Land Grab</a>, argues that the EU’s foreign direct investment policy was designed to favour foreign investors instead of balancing the power between the host countries and investor whilst the EU’s Trade Policy called Everything But Arms (EBA) has contributed to land grabs for the growing of sugars etc., for export into the EU.<br />
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The implication of these policies is that they work against the EU’s development policy with the effect of rendering it ineffective in impacting the reasons for the increased irregular immigration into Europe and contributing to human trafficking.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="http://www.ethnicsupplies.org/">Ida Horner</a> is Managing Director of <a href="http://www.ethnicsupplies.org/">Ethnic Supplies</a>, a social enterprise working to alleviate poverty amongst East African women involved in textile and handicraft production. She is also Managing Editor of <a href="http://www.africaontheblog.com/">Africa on the Blog</a>, where this article first appeared. <br /><br />She is a Community Development Consultant, chairing a community development charity ‘Let Them Help Themselves Out of Poverty’. Follow her on Twitter @<a href="https://twitter.com/idahorner">idahorner</a><br /><br />The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of ECDPM. <br /><br />The photo is courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/noborder/with/2909584366/">Noborder Network</a>. <br /><br />For more analysis of the EU’s migration policy challenges, read the following blogs from ECDPM: </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="http://ecdpm.org/talking-points/migration-mobility-africa-eu-partnership-breakthrough/">Migration and Mobility in the Africa-EU Partnership: A Breakthrough or More of the Same?</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ecdpm.org/talking-points/lampedusa-migration-commission-external-action/">A Safer Entrance than Lampedusa?</a><br /><br />both by <a href="http://ecdpm.org/people/annaknoll/">Anna Knoll</a> and Essete Abebe Bekele</span></i></b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-79981878124137828182014-09-29T11:35:00.002+02:002014-09-30T12:17:58.506+02:00To be or not to be a European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dGp531fJNdQ/VCqCZtb2RyI/AAAAAAAAJ4E/pIy0t44obfI/s1600/8957874305_49cfcc0ec3_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dGp531fJNdQ/VCqCZtb2RyI/AAAAAAAAJ4E/pIy0t44obfI/s1600/8957874305_49cfcc0ec3_z.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><i>"That's the question. It Sounds like an important position. But what exactly is the role of a Commissioner? And who appoints them and how? A picture is worth 1000 words!"</i></b><br />
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Here is a very handy guide, courtesy of the European Parliament, on how it chooses its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission">College of Commissioners</a>.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344px" scrolling="no" src="http://europarltv.europa.eu/admin/plugins/MFEmbeded.aspx?id=e0148410-68a8-4b11-b80f-a30e0100a444&language=en&autosize=true" width="560px"></iframe>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>On Monday 29th September, the European Parliament will conduct a hearing for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neven_Mimica">Neven Mimica</a> to become the EU's Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development. According to the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/mimica_en.pdf">Mission Letter</a> sent by Jean-Claude Juncker, President-elect of the European Commission, some of the priorities for Mimica should be: <br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Preparing the Commission and EU positions for the negotiations on the post-2015 United Nations Millennium Development Goal agenda. </b></li>
</ul>
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<li><b>Preparing and launching negotiations for a revised Cotonou agreement. </b></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Working closely with the High-Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President, the Commissioner for Trade and the Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs to strengthen the EU’s strategic partnership with Africa.</b></li>
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<b><b>Watch the Q&A at the hearing here</b></b></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="378" id="videoplayerI093138" mozallowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" src="http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/play.cfm?ref=I093138&videolang=INT&devurl=http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player/config.cfm" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="670"></iframe></ul>
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<span style="color: #363636; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.elections2014.eu/en/new-commission/hearing/20140917HEA64705"><b>You can </b><b>download Neven Mimica's CV and </b><b>watch the hearing here</b></a></h3>
<b><br />Video and Photo Courtesy of the European Parliament<br /><br />Views expressed here are not necessarily those of ECDPM</b><br />
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<span style="color: #363636; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #363636; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-13275218341684768442014-09-25T15:32:00.003+02:002014-09-25T15:37:00.360+02:00EU-Africa cooperation: where is civil society?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p2CQwE1le1c/VCQYzda1EwI/AAAAAAAAJvI/HZAR9nMeIIw/s1600/5960918498_9bd5c41bfd_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p2CQwE1le1c/VCQYzda1EwI/AAAAAAAAJvI/HZAR9nMeIIw/s1600/5960918498_9bd5c41bfd_z.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b>by Isabelle Brachet</b></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1666666666666665; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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At the beginning of April, more than 60 EU and African leaders met in Brussels to discuss the future of EU-Africa relations. The summit confirmed the commitment of both continents to the objectives set out in the 2007 Joint Africa-EU Strategy. However, leaders agreed that the implementation of the Joint Strategy should be further improved and that cooperation should be guided by a result-oriented approach. The summit adopted a <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/142094.pdf">roadmap</a> to frame EU-Africa relations for 2014-2017.<br /><br />The only reference to civil society in the Summit <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/142096.pdf">declaration</a> is that the leaders “take note of the Africa-EU civil society organisatons’ forum meeting of October 2013 and of the youth forum of April 2014”. The Roadmap specifies that “It was agreed to (…) promote contributions from the private sector and civil society”. It further reads “We will ensure the full and active participation of civil society in our dialogue and our cooperation”. But how will this happen in practice, especially in view of the limited connections between the Summit and the EU-Africa Civil Society Forum?<br /><br />The leaders of both continents opted for a more flexible institutional architecture for their cooperation, with Summits every three years, ministerial meetings when needed, and an annual forum to review progress in the implementation of the roadmap. Ad hoc expert working groups may also be established but, when possible, implementation will be driven by existing bodies. This is the case for example on agriculture, where cooperation will take place within the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Partnership (CAADP) partnership.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nepad-caadp.net/">CAADP</a> is the main African development programme to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty through agriculture. It notably requires African countries to commit at least ten per cent of their national budgets to agricultural development and seeks to raise agricultural productivity in Africa. The CAADP Partnership Platform is an annual meeting bringing together key stakeholders such as African governments, policy makers, civil society organisations and farmers’ organisations to assess progress made in implementing the CAADP goals.<br /><br />It is a welcome move that this body will be the one to review progress in EU-Africa cooperation on agriculture because it is the most legitimate African institution to coordinate efforts on agriculture on the continent. However, CSOs’ participation should definitely be strengthened in the CAADP so that smallholder producers can participate in shaping their future. Smallholder farmers represent the main providers of food for Africans and are the biggest private investors in African agriculture. <br /><br />So, what comes next? If the CAADP Partnership is to contribute to the implementation of EU-Africa cooperation on agriculture, it is one more reason for the European Union to support current efforts in Africa to ensure a stronger participation of civil society in the CAADP process. And ActionAid will certainly keep pushing in that direction, in Addis and in Brussels.<br /><br /><b>Isabelle Brachet is EU Policy Advisor at ActionAid’s EU Office</b><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<b>This article was originally published by <span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.actionaid.org/eu/2014/07/eu-africa-cooperation-where-civil-society" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 1.16666666666667; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ActionAid EU</a></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1666666666666665; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b>The views expressed here are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of ECDPM<br /><br />Photo Courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tlupic/" style="color: #1155cc; line-height: 1.16666666666667; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; vertical-align: baseline;">Travis Lupick</span></a></b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-73854022085313043942014-08-05T12:39:00.000+02:002014-08-05T12:42:43.739+02:00‘Great Power’ Germany can be good for Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-juhJRC3p5D8/U-CyrzWvcmI/AAAAAAAAI-k/ZkrsPL4tLS0/s1600/13692150603_df58262b4c_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-juhJRC3p5D8/U-CyrzWvcmI/AAAAAAAAI-k/ZkrsPL4tLS0/s1600/13692150603_df58262b4c_z.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #666666;">by Adekeye Adebajo</span></i></b></div>
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IF FOOTBALL is the continuation of war by other means, then
Germany’s recent World Cup triumph has restored the country to Great Power
status.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The centenary of the start of the First World War this year
recalls the conflict whose aftermath sought to resolve the "German
question" by shrinking its territory and crippling it economically through
the punitive Treaty of Versailles. The weakness of the Weimar Republic led to the rise of Adolf
Hitler and the Second World War. The Bonn Republic after 1945 saw the partition
of Germany, and western Europe’s overriding concern was to keep the Germans
down, the Americans in, and the Russians out. West Germany pulled off a
spectacular Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle), and today’s reunified Berlin
Republic represents Europe’s most powerful and prosperous country.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Germany’s unemployment rate of about 5.4% is less than half
of the European Union (EU) average, it is the paymaster of the EU, and the
largest creditor in the euro currency zone. The Franco-German axis, which
traditionally drove the EU, has now been replaced by the dominance of
Chancellor Angela Merkel. As Germany reviews its foreign policy, it remains an
economic giant and political dwarf, constrained by a past history of aggressive
conquest. Berlin has historically sought to act as a "civilian power"
that relies on multilateral institutions and trade rather than military force,
promoting democratic governance, peaceful conflict resolution and sustainable
development. Its allies have criticised this approach as an abdication of
global responsibility by the world’s fourth-largest economy, and Berlin must
find a way to harness its Friedenspolitik (policy of peace) to an enhanced
political and security role legitimised by multilateral organisations in which
it plays a more active leadership role.<o:p></o:p></div>
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German exports of machine guns, tanks, and submarines expose
the contradictions of this Friedenspolitik. Berlin is now the world’s
third-largest conventional arms exporter after the US and Russia. Germany has
deployed troops to the Balkans and Afghanistan for more than 15 years, though a
strong pacifism still remains among its population. Today, 5,000 German
soldiers serve in 13 missions globally.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Germany’s Africa policy has traditionally been conducted
through the EU, and Berlin’s total bilateral trade with Africa reached €44.9bn
last year. Africa is the world’s fastest-growing continent, with a market of
1-billion consumers. Berlin can reduce its dependence on gas imports from
Russia by importing more from Algeria and Nigeria.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Germany’s own reunification required transferring ore than
$1-trillion to the east. It should, therefore, urgently meet the United Nations
(UN) target of contributing 0.7% of gross domestic product to aid. Berlin has
increased its trade with Asia in the past decade, with Beijing now accounting
for about 38% of total German exports to the region, and Merkel paying her
seventh visit to China this month. Germany has supported Beijing’s leading
trade role in Africa and should help to promote EU policies on the continent
that are not mercantilistically seeking to exclude China.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In 2003 and 2006, France and Germany respectively led EU
forces to support UN peacekeeping efforts in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Germany has also provided military trainers to support the present
French intervention in Mali. There appears to be a bargain in which Berlin
backs a French EU leadership role in Africa in exchange for Paris supporting
Germany’s leadership of EU policies in eastern Europe. But Germany must be more
discerning in aligning itself too closely with the increasingly discredited
French military role in Africa. The recent interventions in Mali, Cote
d’Ivoire, and the Central African Republic have, in fact, revived fears of
Gallic neocolonialism in Africa.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As the third-largest contributor to the UN, Germany must
continue to push for reform of a 15-member Security Council that is
increasingly losing its legitimacy. About 60% of the council’s deliberations
focus on Africa, while 75% of the UN’s peacekeepers are deployed on the
continent. Berlin realises that council reform can occur only with the support
of the organisation’s 54 African members. In a council vote in 2011, Germany’s
abstention from the Anglo-French-led intervention in Libya now looks visionary,
as anarchy reigns in the country, having spread its deadly lava across the
Sahel into Mali.</div>
