I'm a Proud African Union (AU) Citizen!

Africa has hope!! IMG00177-20120215-1415.jpg

2012-02-15T06:23:00.000-08:00

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Currently reading the December 2011 edition of the UN's 'africa Renewal' magazine. I really like this quote by NEPAD CEO Dr.Mayaki: ''africa has two major advantages: it possesses the most important pool of natural resources and has the youngest population in the world. It is the continent of the future'' -- p.14

Africa’s Plans cannot be Slaves to a Donor Construct!

2012-02-15T04:29:00.001-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Pax Aufricana: Africa’s Plans cannot be Slaves to aDonor Construct!

ByE.K.Bensah Jr

Perhaps one of the greatestsources of bemusement around African integration is the manner in whichcitizens remain clueless about the continent—and do not seem to want to changethat ignorance into something positive. One is likely to hear more naysayers complainingabout the continent than proponents praising it. If we can accept that acontinent of now-54 member states would hardly and immediately have harmony onissues of trade; climate change; the environment and much more, why on Earthwould we expect it to deliver so much so soon after only ten years in existence?This is also not to wholly put the blame on citizens, for these days,institutions like the African Union cannot get away with excuses that there areno resources for New Media and/or Social Networking strategies.

The visceral itch to refer to newMedia is no accident: with smartphones booming across Africa, and an increasingnumber of Africans accessing the internet on their mobile phones, the 21^stcentury is spawning a new generation of savvy-activists very much intopropagating and advocating issues almost at lightning-speed, and using toolslike Twitter and Facebook. At the veryleast, there are many youth on the continent intelligent and New-media-savvyenough to volunteer their time to helping out with the AU’s outreach. If noless than the UN Economic Commission for Africa can employ an Australiancommunications company to market the Africa Mining Vision, it beggars beliefthat the AU cannot source Pan-African volunteers to help them sell the image ofthe AU.

This message-selling cannot bedivorced from the strategies I referred to last week, as, in my view, when aninstitution like the AU cannot sell its vision and its plan to the people ofAfrica, it constitutes a big problem. Inevitably, what one gets are many policyprocesses taking place on the blind-side of both citizens and the media,ineluctably making it imperative for “African integration watchers” everywhereto fight the good fight of promoting what the AU normally should.

The Strategies…

Even if we forget the AU has had StrategicAction Plans since the establishment and operationalisation of the AU in 2002,we surely cannot think that the AU has been working as slaves to a donorconstruct. While it is true that this-same construct has both helped andhindered Africa’s progress, it is not for a want of trying to break free – asAfrica has done back in 2001 with the Lusaka Appeal, when it admitted that muchof the funding offered by donors was slow and unrealistic. Even before theexplosive events of Cote d’Ivoire in 2011 and the demise of Qaddafi, the AU hadbeen discussing – by way of a committee – alternative sources of financing.

Indeed, one of the major outputs of the Fourth Conference of African Ministersof Integration (COMAI IV) was on innovative financing that would lend a greatdeal of independence to the AU to finance its integration. This developmentmust surely be seen as a boon to the efforts of African integrationpolicymakers. If it fails to whet one’s appetite, how about this for size: thefact that the AU has no less than four sector-specific architectures in placefor the radical transformation of the AU.

Let’s not even get to the factthat since 1994, the AU has been operating under the framework of the Abuja Treatythat has set continental integration for 2034. And these are even things I havenot mentioned in detail. But, seriously, the things I will elaborate on areimportant. They concern peace and security; agriculture/food security’governance and international trade, with a view to the establishment of anAfrican Common Market—as envisaged by policymakers back in December 1976, whenthey proclaimed it as the Kinshasa Declaration—and one that is also consistentwith the sixth stage of the Africa Economic Community.

Where’s the AU’s Strategic Plan?

Although we can freely andjustifiably criticize the AU for a number of non-adhered-to policies, we mustgive them the credit for posting a considerable number of their material ontheir website. It is true the website on www.au.intmight be incomparable to the EU’s on europa.eu.int, but at the end of the day,it is serious work in progress – as is the AU’s Strategic Action Plan of2009-2012. Unbeknownst to many Africans, this can easily be found in a Googlesearch [if Africans knew at all it had a strategic plan is moot!] anddownloaded for perusal. At 46 pages, it does not make bedtime reading, and canbe read within a few days.

Some of the sections include the“vision” of the African Union; “mission and values of the African UnionCommission”; even a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses; Opportunities; and Threats)analysis; and a “comparative strategic analysis”. There are elaborations on“peace and security” (pillar 1); “development, integration and cooperation”(pillar 2); “shared values” (pillar 3); and “institution and capacity-building”(pillar 4). Finally, there is an implementation strategy, followed by a“monitoring and evaluation system.”

