Building on ‘developmental peace’

Head of pan-African think tank says China’s approach plays to continent’s strengths

China is gaining ground in Africa because of its successful approach to, and implementation of, “developmental peace”, says Peter Kagwanja, the president of the Africa Policy Institute, a pan-African think tank based in Nairobi, Kenya.

For the past four decades, since China’s successful implementation of reform and opening-up policy, it has developed and followed a creative approach in addressing social and economic challenges — an approach it has replicated in Africa, too, according to Kagwanja, who adds that trade and investment are areas in which China is currently gaining favor in Africa.

“Peaceful development means empowering people to empower themselves,” he says. “It is hard to manipulate a people that believes it has a stake in the community’s development, people who have hope. The middle class are the defenders of democracy.”

Kagwanja, who is also the institute’s CEO, says developmental peace is the foundation on which the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was established, offering both China and Africa a platform on which to formulate and implement goals based on this approach.

“Africa wants a partner who believes in its developmental growth. China definitely offers a different approach that gives play to our strengths and prevailing environment,” he says, adding that China is doing this through FOCAC.

The third FOCAC summit will be held in Beijing in September. With several meetings already taking place in Kenya and China to build momentum while shaping discussions for the forthcoming summit, Kagwanja’s new book, Paving Africa’s Silk Road: China-Africa Relations in the 21st Century — The Development Turn, offers a glimpse of these discussions.

He says the book idea came from deep reflection and extensive research while preparing for the second FOCAC summit, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2015. During the meeting, President Xi Jinping announced a financial commitment of $60 billion and announced a 10-point comprehensive plan for finance, capacity building and infrastructural development as the driver of Africa’s independent development.

“It is valuable input into the ongoing conversation around China-Africa relations in a highly globalized world,” says Kagwanja.

A lot of information was gathered during that time, he says. “But one thing that was clear is our determination to move away from history and build a better future. It is a convergence of dreams,” he says. “When you find a partner who believes in shared prosperity based on mutual respect, equality, nonhegemonic and harmonious existence and does not dictate a model of governance, then there is mutual belief in the win-win approach. There are many commonalities we share.”

In the book, Kagwanja says that despite China’s rise, it cannot ignore Africa, which is the last frontier. The continent continues to be the main source of strategic natural resources and has the world’s fastest-growing and youngest population.

“In the 21st century, the destiny of the two civilizations is inextricably linked. In 2000, China formed FOCAC as the spearhead of its engagement with Africa, marked by a sharp development turn in Sino-Africa relations,” he writes.

Notably, goals earmarked during the three-year FOCAC implementation period have been beleaguered by rising anti-globalization senti- In his new book, ment and sluggish economic growth in Africa due to depressed commodity prices.

Nevertheless, a lot has been gained during the period as well, and infrastructure modernization stands out. The Abuja-Kaduna railway in Nigeria, the Mombasa-Nairobi rail line in Kenya and the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway in East Africa have been completed using Chinese technology and financing.

An underdeveloped sector has been Africa’s dilapidated infrastructure, which is unable to support the continent’s ambitions and booming population. “Built decades ago, in spite of fueling the mushrooming of cities along the railway, they were not interconnected,” Kagwanja says. “The new railway designed by Africans themselves will be interconnected and support intra-African trade.”

He says he is confident that the FOCAC summit this year will align the forum’s goals with the continent’s Agenda 2063, a development blueprint that has resulted in the recent launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The AfCFTA, signed by 44 presidents and heads of states in Kigali, Rwanda, in March, underpins the continent’s growth in intra-Africa trade in manufactured goods.

Infrastructure expansion is likely to bring an uptick in borrowing as African governments increase their spending, Kagwanja says.

“Africa’s leadership is now acutely aware of the cost of building new infrastructure. But we cannot stop eating because of fear of choking. I think the most important conversation now should be around debt sustainability. This is in addition to ChinaAfrica industrialization and agriculture modernization programs. These are going to be the big three in FOCAC.”

Moreover, Africa is acutely aware that transportation infrastructure alone is not feasible, and an ecosystem around it should also be considered, he says.

“Attention needs to be put on modernizing ports to ensure they support the viability of the railroad. Such projects also need an effective management model to prevent it from collapsing, and thus the need to launch capacity building programs. All these are additional costs.”

Other issues that are likely to become clearer at the upcoming FOCAC summit will be China’s increasing role in Africa’s security and its position on trilateral partnerships. “China has been seen as a protector of the developing world and has taken a stance contrary to other permanent members in the (United Nations) Security Council besides Russia”, says the scholar.

“Its policy is in working with multilateral, established organizations such as the UN and the African Union. It has also responded to humanitarian disasters. China uses soft power in Africa and not hard.

“China believes in solutions designed by Africans themselves, and this has always been its policy. But increasingly it has been forced to step in, in situations such as mediating peace in South Sudan. FOCAC may therefore give us a clearer picture.”

On trilateral relations, Kagwanja says: “To widen and deepen the impact of FOCAC, China should continue engaging Africa using existing agencies.”

Nonetheless, Africa has reaped big benefits from FOCAC, he says. It has strategically repositioned Africa back to a global platform. This has been witnessed by an upsurge in emerging partners such as Turkey, India, Russia and Middle East nations that are eager to do business with the continent.

There is also growing confidence that Africa can reverse its fortunes, Kagwanja says. “It is not by coincidence that Africa is proactively participating in global discussions over issues such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the (UN) Sustainable Development Goals that borrowed heavily from the Agenda 2063.”

Peter Kagwanja says Africa has the world’s fastest-growing and youngest population. new book.

LUCIE MORANGI / CHINA DAILY