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Finally, Germany has Europe’s oldest population, and its
workforce will be reduced by 6.5-million in the next decade. It will thus be
forced to turn to immigration to fill this gap, which could radically alter its
demographics. This is already evident in die Mannschaft that won the football
World Cup in Brazil with four players of Turkish, Polish, Tunisian and Ghanaian
ancestry. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Adekeye Adebajo is the executive director of the <a href="http://www.ccr.org.za/">Centre for Conflict Resolution</a> (CCR) in Cape Town, South Africa</b><br />
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<b>The views expressed here are those of the author and not of ECDPM</b><br />
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>Photo Courtesy of the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeancouncil/">President of the European Council</a> </b></div>
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<b>This article originally appeared in <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2014/07/28/great-power-germany-can-be-good-for-africa">Business Day Live</a></b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-58170179348266874002014-07-14T16:01:00.000+02:002014-07-14T16:02:30.114+02:00African Union, EU outline priorities for Post-2015 development agenda<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aXPN_ucd3cI/U8PhDXREVXI/AAAAAAAAI2s/ExrT_1rlcDU/s1600/IMG_20140225_141159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aXPN_ucd3cI/U8PhDXREVXI/AAAAAAAAI2s/ExrT_1rlcDU/s1600/IMG_20140225_141159.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><i>By ICTSD</i></b></div>
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The African Union Commission and the European Union each
released their respective priorities for the post-2015 development agendas in
May 2014, shortly after the circulation of a “zero draft” that would serve as a
potential launching point for negotiating a set of Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs).<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Sustainable Development Goals would replace the current
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire next year, and are part of
a broader initiative aimed at establishing a “post-2015 development agenda.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">African position
highlights consensus<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The release of the <a href="http://www.nepad.org/sites/default/files/Common%20African%20Position-%20ENG%20final.pdf"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Common
African Position (CAP)</span></a> came during a 3 June <a href="http://ea.au.int/en/content/common-african-position-cap-post-2015-development-agenda-launched"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">meeting</span></a> of
the African Union Commission, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The document is a
direct result of the work undertaken by a High Level Committee (HLC) set up by
the African Union a year ago, and is meant to encapsulate the continent’s key
priorities as it participates in the post-2015 negotiations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The HLC process involved several consultative and technical
meetings, in which officials reviewed a list of priorities developed by
institutions across the continent with the goal of reaching consensus on a
proper post-MDG framework.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The resulting CAP “reflects the aspirations of the African
people,” said Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who chaired the High
Level Committee.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Carlos Lopes, who serves as the Economic Commission for
Africa’s (ECA) Executive Secretary, similarly hailed the CAP as “a concrete
step towards mainstream[ing] all the key issues at the global level but with an
African perspective addressing all the Sustainable Development Goals.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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“We therefore commit ourselves to speak with one voice and
to act in unity to ensure that Africa’s voice is heard and is fully integrated
into the global development agenda,” the consensus document says.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scaling up the
transformative agenda<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The document groups Africa’s development priorities into
“six pillars.” These include structural economic transformation and inclusive
growth; science, technology and innovation; people-centred development;
environmental sustainability, natural resources and disaster management; peace
and security; and finance and partnerships.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“The overarching goals of CAP are to eradicate poverty and
ensure human development, which are anchored in the six pillars,” said Anthony
Maruping, Commissioner of Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission, who
presented the document.<o:p></o:p></div>
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African countries have pledged to strengthen their
productive capacities in order to foster industrialisation. They also aim to
promote the processing of primary commodities by developing value chains across
sectors, together with beneficiation policies, especially in the extractive
sectors of their economies. Beneficiation refers to the treatment of raw
materials, such as mineral ore, to improve their properties for further
processing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The CAP also calls for the modernisation of the agricultural
sector, together with the enhancement of agricultural productivity, in order to
ensure food self-sufficiency. Furthermore, the document emphasises the role of
services and infrastructure development in facilitating economic
transformation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The current Millennium Development Goals have come under
criticism by some experts, who claim that these placed a disproportionate focus
on the social sector and took too much of a quantitative – as opposed to
qualitative – approach to development.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This new common position therefore centres on value addition
and proper use of resources, rather than the socially-oriented planning of past
development models, said Ibrahim Mayaki, head of the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD), in comments reported by Sierra Express Media.<o:p></o:p></div>
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NEPAD serves as the development arm of the African Union.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the next phase of its work, the HLC will begin
negotiations with other regions of the world as well as the continent’s
development partners to ensure Africa's vision is included in the post-2015
global development agenda.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">EU bets on
sustainable development to tackle poverty<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Separate to the CAP launch, the European Commission issued
its own <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-620_en.htm"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">proposal</span></a> last
week outlining its development aspirations for the new SDGs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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According to the Brussels document, eradicating poverty and
achieving sustainable development are fundamentally interrelated. The
communication features “poverty”, “inequality,” and “food security” as the
first three priority areas in a total of 17, and indicates the Commission’s
plan to cluster them based on interlinkages.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The communication also highlights the role of trade
liberalisation for poverty eradication and sustainable development.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“We encourage our partners, notably developed and advanced
developing economies, to provide Duty Free and Quota Free (DFQF) and market
access for products originating from LDCs as well,” the document says.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The European Commission also refers to the value of
universality, while acknowledging the need to take “into account different
national contexts capacities and levels of development.” Such differentiated
treatment, it said, requires a consideration of each country’s respective
starting points and capacities, and the need to ensure achievability,
ownership, and measurability.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Brussels also says that the post-2015 framework should
ensure a “rights-based approach” to promote sustainable development by ensuring
“justice, equality and equity, good governance, democracy and the rule of law,
peaceful societies and freedom from violence.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, the communication stresses the EU’s commitment to a
strengthened global partnership, highlighting the 28-nation bloc’s role as one
of “the driving forces behind mobilising action internally and worldwide.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Commission document will next be discussed by the
Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The result of these
discussions, EU officials say, will serve to guide the bloc’s position in the
UN negotiations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">September 2015 target
date<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The creation of the SDGs is a central part of the framing of
the post-2015 development agenda, which will be negotiated by UN member states
until September 2015.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some experts have suggested that the value of the
sustainable development agenda lies in its ability to identify connections
between many issues. However, in terms of practical implementation, this is
proving easier in theory than in practice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Open Working Group tasked with formulating these new SDGs
will be holding their next formal gathering from 16-20 June, in what is
expected to be a key meeting in advancing this process. The working group is
expected to publish its conclusions next month, ahead of the UN
Secretary-General’s report later this year. (See <a href="http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/biores/news/un-group-chairs-unveil-zero-draft-for-sustainable-development-goals"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Biores</span></a>,
2 June 2014)<o:p></o:p></div>
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ICTSD reporting; “EC Adopts Communication on SDGs,” IISD, 2
June 2014; “As it plans its own future, Africa engages with the world,” SIERRA
EXPRESS MEDIA, 2 June 2014; “Millennium Development Goals and post-2015
Development Agenda,” ECOSOC, 2014.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>This article is published under <a href="http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/Bridges-Africa"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Bridges Africa</span></a> <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges-africa/issue-archive/commodities-and-development-in-africa-is-the-glass-half">Volume 3 -
Number 6</a></span></b></i><o:p></o:p><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Published in print <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">5 June, posted </span>online 1st July 2014</b></span></i></div>
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
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<i><b>The views reflected here are those of ICTSD, and not necessarily those of ECDPM</b></i></div>
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
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<i><b>Image courtesy of Rhys Williams, ECDPM</b></i></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-30932169220488129402014-06-30T16:08:00.001+02:002014-06-30T16:14:00.270+02:00Africa and the New European Parliament: How Much Change Can We Expect?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NcPyPkS2O3o/U7FvF_sr_2I/AAAAAAAAIvQ/JrZuGgfqvw0/s1600/%7B57ad9dd0-b82d-445a-94e2-32bed2bfd90f%7D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NcPyPkS2O3o/U7FvF_sr_2I/AAAAAAAAIvQ/JrZuGgfqvw0/s1600/%7B57ad9dd0-b82d-445a-94e2-32bed2bfd90f%7D.jpg" height="320" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">By <span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Vera Songwe</span><o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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The European Parliament met yesterday [3<sup>rd</sup> June] to
discuss the implications of the European Union elections and begin selecting
new leaders for the parliament. African countries, like the rest of the world,
will be closely watching the repercussions of the latest EU “earthquake” (in
the words of French President Francois Hollande) on their economies and
citizens. These election results are once again the consequence of the
2008 financial crisis, only now—six years later—the crisis’ impact has moved
beyond the initial effects on the financial sector and global trade to the
socio-economic and political fabric of societies across the globe.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On May 25, 2014, Europe experienced an unprecedented
political pivot to the far right, as European Union countries elected their
leaders for the next five years. Seven countries of the EU (what I will call
the EU7) voted to send far-right parties to Brussels. In France, these parties
received 25 percent of the national vote; Denmark, 23 percent; the U.K., 20
percent; Austria, 20 percent; Hungary, 15 percent; Finland, 13 percent; and
Greece, 12 percent.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref1"></a><a href="file://localhost/M:/My%20Documents/Publications/AGI/Songwe/EU%20paper@4version_FINAL.docx#_ftn1"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref1;"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref1;"></span>Thus,
the far right collectively will hold over 30 percent of the seats in the new EU
parliament.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Lack of growth in Europe has dimmed the enthusiasm of
integration and openness that formed the hallmark of the EU. The economics of
the EU have changed: It started with 15 countries at the end of 2003 and growth
rates of 3.9 percent on average, to 28 countries and an average growth rate of
-0.4 percent in 2012. Of the seven countries that voted to shift to the far
right, growth has plummeted from 4.2 percent in 2000 to -1.2 percent in 2012.
Unemployment rose from 7.3 percent in 2000 to 10.3 percent in 2012 in these
countries over the same period. Worse still, many of these countries have gone
through five years of no growth. As a consequence, a sense of economic despair
is growing among the middle and lower classes. This difficult economic
situation will be the backdrop of the meetings on Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As they convene, the new members of the European parliament
will not only begin to address the challenges of governing Europe and growing
its economy; they will also examine their relationship with Africa. A number of
issues pertaining to the EU’s relationship with Africa—including trade,
openness and the Economic Partnership Agreement, immigration, development
assistance and peacekeeping—will be under scrutiny. African leaders and their
populations are watching to see how these important issues are addressed.