Pillar One – peace and security

It is fair to say that since itsinception, the AU has been preoccupied by peace and security. Given theunpredictable nature of conflicts on the continent, the Peace and SecurityCouncil—voted the most powerful organ of the AU in 2011 and arguably the most visible manifestation of the AU’sefforts resolving continental conflict—has been meeting on average around fivetimes a month since 2006. This has inevitably added a burden on the 15-memberPeace and Security Council—especially those with skeletal staff at their embassies.

The PSC is meant to serve as the collectivesecurity and early warning instrument for “timely and efficient response” toboth existing and emerging conflict crises and situations on the continent. Itis supported by the AU commission; a Panel of the Wise; a Continental Early Warning System(CEWS); an African Standby Force(ASF); and a Special Fund (including an AUsituation room located in the Peace and Security Directorate of the AU).Collectively, this is what is known as the AU Peace and Security Architecture.It is to promote peace, security, and stability in Africa. Inevitably, giventhis structure, it remains imperative that peace and security be strategicissues for the AU. By close of 2012—as per the strategic plan—the Commissionexpects, inter alia, to have a fullyfunctioning APSA; significantly reduced conflicts on the continent; promotedthe development and stablisation of security, political and economic systems;and promoted a policy on combating transnational organized crime.

Pillar Two – Development; Integration and Cooperation

Critical to the AU Commission’swork is the identification of key challenges to social and human development,such as poor health and education systems; lack of social welfare andprotection of vulnerable groups…, gender inequalities..., creative industriesand sports development. The AU intends to achieve sustainable economicdevelopment through accelerating infrastructure development to boostinterconnectivity, reliability and cost-effectiveness; promoting the growth ofintra-African trade and investments, and through integrating Africa into theglobal market. This includes the development of an African private sector andinformal economy; as well as the promotion of agricultural development and foodsecurity through the Comprehensive Agricultural Africa Development Programme(CAADP).

By the end of 2012, the AUCommission expects to have achieved some of the following results: promotedagricultural development and food security; promoted the development of an Africanprivate sector and informal economy (note how widespread this is on thecontinent); and implement programmes for youth development.

In my next piece, I will beelaborating a bit more on the two other parts of the second pillar, andexpatiate on the third pillar. Further I will offer an analysis of what we canlearn from the SWOT analysis that came out of brainstorming by the AU’s staffand senior management meetings of the 2004-2007 Strategic Action Plan. Suffice-to-say, it is eye-opening in a way thattakes us away from being slaves to the traditional donor construct the AU hasbeen so used to!

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiativeto respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integrationinitiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integrationinitiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.

Forget Pax Nigeriana, Enter Pax Aufricana!

2012-02-08T03:19:00.000-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Forget Pax Nigeriana,Enter Pax Aufricana!

ByE.K.Bensah Jr

Don't get me wrong at all: I amall for regional economic communities. The REC tag, which they have been madean acronym of, and sound like an unfortunate epitome of African development, doesnothing to dispel the idea behind what they are and will become: economiccommunities of peace with sector-specific imperatives defining what they are.So that ECOWAS becomes the point-REC on peace and security; East AfricanCommunity shows the way on mobilising resources for infrastructural developmentand IGAD becomes a paragon of virtue for the way it can juggle peace andsecurity and economic development in a very volatile region that comprisesSudan, South Sudan and Somalia.

When I look right of thecontinent to Asia, they are struggling with the development of an ASEANEconomic Community by 2015. Policy-makers and observers of the ASEAN regionbelieves this is what will spark the take-off of the 10-member group that wasestablished at the height of the Cold War in 1967. Unique to ASEAN—and possiblya terrible weakness—has been the putative hegemons of Japan , China, and SouthKorea that have never been members of ASEAN, but flirted with the idea,resulting in clumsy formations like ASEAN+3 (comprising these latter threecountries).

According to a Senior VisitingFellow of LSE IDEAS Southeast Asia International Affairs Programme Dr.MunirMajid, when intra-European trade stood at 60 percent, it is only when ASEAN+3states listed above are taken into account that the figure of 50percent forASEAN becomes “more satisfactory”. The academic bemoans that “wider regionalintegration, even as ASEAN plays catch-up with its own economic integrationprocess, has not been sufficiently thought and worked through by the regionalgrouping.”

This kind of phenomenon is aliento the African continent, where the mix-up is more of belonging to two or threestrong and structured regional groupings or, in rare occasions, one. So youwill never see a Nigeria being an observer to a regional grouping—it is eitherin it or not at all. Same can be said with South Africa, where you will find itonly in SADC, or Ethiopia, where it can be found in both COMESA and IGAD.

Barring the recent overtures byCentral African and ECCAS member state Chad with ECOWAS (it became an observerof the West African sub-regional grouping in 2011) and South Sudan beingencouraged to join the EAC, it is rare to find member states outside thecontinent wanting to join RECs or the AU. It is therefore interesting to readthat no less than earthquake-ravaged Haiti has applied for membership of theAU!

