Africa & Global Observatory

SOME SILVER LININGS MAY actually be showing up around the dark clouds coalescing over Africa’s sky. Depending on some unfolding realities, the continent may be able to weather the storm. If Africa is able to seize on the gathering momentum as well as the opportune moment and sustain a tempo of positive change, some harms could be averted. But that depends on the word “if.” If Africa is able to convert to advantage the flurry of diplomatic platforms opening up to it from some richer and more advanced economies, the fortune of the continent could be turned around for the better in some significant ways. In the past couple of years, heads of governments from African countries have been receiving invitations and have been attending summits in which interests of Africa and host countries convening the summits are top considerations. In 2018 and 2021, the seventh and eighth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summits have been held in Beijing and Dakar respectively.

Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD) 7 meeting was held in Yokohama, Japan. TICAD event was organised by the Government of Japan, the United Nations, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank, and the African Union Commission (AUC).The Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) was to be held in Tunisia in July 16, 2020, a period which later turned out to become a peak of COVID-19 lockdown in many countries globally. The first Russia-Africa Summit was held on October 2019 in Sochi, Russia. The summit was co-hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Since China and Japan have adopted alternation of summits between their home countries and Africa, a new era of high-level multi-country summits seems set to dawn on Africa. An opportunity to bring in fresh new angles to the risks and prospects of Africa was the basis for discussions here. It will be rather too early to be too optimistic about remarkable turnaround for Africa at this point, but it is important to be hopeful for positive changes all the same.

Last week Thursday and Friday, in Brussels, were dedicated to the 6th European Union-African Union Summit, including its sub-regions. The seriousness of the meeting was underscored in the opening speech by European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, who openly reminisced over her recent trips to Africa and said she saw some interesting things worth the attention within the continent. Her statements will be copiously quoted here and sometimes repeated verbatim to ensure that the sense she sought to portray is not lost. She said that when she newly assumed her role as President of the European Commission, she “emphasised that Africa would be the key partner in building the world we want to live in. And the very first trip abroad of the new Commission, the College of Commissioners, was to visit the African Union – Moussa Faki – in Addis Ababa.” She had subsequently met President Macky Sall in Senegal in the latter’s capacity as President of the African Union. Summarising her motivation for a renewed affinity for Africa, she said “we all share the same vision: We want to create stability, prosperity for our people. And of course, for that, we need economic and social dynamism. And this Summit is the perfect opportunity to discuss how we are going to work together, how we are making our joint ambitions a reality.

It seems clearer that the EU has eventually seen reasons for returning to Africa after long period of deliberate neglect and abandonment. Von der Leyen indicated that the EU would now want to talk to Africa about “solid, tangible investment.” In her details, she talked about Global Gateway, describing it as “a strategy for investment in infrastructure and in people.” She was obviously convinced that the “most precious investment you can do is the investment in people,” just as she expressed the EU’s readiness to invest “in quality infrastructure – connecting people and goods and services.” Another remarkable thing she said was her emphasis on “a values-based approach, …transparency and good governance.” In her speech laced with repetitions, von der Leyen maintained that “we want to turn Global Gateway into a trusted brand around the world,” which “muster Europe’s power to unlock unprecedented levels of investment, not only public but also private capital.” Then came the bombshell of “a package of at least EUR 150 billion for Africa for the next seven years,” an amount equivalent to about $170 billion.

It might be appropriate to ask “where have these people been all through these past years? Or, what led to this rather sudden