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Trade and the
Anti-Globalization Movement<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Unlike the EU7, Africa is experiencing unprecedented growth:
It is expected to grow at 5.5 percent in 2014. Trade with the rest of the world
is fuelling this growth, and trade with the EU is an important component.
Exports from Africa to the whole of the EU have increased from $95 billion in
2000 to $209 billion in 2013. Even if the overall share has been decreasing,
this trade remains significant. The largest exporters to Africa from the
EU in 2013 were France (18 percent of all EU exports), Germany (14 percent),
Italy (13 percent) and Spain (11 percent). Spain (17 percent of all EU
imports), Italy (16 percent), France (16 percent), the United Kingdom (13
percent) and Germany (12 percent) were the largest importers. Manufactured
goods accounted for 70 percent of all EU exports to Africa in 2013, while energy
made up 64 percent of imports. The major trading partners with the EU are South
Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Libya.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To deepen trade relations, Africa and Europe have been
negotiating regional economic partnership agreements expected to increase access
of African countries to European markets—the most advanced of these discussions
being the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the members of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the largest regional trading block
in sub-Saharan Africa. Negotiations on these agreements are set to conclude
this year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The negotiation of EPAs thus focuses on narrow market access
considerations. African countries keep their preferential access to the EU
market, with some minor improvements in the rules of origin, in return for
opening up their markets to the EU over a defined transitional period. The
EPAs, like many trade agreements under discussion, have become increasingly
controversial for African countries, especially in the larger countries with industrial
policies that seek to develop domestic industry by protecting local firms using
trade barriers as a tool. To date no African countries have signed a full EPA,
and only 14 of 45 countries have agreed to an interim one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The questions for policymakers and those involved in the
discussions are: What impact will the new parliament have on the direction of
the negotiations and will the parameters of the negotiations change to reflect
the new political leanings in Brussels? How will African countries react to
this new landscape? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nationalism and
Immigration<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Nationalism is on the rise in all of the EU7 countries. For
example, 17 percent of the French electorate reported that immigration is the
most important issue facing France and Europe, ahead of their concerns for
jobs, growth and macro-economic stability. The tension here is that, despite
the rapid growth witnessed in Africa, migration from Africa to Europe continues
to increase. In 2010, the stock of African migrants in France, the U.K. and
Denmark—the top three right-wing countries of the new EU parliament—was 2.8
million, 1.2 million and 38,000, respectively. A significant share of migrants
to France is from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, countries where economic growth
has stalled due to, among other things, prolonged political crisis.
However, the migrants to the U.K. from Africa originate from Nigeria,
Ghana and South Africa, where growth—driven mainly by the natural resource
sectors—has on average been high but not inclusive.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The new EU parliament may embrace the idea of the French far
right Front National party to reduce the number of migrants admitted into
Europe by over 80 percent. The policy of deportation may also be
accelerated. This would have important implications for Africa. In an environment
of high unemployment in Africa, a repatriation policy for even 1 percent of the
nearly 3 million migrants in France today will only fuel social unrest on both
sides with unwanted social and political consequences. Will the EU7 be ready
for this?<o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition, many African countries are taking on the issue
of immigration as a human rights issue and demanding better treatment of their
citizens in Europe. More countries are increasingly demanding that European
countries sign conventions on the treatment of migrants. If providing better
living conditions for African migrants is seen as costly by European countries,
it could provide a justification for tighter policies towards migrants and
encourage repatriations. How will African countries react to this new
environment?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">South-South
Collaboration<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In the meantime, might the EU vote for an African pivot
towards emerging market countries like China, India, Turkey and Brazil? During
the crisis, Africa benefitted from increased trade with emerging market countries
like China and India to maintain its high growth levels. Greater trade openness
with emerging market economies helped African countries diversify their trade
relations. While slow growth in Europe has led to a drop in exports from Africa
to the EU, exports to China have increased. In addition, bilateral relations
with China have gone from strength to strength, and, despite some setbacks,
African countries are keen to take advantage of the increased resources from
China. Could the recent EU also serve to deepen South-South collaboration? What
further impact will the EU vote have on increased South-South trade?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Development
Assistance and Peacekeeping<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Development assistance from Europe remains high even as
official aid allocations from the EU to Africa have fallen since 2011. Despite
them economic crisis, many countries tried to protect development assistance,
but now these efforts may be under threat. In 2012, only the U.K., Denmark,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden met the United Nation’s pledge
to provide more than 0.7 percent of their GNI in development assistance. Today,
the U.K. is the second-largest donor to Africa after the United States, France
is the fourth largest, and Denmark is the eleventh. While FDI has grown
significantly, development assistance remains an important source of resources
for many countries, especially the fragile and conflict-affected countries with
no access to other sources of funds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition to development assistance, Africa relies heavily
on the EU for peacekeeping. Currently there are over four EU peacekeeping
missions on the continent in the Central African Republic (CAR), Mali, South
Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Libya and Egypt, some support is
also being provided. In addition, the French took the lead in organizing the
international community to restore stability during the recent crises in the
CAR, Mali and Libya. With a new EU parliament likely to focus on internal
issues, there are now legitimate concerns among African leaders that this
assistance could decrease.<o:p></o:p></div>
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African leaders will have to wait to see what the new
members of the European Parliament hold for the future of collaboration with
Africa. In the meantime, a number of lessons from regional integration in
Europe are evident and could help to bolster efforts at regional integration
throughout Africa.<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn1"></a><a href="file://localhost/M:/My%20Documents/Publications/AGI/Songwe/EU%20paper@4version_FINAL.docx#_ftnref1"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftn1;"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftn1;"></span> The
other big surprise of the election came from Italy—where the new Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi’s Democratic party won a historic 40 percent of the vote. The
largest country in the union, Germany, had no big surprises as the main
conservative parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian
Social Union (CSU), together won 35 percent of the vote.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vera Songwe is a nonresident senior fellow with the Africa Growth
Initiative and lead economist at the World Bank. Most recently, she
was the adviser to managing director Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who oversaw
the World Bank Operations in the Africa, Europe and Central Asia and South Asia
regions, as well as human resources.<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The views expressed here are those of the author and may not represent those
of ECDPM</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>Photo courtesy of The Council of the European Union</i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This article originally appeared on Brookings <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2014/06/04-europe-parliament-africa-songwe">'Africa in Focus'</a> blog</i></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></b></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-80236312174667457572014-06-16T15:11:00.000+02:002014-06-16T15:16:14.343+02:00EU-Africa: trading poverty away?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4TdVG3fGdc/U57r59CGU9I/AAAAAAAAIbA/wiUSksQonRs/s1600/6535542227_5e4d7e5bd7_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4TdVG3fGdc/U57r59CGU9I/AAAAAAAAIbA/wiUSksQonRs/s1600/6535542227_5e4d7e5bd7_z.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Political summits are known for sweeping declarations that
are, more often than not, forgotten as soon as the ink is dry. The
April 2014 EU-Africa summit, held in Brussels, appears to be no exception.
Leaders from both sides unanimously proclaimed the need for a fundamental shift
from aid to trade as agent of poverty reduction, but their actions did not
stray far from the status quo, write </i><o:p></o:p><i>Clara Weinhardt and Fabian Bohnenberger.</i></b></div>
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Yet the summit declaration deserves attention for bringing
to the forefront some of the fundamental obstacles that block the
long-proclaimed goal of poverty reduction through trade-based partnerships.
Both sides mistakenly equate job creation and economic growth with the
reduction of poverty. Moreover, neither side seems to have a clear
understanding of what rights and obligations accompany such a shift to
trade-based policies. Until both shortcomings are addressed, the tremendous
potential of trade for poverty reduction cannot be realised.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Missing Link<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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European and African leaders both recognise that a shift
from aid to trade (and investment) would lead to job creation, economic growth
and poverty reduction. While properly designed trade policies can arguably
contribute to economic development, they are not an automatic mechanism for
poverty reduction. Higher incomes do contribute to a reduction in the number of
people living below the poverty line, but the gains made by increased trade
cooperation are not distributed equally — and it is often the poor that miss
out.<o:p></o:p></div>
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More than half of the population of Nigeria, Africa’s biggest
economic powerhouse, continues to live below the poverty line of less
than $1 per day. Shifting from aid to trade policies is unlikely to make a
significant contribution to poverty reduction unless distributional policies
and social investment are targeted as well. This is a major challenge for
African governments who have so far refused to tackle the issue of staggering
inequality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How European trade policies fit in with poverty reduction
strategies remains unclear, while some of the EU’s economic aims may even come
in conflict with the poverty reduction agenda. Africa’s resource sector
industries are infamous for their deleterious effects on sustainable
development, and are of strategic interest for Europe.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Partnership of Equals?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Part of the intention behind the call for a shift from aid
to trade is the desire for an EU-Africa relationship that is a “partnership of
equals”. More than half a century after the first wave of independence, it is
time to acknowledge the evolution of the EU-Africa relationship from its
traditionally patronising donor-recipient arrangement towards a more
egalitarian, business-like trade partnership. Yet the EU and African sides are
caught up in internal contradictions regarding the roles they want to play in
their relationship. The EU points out Africa’s unprecedented economic and
demographic growth, at a time of European stagnation, as the key motive for a
shift towards mutual obligations. At the same time, Europe insists on its right
to set the agenda on economic reforms. The EU largely determined the model that
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the partners ought to follow. It
also set October 2014 as a new deadline for the EPA negotiations, despite
heavy criticism from the African side.<o:p></o:p></div>
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African countries seem divided on how to accept the
principle of greater reciprocity as a new basis of their trade relationship.
While many countries lobby hard for having an equal say at the negotiating
table, there is a reluctance to accept equal obligations given existing asymmetries
in economic development. In the EPA negotiations, West Africa fought hard to
lower its market opening commitments from 80 percent to 70 percent
vis-à-vis its European counterpart, and demanded “aid-for-trade” to be part of
the agenda. It is therefore far from clear that a trade-based “partnership of
equals” will lead to an increase in cooperation, or even contribute to poverty
reduction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Way Forward<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The arguments for a shift in EU-Africa relations from aid to
trade are not substantive in the face of a missing causal link between economic
growth and poverty reduction. An open acknowledgement of the obstacles that lie
in the way of a development-oriented trade partnership is needed if the
relationship is to move forward successfully. Economic policies can only
contribute to poverty reduction if distributional and social policies enable
so-called “pro-poor growth” — something which African countries need to
prioritise if they are to take on a trade-based economic agenda. The African
side’s demand for “aid-for-trade” underline that it makes little sense to treat
trade as an isolated policy sector. Improving trade policies as an end in
itself is pointless if you have nothing to trade, or lack the capacity to put
new trade agreements into practice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The blind spots in the recent summit declaration show that a
real discussion about these fundamental preconditions is urgently needed for
any trade-based partnership. A key priority for the new European Parliament
elected on May 25 and the reshuffled Commission should be an increase in
resources towards developing a joint strategic approach on EU-Africa trade
relations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The call for a shift from aid to trade is, however, not a
lost cause. While EPAs are not exactly a success story yet, they do hint at the
potential that an EU-Africa trade partnership holds for moving the development
agenda forward. Not only did the prospect of greater trade openness provoke a
great deal of economic and political analysis within African countries on trade
policies, it has also strengthened and diversified existing trade-policy making
institutions. These developments were driven forward by the African side in a
proactive way rarely seen in response to past handouts of European financial
aid.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet, for such constructive steps to be promoted
systematically and successfully, European and African leaders need to clearly
define the roles they are to play in a development-oriented trade partnership.