AU Chairmanship elections– sowhat?

It is no longer news that GaboneseJean Ping failed to make the vote; neither is it news that Dlamini-Zuma failed.What, probably, is newsworthy is the fact that the former COMESA boss andincumbent AU Commission Chairman Erastus Mwencha retained his positionunopposed. Strike that—for you probably knew that already; it's the fact thatthe deputy-turned-provisional-AU-Chairman has a website, which can be found on http://www.erastusmwencha.org. Thoughin its early stages, I daresay had Ping had a website, he might have been ableto make the grade for AU Chairmanship once more!

On a more serious note, beforethe 7^th Ordinary Session of the AU conference of Trade Ministerstook place in Accra in December, resulting in Africa—through Mwencha—statingemphatically that EPAs are “not a priority for Africa”, I knew very littleabout the AU Commission deputy. Since then, I have been tracking him and hisstatements, and in my view, these are those of someone who deserves to bespeaking for the continent. I would like to recommend that for the detractorsof the AU, a careful reading of an interview conducted by the Geneva-basedInternational Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)--entitled “Aninterview with H.E. Mr Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the AfricanUnion Commission” – merits serious reading. Mwencha's responsesare of those of someone who appears to know the issues on EPAs, how far the AUC can bestsupport the Regional Economic Communities and the pan-African integrationprocess; and what the AUC has, thus far, been able to achieve.

It's really not about PaxNigeriana or South Africana, it's More

If 2011 is anything to go by,there's no Pax Nigeriana; the country failed both at the UNSecurity Council and the AU's Peace and Security Council to deliver for Africa.I wrote it back in August 2011 after the fatal bombing of the UN building inAbuja-and I will write it again.

Nigeria should have read betweenthe lines, reflected also on the 17 June 2011 bombing, considered the manymeetings of the INTERPOL-supported West African Police Chiefs CommitteeOrganisation (WAPCCO) between June and August last year, and decided to getserious on encouraging and lobbying fellow West African countries to ratify the2005 protocol establishing the Criminal Investigative IntelligenceBureau(CIIB). That Guinea-Conakry is the only country thus far to haveestablished an Office du Renseignement et des investigations criminelles(ORIC)/CIIB along the lines proposed by ECOWAS in 2005 is a sad indictment ofleadership by a Nigeria that ought to know better.

As for South Africa, the inchoatePax South Africana that seemed to be emerging from the Libyancrisis was probably just a sleight-of-hand by one of Africa's most prosperouseconomies to give an impression of super-power status without trying too hard.It thought it had adequately paved the way towards a foregone conclusion of AUChairmanship. That the country was being backed by no less than the EU'sBaroness Ashton can only speak to the mendacity of South Africa's motives.

All is not lost, however, for ifone can accept the fact that a building comes alive thanks to the vision of anarchitect, then one can also probably appreciate that any formulation of arising Africa can only find expression in a continent that is ready to be boldand take risks about its future. So the African Union should have strategies,which include being ready to explore more innovative ways of financing itsintegration. The Lusaka Appeal of 2001 is great, but African policy-makers mustbe more bold and choose to adopt the ECOWAS, ECCAS, UEMOA or CEMAC financingstructure—and quickly.

The AU must also begin to gettough on those who fail to buy in to the Appeal, and take emphatic steps toencourage those who do. We already know of the hegemons of Nigeria in WestAfrica; South Africa in the SADC region; Ethiopia –and possibly Kenya? – in theEast? These hegemons, or larger economies, must be encouraged to be moreresponsible to the extent that they encourage their smaller neighbours, and doaway with any kind of beggar-thy-neighbour policies and/or aspirations.

Add political will to the mix andyou got yourself an African continent—and by extension an African Union--thathas not just been shaken and stirred by structural adjustment and Breton Woodsprescriptions of liberalization; privatisation; and deregulation, but one thatis fast-rising and more. It is about a continent that can speak of Casablancaand not feel ashamed to ask “Uncle Sam” to “play it again”, and certainly abouta continent that is getting its house in order on sector-specific issues ofpeace and security; food security; governance; and international trade.

The AU’s Africa Peace andSecurity Architecture (APSA); Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development (CAADP);African Governance Architecture (AGA); and more recently Continental Free TradeArea Architecture (CAFTA) are processes of the aforementioned themes that arenot to be sneezed at. All of us—including journalists, civil society andcitizens—should rally behind AU policy-makers and compel them to accordingly beaccountable to the people of the continent for the programmes they create.