Equal treatment of parties that are unequal in economic terms is likely to
result in unequal outcomes at the negotiating table. The European side needs to
be willing to respond to the African side’s demands — even if this means
prolonging asymmetrical preferences in what cannot yet be considered a
“partnership of equals” in economic terms. African leaders need to realise that
they cannot have it all: balancing the desire to have equal weight at the
negotiating table with demands for aid and flexibility will be a delicate, but
important task for building a development-oriented trade partnership with the
EU.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Clara Weinhardt is a research associate and Fabian Bohnenberger a research assistant at the <a href="http://www.gppi.net/">Global Public Policy Institute</a> in Berlin, and are part of its Innovation in Development team.<br /><br />This article originally appeared in <a href="http://mondediplo.com/blogs/eu-africa-trading-poverty-away">Le Monde Diplomatique</a><br /><br />This post reflects the views of the authors, and may not necessarily represent those of ECDPM <br /><br />Photo is courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcohn/">Adam Cohn </a></i></b> </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-89568356594021519022014-06-11T14:58:00.000+02:002014-07-30T14:19:54.817+02:00Food and Farmers: When Public-Private Partnerships Become Corporate Takeovers<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h-I4vD-BrBA/U5hNvV_GOoI/AAAAAAAAIW4/ep8in7Tdemw/s1600/7222154202_41e0138300_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h-I4vD-BrBA/U5hNvV_GOoI/AAAAAAAAIW4/ep8in7Tdemw/s1600/7222154202_41e0138300_b.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: #444444;">by Christine Haigh</span></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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In recent weeks, the G8 has been making the headlines as Russia’s membership is threatened by its grab of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But the G8 club of rich countries is itself responsible for enabling another kind of takeover. A report released this week by the <a href="http://www.wdm.org.uk/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">World Development Movement</span></a> has <a href="http://www.wdm.org.uk/sites/default/files/agribusiness/carving-up-a-continent.pdf?mc_cid=021ec3fb5e&mc_eid=996579bd4c"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">exposed</span></a> how the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, a project launched by the G8 in 2012, is supporting a corporate scramble for Africa.<o:p></o:p></div>
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An example of the latest kind of public-private partnerships (PPPs), the initiative requires African countries to change their policies to facilitate the expansion of agribusiness in exchange for aid money from G8 countries and commitments from multinational companies to invest. The scheme was launched with claims that it will lift 50 million people out of poverty within a decade.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For companies like seed giant Monsanto and <a href="http://www.actionaid.org.uk/campaign/the-sabmiller-guide-to-tax-dodging"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">tax-dodging</span></a> brewer SABMiller, which are looking for new sources of raw materials and markets for their products, the New Alliance promises clear benefits. But claims that the initiative will create a win-win situation are at best misguided. The New Alliance will strengthen the hand of such companies at the expense of the small-scale food producers who currently feed most of the continent. As a result, we can expect increased inequality and rising poverty among farmers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Land-grabbing is a major threat to small-scale food producers, with female farmers often the worst affected. Million of hectares of African land have been sold or leased to foreign investors in recent years, yet as part of the New Alliance, African countries have been pushed to amend their land laws, making it even easier for big companies to take over land.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition, African governments are being told to reform their trade systems, committing to not restrict exports even at times of food shortage among their own people. African countries are also being pushed to curtail the ability of farmers to save and exchange seeds that they have bred themselves, forcing them instead to buy seed produced by one of a shrinking number of global seed companies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Corporate takeover<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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That the New Alliance is driven by the interests of corporations is clear from the countries it has targeted. So far, ten countries are involved: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania. These countries are appealing places for agribusiness companies to expand, with estimated economic growth rates averaging 6.7% in 2012, compared to an average of 4.9% for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Most are also coastal countries, meaning easy access for imports of fertilisers and pesticides, and exports of agricultural produce.<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, only one of the countries involved − Ethiopia − features amongst the ten African countries with the worst problems of hunger. Meanwhile, landlocked countries such as Burundi, the Central African Republic and Chad, all in the bottom ten in terms of hunger, have also been ignored.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is not the first time rich countries have dreamed up schemes that benefit themselves and attempted to pass them off as beneficial to Africans. The projects being promoted as part of the New Alliance bear a striking resemblance to the 19th Century colonial takeover. Zones known as agricultural growth corridors are being demarcated for the expansion of industrial agriculture, with infrastructure such as ports and roads mirroring (and sometimes literally building on) colonial-era railways constructed to extract resources from the continent. Such schemes are already underway in Mozambique and Tanzania, supported with aid money channeled through the New Alliance, and there are plans for similar projects in other countries including Kenya.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This time round, the justification is the need to ‘feed the world’. But the link between food production and levels of hunger is weak. The world can produce enough food for 12 billion people, yet around one billion of the seven billion people currently on the planet go hungry. In sub-Saharan Africa, food production has been rising more than the population has grown, yet under nutrition has affected more and more of people. I n the 20 years leading up to 2011, per capita food production rose by 10%, while the number of people going hungry increased by 40%.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Public-Peasant Partnerships<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Currently, an estimated 70% of the global population is fed by small-scale food producers, who use no more than 30% of the world’s arable land and 20% of the fossil fuel used by agriculture. In this context, the corporate-controlled industrial model of agriculture being promoted through schemes like the New Alliance starts to look like it should be consigned to the scrapheap.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s not surprising therefore that farmers groups and civil society organisations from across the African continent are <a href="http://thinkafricapress.com/agriculture/experts-weekly-what-impact-n4g-summit-africa"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">condemning</span></a> schemes like the New Alliance as the “new wave of colonialism”. And just as Africans demanded their sovereignty in the early 20th Century, many are now demanding food sovereignty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A framework developed by peasants, farm workers, urban food producers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and environmental groups from around the world, puts food sovereignty and people’s right to food ahead of corporate profits. It demands that those who produce food have control of the resources they need to do so. If government support for agriculture was channeled to small-scale food producers rather than multinational companies, this would be achievable. What is needed, as Mamadou Cissokho, honorary president of West African farmers network, puts it, are real PPPs: public-peasant partnerships.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>For more information about the World Development Movement's campaign, click <a href="http://www.wdm.org.uk/food"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">here</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Christine is policy and campaigns officer for WDM’s food speculation campaign. Follow her on twitter <span style="color: windowtext;"><a href="http://twitter.com/christineehaigh">@christineehaigh</a></span></i><o:p></o:p><br />
<i><br /></i><i>This post originally appeared in <a href="http://thinkafricapress.com/agriculture/new-alliance-food-security-and-nutrition-when-public-private-partnerships-become-corporate-takeovers">Think Africa Press</a> </i></div>
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<i>The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of ECDPM </i></div>
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<i>Photo Courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfam/">Oxfam International</a> </i><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-22485849983159373982014-06-03T11:03:00.000+02:002014-07-14T15:45:27.046+02:00Côte d’Ivoire’s EPA Between a rock and a hard place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nMODvAGy3s8/U42PCS4ZuOI/AAAAAAAAIKg/5-inQZcDH8o/s1600/4309230606_cbd7093029_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nMODvAGy3s8/U42PCS4ZuOI/AAAAAAAAIKg/5-inQZcDH8o/s1600/4309230606_cbd7093029_b.jpg" height="248" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It is commonly heard
amongst trade negotiators that “no deal is better than a bad deal." This
refrain probably doesn’t apply in the case of Côte d’Ivoire’s EPA negotiations
with the EU where no agreement would turn out to be a very bad deal for many of
their leading exporters, especially of agricultural products. The Côte
d’Ivoire Government is working with its civil society, business and government
partners throughout West Africa and at home to find a solution.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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When senior officials and chief negotiators from West Africa
and the EU reached a deal on a regional EPA earlier this year, it appeared to
be a result which guaranteed market access to the EU while reinforcing West
Africa’s trade integration. However, the signature of this agreement has
since been delayed and its content is being called into question as Nigeria and
other countries assess whether the deal is in the interest of their
economies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If key partners in the West African region choose not to
sign and implement the regional EPA, Côte d’Ivoire will face a daunting choice
– lose its preferential access to the European market or undermine its regional
integration with West Africa under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme
(ETLS). It is a very difficult position for a country which prides itself
as both the motor for integration in West Africa and the region’s biggest
(non-oil) exporter to Europe. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Ministry for African Integration (which is responsible
for EPA negotiations as well as West African regional integration) has a very
clear view on this potential dilemma. “Our Leaders have given us a
mandate to negotiate a regional EPA which promotes development and reinforces
regional integration in West Africa” says Stéphane Aka Anghi, Conseiller
Technique at the Ministry of African Integration, “as long as a regional
EPA remains on the agenda, it is our plan A, B and C”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Market access to the
European Union<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Côte d’Ivoire officials are acutely aware of what they stand
to lose if no reciprocal free trade agreement is reached with the EU by October
2014. Chief among their concerns is preferential access to the EU for
their main exports including cocoa, bananas, wood, tuna and a range of other
products.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Without continued duty-free quota-free access to the EU
market, these industries could disappear or, at the very least, they would
suffer drastic reductions in exports. Exports of these products at
preferential rates account for one third of Côte d’Ivoire’s total exports to
Europe and generate millions of jobs, especially in vulnerable rural
communities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the case of tuna and the four canneries which the
industry supports in Côte d’Ivoire, exports to the EU are the backbone of the
business. With trade preferences removed, and no EPA in place, tariffs
would rise from zero percent to over 20 percent – a move that could wipe out
the entirety of Côte d’Ivoire’s exports to Europe. Ivorian industry is
already coming under increased competition due to preference erosion with
respect to some competitor countries, such as South Korea which can now export
tuna at a tariff of 12 percent under the EU-Korea FTA. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, failure to reach a deal would not just undermine
Côte d’Ivoire’s exports of primary products to Europe - it could also reverse
the industrialisation process already underway in some sectors. The case
of cocoa illustrates the dilemma they are facing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s leading producer of cocoa (it
is responsible for around one third of global production) and the sector is
directly or indirectly responsible for millions of livelihoods in the country.
Côte d’Ivoire is currently using its comparative advantage in cocoa to
move up the value chain and start exporting value-added cocoa products.
While this process is in its infancy, it is a promising sector which could
create higher paying industrial jobs and contribute to the country’s
development. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If Côte d’Ivoire finds itself under the Generalised System
of Preferences (GSP) later this year, its cocoa industry will certainly survive
in some form. However, the high tariffs in the form of mixed or specific
duties on finished chocolate products, as well as the 9.6 percent ad valorem
rate for cocoa paste, would drive Côte d’Ivoire back down the value chain to
being a mere commodities exporter (with duty-free entry for cocoa beans).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Solidarity with the
West African region<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is too early to start thinking about a plan B and Côte
d’Ivoire continues to invest fully in reaching agreement on a regional EPA
which preserves its market access to Europe and strengthens regional
integration. However, many actors in the region are starting to think
about what might happen if the regional deal falls through and various ECOWAS
countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, start to seriously consider bilateral deals
with the EU.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such bilateral deals, rather than a region-wide EPA, would
make the West African common market unworkable and Côte d’Ivoire could lose
many of the benefits it currently enjoys under the ETLS. These benefits
include preferential access into the markets of other West African countries
for products which have been approved under the ETLS. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Côte d’Ivoire understands the importance of West Africa’s
regional integration - it has played a key role in driving the process and is
responsible for around one quarter of trade in the region. Further, for
some of its industries, and especially for processed and industrial products,
West Africa represents a much more significant market than Europe. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the Grand Moulins d’Abidjan, with their towers visible
from all around the city, any move away from Côte d’Ivoire’s integration with
West Africa would be disastrous. They do not export to the EU, but
harvest one fifth of their turnover from trade in West Africa. Flour is a
highly sensitive product in the region and their preferential access to markets
is thanks to the ETLS. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each country in the region has to manage its own nuances and
trade interests. For example, Ghana is at a similar stage of development
to Côte d’Ivoire and is facing a similar dilemma, however it has a different
export profile and this has influenced its approach to EPA negotiations.
Ghana’s overall exports to the EU are worth only half of what Côte d’Ivoire
exports. Moreover Ghana has gone further along the path of producing
industrial products for the West African market and has developed a range of
employment-generating sectors such as plastics, pharmaceuticals and wood and
furniture products. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nevertheless, the failure to reach a deal in the EPA
negotiations would see Ghana lose access to the EU market for certain key
commodities such as bananas, tuna and cocoa. Despite the importance of
the regional market for Ghana’s processed products, it would be unlikely to
seriously consider any outcome which resulted in lost access to Europe for
these important commodities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fragmentation of West
African trade policy<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many in West Africa argue that if a regional EPA cannot be
delivered then Côte d’Ivoire should sacrifice its access to the EU market and
prioritise regional integration under the ETLS. Nigeria adopted a similar
path when it chose not to sign an interim EPA in 2007 and saw its preferential
access to the EU downgraded from the Cotonou regime to the less-generous
GSP. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, the trade flows suggest that this would be a much
more difficult decision for Côte d’Ivoire as it is responsible for almost forty
percent of West Africa’s non-oil exports to the EU. Despite the much
larger size of its overall economy, Nigeria’s non-oil exports to the EU are
worth only one third of what Côte d’Ivoire exports. In addition, Côte
d’Ivoire trades more in those products covered by Cotonou but excluded from the
GSP (such as cocoa and bananas), compared to Nigeria’s overwhelming reliance on
petrol exports to the EU which remain duty free even under the GSP regime.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While a bilateral EPA between Côte d’Ivoire and the EU would
undermine West Africa’s goal of integration, the reality is that trade policy
has been fragmented in the region since the EU’s Cotonou regime was found to be
inconsistent with WTO rules in the 1990s. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Out of 16 countries in West Africa (the 15 members of ECOWAS
plus Mauritania which has joined the bloc for the purpose of EPA negotiations),
12 are currently classified as LDCs and qualify for duty-free quota-free
treatment under the EU’s “Everything But Arms” regime. These countries
have tended to be less supportive of opening their markets to competition from
Europe as they have little risk of losing preferential access to the EU in the
near future. Nevertheless, these countries aspire to graduating from LDC
status and would be adversely affected by any developments, which undermine
ECOWAS trade integration. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cape Verde, which graduated from LDC status in 2008, exports
to the EU under a regime which no other West African country shares. In
December 2011, it became the first African country to gain GSP+ access to the
EU market, though this access must be regularly renegotiated and it remains conditional
on satisfying certain criteria relating to human rights, labour rights and the
environment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nigeria has been under the GSP scheme since 2007 and Ghana
and Côte d’Ivoire have had their duty-free quota-free preferences extended
since they initialled interim EPAs in December 2007. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even if Côte d’Ivoire and other non-LDCs in the region
renounce the EPA with the EU, they would still be a long way from having a
harmonised and coherent trade policy in West Africa. There would be
several different regimes governing trade relations with their most important
export destination - the European Union. Further, some countries in the
region have already started entering into bilateral deals with other trade
partners.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next few months will be critical in determining the
future of trade policy in West Africa, especially with regard to access to the
European market and regional integration under the ETLS. Notwithstanding
the different circumstances in each of their economies, ECOWAS countries are working
hard with their civil society, business groups and development partners to find
a solution.<br />
<br />
No deal in the EPA negotiations may turn out to be a very
bad deal for key industries in Côte d’Ivoire and other ECOWAS countries.
They have a strong interest in finding a way to retain an integrated West
African region with continued access to the European market. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Ben Czapnik is an Adviser for the International Trade
Centre. He has worked with the government, private sector and civil society of
Côte d’Ivoire on EPA and regional integration issues under the Programme
d’Appui au Commerce et à l’Intégration Régionale (PACIR)<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>This article initially appeared in <span style="text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges-africa/news/c%C3%B4te-d%E2%80%99ivoire%E2%80%99s-epa-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place">ICTSD</a>'s</span></i><span style="background-color: white;"> <i>Bridges Africa, Volume 3 - Number 5</i></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Photo is courtesy of Desomurchu Archive Gallery<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<i>The views expressed herein are those of the author and do
not necessarily reflect the views of ECDPM </i><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-43387971613481518972014-06-02T10:46:00.000+02:002014-06-02T11:12:26.722+02:00Politics of attendance and no-shows<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h5_rW_KKRfo/U4w4m3dgfuI/AAAAAAAAH10/X-u2fuY2dDg/s1600/%257Bdf4f661e-72fb-46cc-a43c-e6e8dc005b00%257D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h5_rW_KKRfo/U4w4m3dgfuI/AAAAAAAAH10/X-u2fuY2dDg/s1600/%257Bdf4f661e-72fb-46cc-a43c-e6e8dc005b00%257D.jpg" height="240" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Showing up at a summit
can be key to a politician's image and communications strategy, but the power
of a well-planned absence or boycott is all too tempting for some. The sick
no-shows, also, manage to use the doctrine of silence surrounding the health of
African leaders to their advantage. The Europe-Africa summit in April provided
just the right platform for drama brewed in the African pot, writes The Africa Report. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">No-shows at the EU-
Africa summit<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was billed as the people's summit and it was just that –
although not in the way envisaged by the planners of the Africa-European Union
(EU) conference in Brussels on 2-3 April. Among the no-shows, South Africa's
Jacob Zuma led the pack in solidarity with Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, who
boycotted the conference because his wife Grace was refused a visa. The sick
no-shows included Côte d'Ivoire's Alassane Ouattara and Algeria's Abdelaziz
Bouteflika, with the latter also busy running a virtual election campaign.
Morocco's King Mohammed VI declined to attend following rumours that
representatives from the Polisario Front, on South Africa's urging, might be
attending.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Odd couples, rare birds<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among the shows, the star turn was Nigeria's Goodluck
Jonathan, who beamed that his country's economy was bigger than Jacob Zuma's.
There was also a rare sighting of Cameroon's Paul Biya, along with the old
guard Francophone elite, Gabon's Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba and Congo-Brazzaville's
Denis Sassou Nguesso. Despite elections and rocky economies, the euro elite
were out in force. Affectionately known as the 'odd couple', European Council
president Herman Van Rompuy and EU Council vice-president Catherine Ashton were
ubiquitous.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Business and Security<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although the summit was preceded by a business forum,
attended by a large and investment-hungry Zimbabwe delegation, the main
business was security. Central African Republic's (CAR) Catherine Samba-Panza
had meetings with French President Hollande and the United Nations's Ban
Ki-Moon. On the agenda was the despatch of 1,000 European troops to Bangui.
Niger's Mahamadou Issoufou went to brussels with a sheaf of well-prepared
demands for military and development aid. After recent tensions between Mali
and France, Issoufou is now Europe's ally of choice in the Sahel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Keeping the Peace<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The chair of the AU Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma,
jointly ran the key meetings with Van Rompuy, despite her concerns about euro
dominance on security in Africa. there was some confusion, however, about the
AU's attitude to aid offers after the EU pledged €800m ($1.1bn) for its new
African peace facility. Another tactic is being tried by Rwanda's Paul Kagame,
who turned up in brussels having just given an interview to our sister
magazine, Jeune Afrique, accusing the Belgian and French governments of direct
participation in the 1994 genocide. Just 20 years after the genocide, Rwanda
has sent more than 4,500 peacekeeping troops to Sudan, South Sudan, CAR, Côte
d'Ivoire, Liberia and Mali. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This article initially appeared in <a href="http://www.theafricareport.com/North-Africa/politics-of-attendance-and-no-shows-anansi.html">The
Africa Report</a><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Photo is courtesy of The Council of the European
Union</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The views represented are those of the authors, and may not
represent those of ECDPM</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-38465028615367206772014-05-21T16:02:00.002+02:002014-05-21T16:02:29.219+02:00infographic: 10 key facts on EU aid programmes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">This week's infographic comes from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) collecting ten key things to know on the EU's aid programme. Use these graphics to find out more about its size, importance and spending priorities. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K3mA9L9r8z0/U3ywxIWatuI/AAAAAAAAHqo/8uOwKlMzqmg/s1600/10-things-to-know-about-eu-aid-thumbnail_537c8f5720e02_w1500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K3mA9L9r8z0/U3ywxIWatuI/AAAAAAAAHqo/8uOwKlMzqmg/s1600/10-things-to-know-about-eu-aid-thumbnail_537c8f5720e02_w1500.png" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This infographic originally appeared <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px;">here: </span><a href="http://visual.ly/10-things-know-about-eu-aid" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://visual.ly/10-things-know-about-eu-aid</a></span></div>
<div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-65227129232865258082014-05-15T14:26:00.000+02:002014-05-15T14:35:45.730+02:00CHALLENGES FACING DEVELOPMENT IN 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrXLbrP_ytM/U3SyK5QKoeI/AAAAAAAAHZI/-WTQGsTONIw/s1600/6254316412_6a24780874_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrXLbrP_ytM/U3SyK5QKoeI/AAAAAAAAHZI/-WTQGsTONIw/s1600/6254316412_6a24780874_b.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Speech by Juma Mwapachu, President of the Society for
International Development</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>'The major source of injustice today is to be found not so
much in a condition of general scarcity as in the fact of diminishing marginal
utility of man as such, in the fact that millions of people find themselves
idle and useless, often in their very prime of youth.' (Rajni Kothari,
1977, Redesigning the Development Strategy)</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we met in Nairobi in June last year the theme of my
Opening Address was the state of interesting times that coincided with our
meeting. First, was the historic general elections that had taken place in
Kenya and which had brought that country back together after the tragic
post-elections violence of 2007. Unfortunately, the results of that violence continue
to haunt Kenya and have taken a traumatic turn for the new national top
leadership as it faces trial in the International Criminal Court here in The
Hague.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Worse, the implications of the trial have become a major
source of fracture in relations between the African Union and the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and, by extension, the UN Security Council on whose
mandate the ICC exercises its jurisdictional authority. Little wonder that
the <a href="http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/4th-africa-eu-summit"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Fourth
EU-Africa Summit</span></a> Declaration of 4th April this year records the
commitment 'to enhance political dialogue on international criminal justice,
including the issue of universal jurisdiction.'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, was the trend in the performance of the East African
Community region, the fastest economic growth area in Africa in recent years
but equally with the fastest growing population that exhibits a huge youth
bulge, growing unemployment especially amongst the youth and women, declining
education standards, food insecurity partly driven by climate change factors
and partly because science is yet to be adopted to boost agricultural
productivity and serious cases of a whole set of inequalities, social, economic
and political.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Third, was the growing influence of China in the region
sparking a new wave of international cooperation spearheaded mainly by the
United States and Japan. The lingering question is what role citizens play over
such thrusts and outcomes in international cooperation? Could it be that
emerging resource nationalisms in Africa are probably rooted in sheer
disconnections between the political elite and the citizens? Has democracy and
good governance been hijacked by a few political leaders for their own self-interests?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fourth, I offered a snapshot of the state of security in the
region, recalling the genocide in Rwanda whose 20 years history was globally
commemorated last week on 7th April. It would now seem that barbaric human
atrocities never seem to end as so well orchestrated by the on-going Syrian
situation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had remarked last year that these tragic lessons present
for SID the opportunity to open up spaces for national, regional and global
dialogue and conversations around the collective desire of promoting inclusive
social change and transformations. The aim being to heal wounds and catalyse
new vistas of human tolerance, solidarity, cohesion and shared quests for
common prosperity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we meet here today, some of the issues and questions that
I had raised last year still linger on. In fact, some of them, though examined
from the narrow perspective of the East African region, have taken a more
serious posture at the global level. The challenge of inequality stands out
above the rest. Hazel Henderson recently wrote an article titled '<a href="http://www.other-news.info/2013/11/facing-up-to-inequality-new-approaches-beyond-economism/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Facing Up To
Inequality: New Approaches Beyond Economism</span></a>' in which she postulates
as follows:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
'Grim recent studies reveal the shocking increase in
inequality globally, both between and within countries. Anti-poverty economic
policies since World War II have done little, except for their notable success
in China. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Worldwide, the share of nations' productivity increases
going to employees is shrinking-while the share to capital owners, financial
firms, corporations and their top executives as mushroomed. Old economic
textbooks remedies for rising inequality still call for more growth. Yet
economic growth is slowing in most mature economies. In still growing China,
India, Brazil and other emerging countries, the growth remedies lead to greater
inequality as well as destroying traditional livelihoods polluting vital common
resources: air, water, forests and bio-diversity.'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The author proceeds to point out that 'structural
unemployment and jobless growth are accelerating inequality.' This
position reminds me of a 1977 book article contribution by the celebrated
Indian social scientist, the late <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajni_Kothari"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Rajni Kothari</span></a>, titled,
'Redesigning the Development Strategy' in which Professor Kothari posits that
'The major source of injustice today is to be found not so much in a condition
of general scarcity as in the fact of diminishing marginal utility of man as
such, in the fact that millions of people find themselves idle and useless,
often in their very prime of youth.'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a realistic representation of cruel conditions that
obtain in many countries today. In South Africa, for example, the surge in social
and political tension and instability, interposed by frequent mine workers'
strikes, is not because Nelson Mandela, the architect and symbol of a tolerant
social order and a sense of a possible future of hope for the majority South
Africans, is no more. Rather, it is because two decades after the unshackling
of apartheid, poverty and inequality are now more pronounced and brought into
the open by the democratic environment. Moreover, the wealth divide along
racial lines, minus for a few black billionaires who have benefitted from the
Black Economic Empowerment Programme, has taken a more heightened posture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whilst the inequality situation is extreme in South Africa,
it is the pervasive disease that devours most African countries. SID's <a href="http://soea.sidint.net/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">State of East Africa Report 2013</span></a> has
exposed the depth of inequalities in the East African Community countries,
manifested in heightened levels of joblessness, income inequalities, high
levels of malnutrition, generally poor quality of education and high levels of
illiteracy, minimum power and resources by citizens to hold governments to
account reflective of unequal distribution of opportunity and rewards of
growth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may seem like a paradox, but inequality is equally
proving to be a condition of serious gravity in the rich countries as well. In
his magisterial book, '<a href="http://www.josephstiglitz.com/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Price of
Inequality-How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future'</span></a>, Nobel
Laureate, Joseph E. Stigliz argues that 'Unemployment - the inability of the
market to generate jobs for so many citizens-is the worst failure of the
market, the greatest source of inefficiency, and a major cause of inequality'.
Stiglitz visualises social cohesion being transformed into class warfare in
countries like the United States.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overall, the challenge of inequalities in Africa has cost
some governments to lose political power. I need not go into the causes of the
Arab Spring because I believe that it is now common knowledge that high levels
of unemployment, especially among the youth, coupled with declining wages in
relation to real costs of living, lay at the heart of those citizen- managed
and directed revolutions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Inevitably, there is now serious concern in many countries that if not quickly
and effectively addressed, inequalities could soon become the main source of
social and political instability in Africa. As Professor Stiglitz cautions in
his book above referred to, 'when the social contract gets broken, social
cohesion quickly erodes.'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second lingering issue centres on the state of
international cooperation. In many respects the struggle for investment and aid
supremacy in Africa and especially in the East African region continues with
the Chinese still in the forefront though the US is increasingly promoting its
private firms to invest in the power sector. Paradoxically, Chinese investments
remain focused in metals and in supporting transport infrastructure development
with little interest in the mining and oil and gas sectors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where traditional international cooperation seems destined
to suffer is in the area of multilateral trade agreements. Emerging Asia,
especially China, India and somewhat the Arab Gulf States, are becoming the
major trading partners of sub-Saharan Africa.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a result, it would not be strange to see a steady erosion
in interest from SSA countries over the WTO Doha Development Agenda and the
Economic Partnership Agreements. The deemed traditional mutual gains out of
trade between sub-Saharan Africa and the European Union may slowly become
skewed much as countries that trade with the EU in cut flowers and frozen lake
fillet fish may suffer loss in exports returns.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, there are moves towards exports diversification
that respond to resultant downsides in this trade paradigm. Even then,
sub-Saharan Africa countries would have to seriously assess the broader
negative impact that may take place beyond trade as a result of such shifts in
trading relationships.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In particular, the strong partnership that has been built
between the EU and Africa in the peace and security architecture born out of
the Lisbon Summit Agreements in 2007 may prove to be quite onerous.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recently I have read a book by the British politician, Liam
Fox titled, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rising-Tides-Facing-Challenges-New/dp/178206740X"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">'Rising
Tides-Facing Challenges of a New Era</span></a>' and he makes one very profound
statement about the changing dynamic of world order. Mr Fox asserts:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
'How is the world likely to evolve? I have thought for some
time that if the twentieth century was the era of the block-the economic block,
the military block and the trade block-then the twenty-first century is likely
to be the era of the organic solution. We will need to find new partnerships,
new alliances, and new mechanisms to deal with a whole new range of challenges.
We will need to develop new levers to pull in a wide variety of situations-the
age of the one-size-fits-all solution is, I think, behind us. Should this fill
us with dread? Not at all. In fact, I believe there are reasons to be
optimistic about our ability to create novel solutions to our common problems.'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At a time when global society had settled down to accepting
a new world order after the fall of the Berlin war and the territorial
re-configuration of the Soviet Union and Russia becoming integrated in the G-8,
there are creeping signs of a return to cold war rhetoric and politics.
Russia's military intervention into Ukrainian territory and the annexation of
the Crimean Peninsula in Southern Ukraine ostensibly following a plebiscite in
Crimea supporting unification with Russia has serious implications for global
peace and security.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coming in the wake of two costly wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the United States is unfortunately left weary. The EU has also
gone through three to four years of serious economic stress and turmoil and its
political strength has weakened. Moreover, the global economy, especially of
the advanced economies, is generally experiencing a below par economic growth
with high levels of unemployment and stark inequalities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is an environment that is not conducive to supporting
ideal levels of international cooperation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Juma V.
Mwapachu is President of SID and former Secretary General of the East
African Community (EAC). This was his keynote speech delivered to the Society
for International Development’s Governing Council. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Photo courtesy of NASA<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The views represented are
those of the authors, and may not represent those of ECDPM</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">This speech was originally published by the <a href="http://www.sidint.net/content/challenges-facing-development-2014-sid-president-keynote-speech-delivered-sid-governing-coun">Society for International Development</a></b><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-91500753265382039652014-05-05T15:00:00.000+02:002014-05-05T15:00:06.771+02:00Africa: an increasingly powerful post-2015 player?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-eef889fd-cc51-3f85-e61f-d0fd309b06bd"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LSpTRIKIqvU/U2eKpyGVJxI/AAAAAAAAHGg/SOnNhBSNnME/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-05+at+14.48.35.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LSpTRIKIqvU/U2eKpyGVJxI/AAAAAAAAHGg/SOnNhBSNnME/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-05+at+14.48.35.png" height="319" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b><span style="color: #444444;">The common African post-2015 position and the continent’s role in the negotiations</span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1666666666666665; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #444444;">by Saskia Hollander</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-eef889fd-cc69-4ec9-e917-6b9c924b194c" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the past few years, Africa’s economic self-confidence on the global stage has grown. A number of African countries are experiencing remarkable levels of economic growth and – due to newly established partnerships with emerging economies like China, Brazil and India – have become less dependent on traditional aid flows from the North. The continent’s increased economic self-assurance resonates in the post-2015 process, where African countries form a strong alliance with other developing countries in the G77. Africa’s successful effort to draft a common post-2015 strategy once more underscores its footprint in the post-2015 process. The question however remains whether, in the coming period, internal differences and diversity will throw a spanner in the works. </span><a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1666666666666665; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The process of formulating the MDGs has been widely criticized for being a donor-oriented and donor-led exercise, characterized by a lack of voice and ownership by developing countries. To get their voice heard and integrated in the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda, African countries recently tried to close ranks and have presented a </span><a href="http://www.salo.org.za/common-african-position-cap-on-the-post-2015-development-agenda/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Common African Position</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (CAP), launched in March this year. With the aim of strengthening African countries’ bargaining position both in the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in the international negotiations starting in September this year, the CAP marks a changed relationship between the North and the South and Africa’s increased self-confidence in a changed global context.</span></div>
<h4 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1666666666666665; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-top: 12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Redefining old relations</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Africa is no longer seen as a ‘lost’ continent, and despite cross-country variation, many countries, such as Nigeria and Angola, are doing remarkably well in terms of </span><a href="http://www.ventures-africa.com/2013/12/africas-5-best-performing-economies-2013/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GDP growth</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The continent’s exclusive dependency on the North, in terms of aid and trade, is eroding as emerging powers like China, Brazil and India increasingly have a finger in the pie.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this context, it is not surprising that a revitalization and redefinition of the EU-Africa relationship was once again the main objective of the fourth </span><a href="http://www.european-council.europa.eu/eu-africa-summit-2014" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">EU-Africa summit</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> held on 2-3 April. While Africa-EU relations are still of vital importance for the continent, the objective of moving from a donor-recipient relationship to one based on equal partnership, is clearly </span><a href="http://africaeu2014.blogspot.nl/2014/04/differences-on-sanctions-and.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">overshadowed</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by African criticism on EU sanctions and conditionality, and ongoing disagreements over the signing of the European Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). With more partners to choose from in the global arena, Africa is likely to see its bargaining power in international negotiations becoming enhanced.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The end of business as usual</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Africa’s increased self-confidence also marks its role in the post-2015 process. Business as usual, whereby goals and targets are simply devised for developing countries, can no longer be the point of departure. The African Union (AU) has urged its member states to use the CAP as a negotiation instrument, enabling Africa to play a pro-active role, and to prevent its ambitions from being swallowed up by the traditional players. Africa asserts that it knows what is good for the continent, and no longer accepts that the advanced countries dictate its development path. In this, it surely sees its bargaining power strengthened by last year’s </span><a href="http://www.post2015hlp.org/the-report/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">report</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the High Level Panel (HLP), which already formulated a vision similar to the African post-2015 strategy, and the OWG’s focus area </span><a href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3276focusareas.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">document</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, launched in February this year, which largely reflects the priorities outlined in the CAP. Also important in this respect is the fact that a significant number of post-2015 positions are held by African officials: the HLP was co-chaired by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the OWG is co-chaired by Kenyan Permanent Representative Macharia Kamau, and the Experts Committee on Sustainable Development Financing is co-chaired by Nigerian Mansur Muhtar.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A joint African strategy</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, despite African countries’ assessment of the strategic value of adopting a common position, drafting the CAP has proven a daunting task, given the wide variety of nations that make up the African continent. The process of formulating the CAP started relatively late. During the 21</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">st</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> AU Summit in Ethiopia in May 2013, the AU established a High Level Committee (HLC), consisting of 10 heads of state </span><a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and chaired by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The HLC was mandated to finalize a demand-driven joint African post-2015 perspective and to build regional and intercontinental alliances around it. In drafting the CAP, the HLC committed itself to include the outcomes of the various national, regional and continental consultations held in Africa. </span><a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eight months later, at the 22</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">nd</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> AU Summit in January 2014, the CAP was adopted by the AU General Assembly and the final text was launched at the end of March. The CAP consists of six pillars on which the SDGs should be built:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Structural economic transformation and inclusive growth</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science, technology and innovation</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People-centred development</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Environmental sustainability, natural resource management, and disaster risk management</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peace & security</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finance and partnership</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the final text of the CAP does further specify these pillars, it remains unclear how the AU would like to see them translated into specific goals and targets. </span><a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Structural economic transformation</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most emphasis is placed on a structural transformation of Africa’s economic development model, marked as top priority in the CAP. In several OWG-sessions, the African Group has also proposed a stand-alone goal on structural economic transformation, which should include sustained economic and inclusive growth, sustainable agriculture, industrialization and value addition to export commodities, employment and decent jobs, infrastructure and energy. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Promoting such a fundamental change in the structure of African economies is part of a broader AU long-term strategy as exposed in its </span><a href="http://agenda2063.au.int/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Agenda 2063</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and endorsed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quarrels over peace and security</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the more contentious areas was the peace & security pillar. This was only added to the CAP during a </span><a href="http://ea.au.int/fr/sites/default/files/Final%20Communique%CC%81%20-EN.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">closed HLC session on 28 February in Chad</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> after the AU General Assembly had explicitly requested the HLC to add this pillar to the framework during the AU Summit in January 2014. Initially, the HLC was of the opinion that peace and security did not come out of the regional consultations as a key priority to be framed as a development pillar, but as a development enabler. Moreover, the issue was mainly pushed by Liberia (chair of the HLC) and African civil society. The AfDB is also said to have played an important part in this, as it recently launched a </span><a href="http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-and-Operations/Ending_Conflict_and_Building_Peace_in_Africa-_A_Call_to_Action.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">report </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in which the importance of building peace and security is recognized as a ‘precondition for progress in other areas’.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This pillar thus marks the likely fragile character of the joint African vision, since African countries largely disagree on its significance and interpretation. This is for example exposed in the draft expert </span><a href="http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-documents/SDG/2013/sdg-africa-regional-report.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">report </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of the regional consultations where peace and security was ranked as the highest priority by the Central African region, but only the fourth (out of four) priority for North Africa, eighth out of ten for West Africa, and not mentioned at all as a priority by East Africa and the Southern African region. Despite being added as a pillar to the CAP, some countries </span><a href="http://cic.nyu.edu/blog/global-development/role-peace-and-security-post-2015-agenda-perspective-african-states-and-ldcs" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fear</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that a focus on security and the rule of law will make the agenda too exhaustive and will divert attention away from conventional economic development priorities. </span><a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Other countries, especially in Northern Africa, perceive the inclusion of peace and security as an agenda of the West, and fear a punitive and securitized approach. In the OWG, this has led </span><a href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/6425egypt2.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Egypt</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to explicitly argue against incorporating the issue in the post-2015 agenda. Moreover, sensitivities are further fed by ongoing debates about the International Criminal Court, which are causing fractures not only in Africa-EU relations, but also between African countries themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, the precise definition of peace and security remains largely unclear. The CAP upholds a broad interpretation by only mentioning conflict-prevention measures, likely due to disagreements on a more holistic approach that includes issues like human rights and the rule of law. Such disagreements are revealed in the country interventions in the OWG, where the importance of peace and security was stressed by Benin, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia, but with slightly various meanings. </span><a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While </span><a href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/8022southafrica2.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Africa</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> emphasized human rights and the rule of law, </span><a href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/6395uganda1.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Uganda </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><a href="http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/6668rwanda.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rwanda </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mainly discussed the conflict-prevention and resolution aspects of the issue.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dominant players</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It thus remains to be seen to what extent Africa will be able to present itself as one bloc during the negotiations. Overall consensus on the priorities might well </span><a href="http://www.saferworld.org.uk/news-and-views/comment/126-the-common-african-position-on-post-2015-implications-for-peacebuilding" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mask</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> cross-country differences when the pillars are to be translated into specific goals and targets. The likelihood of this scenario is strengthened by the observation that in many African countries, due to a lack of financial and human resources, there is still a lack of awareness of and involvement in the post-2015 process. Except for the foreign affairs departments, other relevant departments, such as those dealing with social and economic affairs, have not yet been sufficiently involved in the process. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, relatively powerful African countries, especially those represented in the HLC, played a dominant role in the process of drafting and adopting the CAP. The AfDB and specific thematic departments of the AU Commission, in particular Economic Affairs, Trade and Industry and Infrastructure, are also said to have left their mark on the content of the CAP, as can be seen from the priority given to trade and infrastructure. Now that the CAP is slowly trickling down to the national level, country and departmental priorities and interests may prove to deviate from those of the dominant players, especially on the more contentious issues.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Going South or going North?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As there remains national space for African countries to identify their own post-2015 priorities, a relevant question is which way the African pendulums will swing during the upcoming negotiations. Does Africa’s increased self-confidence and vitalized relationship with the BRIC-countries imply that Africa is turning its back to the North?African countries certainly uphold a strong North-South rhetoric, also in the OWG negotiations, by pursuing a different economic development model. They form a strong alliance with other G77 partners when it comes to developing countries’ representation and participation in the global economic and financial architecture. Moreover, clashes with the North most definitely come into play when it comes to means of implementation. Besides urging OECD countries to fulfil their previous ODA commitments and consistent references to the Common But Differentiated Responsibility principle (CBDR), Africa strongly endorses the current G77’s calls to attach financial mechanisms to each specific SDG and associated targets, which is one of the most critical issues in the current OWG discussions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the same time, African leaders acknowledge that it is in the interest of Africa, both economically and politically, to maintain strong ties with the North. Moreover, when differences over finance are set aside, African post-2015 priorities, especially when they relate to the more ‘traditional’ development issues such as health, gender and social protection, largely resonate with those of its Northern partners. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aligning with multiple partners, from the North and increasingly from the South, is indeed enabling Africa to play a significant role in the process. In this respect, the CAP is seen as a vital instrument, as it provides a negotiation framework on which intercontinental alliances can be formed. At the same time, much of its significance depends on the extent to which it will trickle down to African governments and whether ownership can be built on African priorities.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Saskia Hollander works as a research editor for The Broker. She is also writing her PhD thesis on direct democratic reform in Europe.</b></span><div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This article first appeared in <a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player">The Broker</a> </b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a guest post; views may not represent that of ECDPM</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The arguments presented in this article are based on official documents, as well as interviews conducted with staff members from African institutions and research and civil society organizations, in order to gain insights into African post-2015 priorities.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Algeria, Chad, Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Launched by UNDP, the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Union Commission (AUC), and the African Development Bank (AfDB).</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While the CAP was originally drafted to serve as a negotiation document for the international post-2015 negotiations, African institutions, like the AfDB and UNECA, now urge that the CAP should be extended to include specific African development goals to be pursued next to the post-2015 development goals.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In this respect however, interviewees point to a gap between the position of African governments and African civil society: African civil society largely embraces a rights-based approach with focus on human rights, rule of law, transparency and accountability, while at AU member state level peace and security is largely detached from the rule of law.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Africa-an-increasingly-powerful-post-2015-player#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This finding does not coincide with the outcomes of the regional consultations, where peace and security was not mentioned as a priority by the Southern African region.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-67052840642069521292014-04-28T13:54:00.002+02:002014-05-05T10:52:49.808+02:00The Global Game Has Changed : What Role For Europe-Africa Relations?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U36TZOcRdew/U15BJ4-zMlI/AAAAAAAAG7w/23xlilJjWLU/s1600/6486627249_eb2122f37c_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U36TZOcRdew/U15BJ4-zMlI/AAAAAAAAG7w/23xlilJjWLU/s1600/6486627249_eb2122f37c_b.jpg" height="255" width="400" /></a></div>
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The conference intends to look back at what the EU-Africa partnership has achieved so far – including the outcomes of the IV summit – and exchange views about the opportunities and challenges to EU-Africa relations now as in the next few years, in a context of rapidly evolving continental and global dynamics. Having as basis the need for a political and mental shift in these relations, the debates will focus on:<br />
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The main changes in the priorities, needs, expectations and ambitions of both continents in recent years, assessing what has been achieved and how persistent challenges have been addressed;</div>
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The added-value of EU-Africa relations vis a vis the growing diversification of flows and partners for Africa, as well as the potential for increased dialogue and cooperation between this multitude of players;</div>
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What should the partnership aim at in the near future and where should both parties focus on to ensure broader participation, improve cooperation and reinforce political dialogue, including on global issues:<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The flyer for the event can be found <a href="http://ecdpm.org/wp-content/uploads/ConfEuropaAfrica_Flyer-finalissimo-1.pdf">here</a> </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The confirmed speakers profiles can be found <a href="http://ecdpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Oradores-confirmados_versao-publica-FINAL.docx">here</a> </span></b><br />
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This event is partnered with and organised by the following organisations:<br />
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<a href="http://ecdpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2014-04-28-at-12.25.15.png"><img src="http://ecdpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2014-04-28-at-12.25.15-300x43.png" /></a></div>
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Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.glynlowe.com/">Glyn Lowe</a></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-71826637121035055072014-04-28T11:52:00.002+02:002014-04-28T11:56:27.740+02:00Building a true partnership between Africa and Europe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;">Africans expect an
equal partnership not a one-sided relationship between former colonies and
their once occupying powers</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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When EU and African Heads of State met in Brussels at the
start of April they were presented with the opportunity to begin to forge a new
partnership between two continents that have had a long and sometimes troubled
relationship.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Africans expect an equal partnership not a one-sided
relationship between former colonies and their once occupying powers. The <a href="http://www.european-council.europa.eu/eu-africa-summit-2014">EU-Africa Summit</a> has come at the end of an unusual
period of both tension and increased cooperation between Europe and the nations
of Africa, with both sides wanting to work together but seemingly struggling at
times to understand the concerns and actions of the other.</div>
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How this period of flux settles may well decide the course
of our relations for a generation. The reasons behind this change in the tone of our relations
are complex, but some of the causes are easy to identify. The last decade has seen a transformation across much of
Africa: democracy has taken root and now most sub-Saharan countries hold
regular democratic elections. Sustained growth of over 6% has doubled average
GDP per head and Africa has shifted from being seen as a perpetual recipient of
donor aid to becoming a centre for global investment with over $2.7 trillion
dollars of FDI pouring into the continent.</div>
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This trend suggests a lessening reliance on Europe by
African nations yet there is much that we can both gain from partnership. Even as Africa has for some years now been one of the
fastest growing economic regions, with 6 out the 10 fastest growing economies
in the world, while others have flatlined, European countries with their
multi-trillion euro industrialised economies have much to offer in terms of
investment, know-how and knowledge transfer. But increasingly Africans expect
an equal partnership not a one-sided relationship between former colonies and
their once occupying powers.</div>
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Sometimes we in Africa have felt European nations have not
always appreciated that being independent means we will make decisions other
countries do not agree with.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A case in point is the International Criminal Court. Funded
primarily by European nations this intergovernmental institution has been a cause
for considerable concern. Many Africans are baffled by the continuing charges against
a democratically elected sitting Head of State, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, not
least when the ICC’s prosecutor has admitted publicly she has no compelling
evidence against him. The African Union has voiced its concerns that the ICC is in
danger of becoming a geopolitical tool for its funders rather than a judicial
instrument for all its signatories. My own President Yoweri Museveni has
indicated that an example of this is the clear request by the African Union to
the UN to halt trials; the request was then not supported by the European
permanent members of the UN Security Council.</div>
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Similarly, for many years a number of African countries have
been criticised for adopting forms of government that some in Europe felt were
not being democratic enough and failed to adequately reflect the wishes of
their populations. However, when democratically elected African governments,
such as in Uganda, have reached decisions that have overwhelming public support
in our countries, especially on social issues, they have been condemned. Again, we are left wondering is democratic accountability in
Africa only important when the views expressed chime with those held by people
outside our continent?</div>
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Yet these sources of tension are in contrast to the
increased interdependence between Europe and Africa over matters of security. Where
once Africa was overly dependent on European countries as guarantors of
stability and peace now European and African nations work together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For example the last twelve months have seen France in
cooperation with a multi-country African force target the Islamist threat in
Mali, and intervene in the Central African Republic. Off the coast of Somalia
the <a href="http://eunavfor.eu/">EUNAVFOR</a> naval operation has reduced piracy in conjunction with African
nations' navies. But even with this increased partnership Africa is now, more
than at any other time in the last 50 years, managing its own security affairs.</div>
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Uganda has been at the forefront of much of this new
self-sufficiency providing the largest contingent of troops to the African
Union <a href="http://amisom-au.org/">AMISOM</a> peacekeeping mission to Somalia that has pushed back Islamic
militants and allowed the development of democratic government. Similarly in
South Sudan Uganda heeded a request from the elected administration to
intervene to reduce the potentially devastating actions by rebel forces. Though disagreements and tensions are bound to arise between
EU-African countries in the future the summit provided an opportunity to resolve
some of the issues that have been coming to the fore.</div>
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It is in all of our interests to try to respect each others'
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that Europe and Africa can forge ahead together in our increasingly multi-polar
and interdependent world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Hon. Sam Kutesa (<a href="https://twitter.com/samkutesa">@samkutesa</a>) is Foreign Minister of the Republic of
Uganda</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>This article first appeared in <a href="http://euobserver.com/opinion/123831">EUObserver</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>This is a guest post; views may not represent that of ECDPM</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>Photo courtesy of The Council of the European Union</b></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-63233387654386642172014-04-17T14:47:00.000+02:002014-04-17T14:47:11.584+02:00INFOGRAPHIC : Africans abroad paying more to send money home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This week's infographic comes from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) that accompanies the launch of their <a href="http://www.odi.org.uk/remittances-africa">report</a> on the effect of transfer fees on the levels of remittances to Africa.<br />
<br />
According to ODI, these excessive fees cost the African continent $1.8 billion
a year; enough money to pay for the primary school education of 14 million
children in the region.<br />
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This is because workers are paying an average of 12% in fees
to transfer money back to relatives in sub-Saharan Africa. To put that in
context, a worker sending $200 home to provide for a relative’s education would
incur a $25 fee.<br />
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The global community pledged to cut remittance charges to 5%
by 2014, yet this ‘super tax’ shows there is a long way to go.<br />
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Our report urges governments to increase competition in
money transfer remittances and to establish greater transparency on how fees
are set by all market operators.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2236053243145291456.post-25873598379038086952014-04-14T11:46:00.000+02:002014-04-14T12:02:10.019+02:00Conference “The Global Game has Changed: What Role for Europe-Africa Relations?”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--RLjSOyocDA/U0uuKLDgBwI/AAAAAAAAGtI/ghowXakESVI/s1600/3952415569_359425d3d2_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--RLjSOyocDA/U0uuKLDgBwI/AAAAAAAAGtI/ghowXakESVI/s1600/3952415569_359425d3d2_b.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul class="event-meta-list" style="background-color: white; color: #464e54; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; list-style-position: inside; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="list-style-type: none;"><strong>Start:</strong> 29 de April 2014, às 09:45</li>
<li style="list-style-type: none;"><strong>Venue:</strong> <span itemprop="location" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Place"><span itemprop="name">Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian</span><span itemprop="address" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"> (<span itemprop="streetAddress">Avenida de Berna</span>, <span itemprop="addressLocality">Lisboa</span></span>)</span></li>
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<br />
How can EU-Africa relations move forward? This is the
core question to debate in the Seminar, which intends to look back at what the
EU-Africa partnership has achieved so far – including the outcomes of the IV
Summit – and exchange views about the opportunities and challenges to EU-Africa
relations now as in the next few years, in a context of rapidly evolving
continental and global dynamics.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is a need for a political and mental shift in the way
we perceive the EU-Africa partnership, as well as a need for a clear definition
of interests and of the parties’ mutual responsibility for this partnership to
move forward towards an effective political dialogue. Therefore, the seminar
will discuss and reflect on the following key issues:<o:p></o:p></div>
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(i) The main changes in the priorities, needs, expectations
and ambitions of both continents in recent years, assessing what has been
achieved and how persistent challenges have been addressed;<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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(ii) The added-value of EU-Africa relations vis a vis the
growing diversification of flows and partners for Africa, as well as the
potential for increased dialogue and cooperation between this multitude of
players;<o:p></o:p></div>
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(iii) What should the partnership aim at in the near future
and where should both parties focus on to ensure broader participation, improve
cooperation and reinforce political dialogue, including on global issues.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is an optimal time to gather decision-makers, civil
society representatives, academics, entrepreneurs and other interested
stakeholders around multidisciplinary, policy-oriented and open discussions on
the future of EU-Africa relations. We look forward to your participation!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://cei.iscte-iul.pt/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Confirmed-Speakers1.pdf"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Confirmed
Speakers</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://cei.iscte-iul.pt/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ConfEuropaAfrica-Folheto_final.pdf"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Final
Programme</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://cei.iscte-iul.pt/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/EUAfrica_LisbonSeminar29042014_outline-panelsEN.pdf"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Sessions
outline</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Free entrance, upon registration that can be done <a href="mailto:http://cei.iscte-iul.pt/en/eventos/evento/conference-the-global-game-has-changed-what-role-for-europe-africa-relations-2/">here</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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The partner organisations have organised a seminar on this
theme in Lisbon, on December 2012 – the report can be accessed <a href="http://www.imvf.org/ficheiros/file/relatorioconfueafrica13122012_imvfproceeedingsfinal.pdf"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">here</span></a>.<br />
<br />
The Europe-Africa Policy Research Network (EARN) launched,
in 2010, a publication on EU-Africa relations, available <span style="color: windowtext;"><a href="http://europafrica.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/beyond-development-aid.pdf">here.</a></span></div>
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Please also see the <span style="color: windowtext;"><a href="http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/">official website of the Partnership.</a></span><br />
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Photo Courtesy of Rustam Aliyev</div>
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