I dream of a day when the re-election of each AU memberstate’s head of state is tied to the progress they make in their sub-region, suchthat here in Ghana, for example, we can demand of the incumbent government whatconcrete contributions they have made to the facilitation of ECOWAS programmes,and how much they generated for the ECOWAS Levy. Going forward, citizens andjournalists alike must begin to feel comfortable asking these kinds ofquestions, so that the shiny, new building built for us by our Chinesecompatriots does not become an empty shell.

As for the building blocks Ireferred to earlier, they are more than chimerical aspirations; they representthe dreams of a continent replete with infinite hope and a tremendous capacityfor resilience. Forget the Arab Spring, doff your hat to Fortress Europe;welcome the Chinese Dragon, but make way for Pax Aufricana!

Africa's rise and how it’s Time to Project AU Power!

2012-02-01T05:59:00.000-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:

Africa's rise and how it’s Time to Project AU Power!

ByE.K.Bensah Jr

If there wereever a greatest exponent of serendipity, it must have been when I found myselfin the home of the African Union in March 2011. Unbeknownst to many, I met mykindred spirit—Mr. Stuart Hastings of towardsunity.org—in person for the firsttime. I had met him two years earlier online when I was searching through tomesof material on comparative regional integration and trying to find out alsowhether there were other souls concerned more with the comparative approach onregionalism than simply the single-minded one where, say, the AU, EU or ECOWASis the main focus.

I would comeacross Stuart’s site and immediately spark a conversation with him about howthe tectonic plates were shifting towards regional unions, and how we bothneeded to play a part in that change.

His website,then as now, was clear: to travel the world from his home town of Canada andreturn to produce a book on how far regional unions, such as the EU, MERCOSUR;African Union; and ASEAN can promote promote peace and humanity throughdemocratic dispensations they offer in their institutional structures, and howit was important to re-think some of the current narratives driving hegemons inthose respective unions.

So it would bethat Stuart and I would meet on 19 March, 2011 at Lime Tree cafe, situated inthe rather plush Boston Day Spa on the lush and swanky Bole Road in Addis. Iwill never forget that day for the people who were there—Stuart Hastings; and ayoung official of the UN Economic Commission for Africa who might never confessin public he is a Pan-Africanist—and for the fact that after I got back to myhotel, I would catch the news on BBC and Al-Jazeera that a multi-statecoalition had began a military intervention in Libya to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.

I had had astress-free visit to the AU building days earlier, and so it seemed a bitsurreal to see diplomats fluttering in and out after 19 March all overtelevision. It was even harder to believe that the-then almost-completed AUbuilding would play host to an apparent impotence of AU officials andpolicy-makers it would soon host almost a year later.

It is easy tospeculate that it is probably these apparently-impotent AU policy-makers whohave just witnessed the inauguration of the new, 28-floor AU building at thejust-ended 18^th session of the AU in the Ethiopian capital. Afterthe cacophony over the past few days of this Chinese gift to the Africans andthe numerous speculations that have abounded over possible quid-pro-quos thatmight be associated with this expensive gift, it's time to get serious.

There's nogainsaying that China will expect some favours from Africa for having builtthis building that supposedly towers over the whole of Addis. To harp on it, inmy view, is as relevant as claiming that the Europeans and Western donors whopay some sixty percent of many African countries’ budget would expectthese-same countries to be indebted to them. The argument is even anon-starter. What I would hope we would talk about are two major things.

First – how itsymbolises a renaissance of South-South cooperation and second, how it is aprojection of the increasing power of the African Union.

Symbolism of the AU building

Both expertsand amateurs on African integration, and Western journalists alike have beenspeculating over what China is likely to expect from the building they havedonated to the African Union. What, for me, took the biscuit was no less thanthe venerable BBC World Service’s very respected “News Hour” programme onSunday 29^th January interviewing the East African correspondent WillRoss, with an angle that was Sino-African centred in a way that suggested thatChina wants our natural resources, knows Africa is rising and so wants tocapitalize on that rise. In my view, this is not analysis; it is common-sense.There really is no such thing as a free lunch. It is just that with theChinese, they deliver that lunch faster and with few conditions. That may bethe beauty of the relationship, and I believe what African integration watchersall over must be doing right now is to use this as an opportunity to exploreand enhance the Sino-African relationship.

In 2010, UNCTAD launched the Economic Developmentin Africa report. Entitled “South-South Cooperation: Africa and the NewForms of Development Partnerships” it examined recent trends in theeconomic relationships of Africa with other developing countries and the newforms of partnership that are animating those relationships.

The increasing role of large developingcountries in global trade, finance, investment and governance, coupled withtheir rapid economic growth, has stimulated debate on the implications forAfrica´s development.

The report urges African nations tointensify efforts at developing better productive capacities to maximize theirgains from the emerging partnerships and the gradual global shift of economicpower to the East from the West. African countries, the report states “have toproduce goods with high income elasticities of demand and that present greater opportunitiesfor export market expansion”.

The report comprises five chapters dealingwith the challenges and opportunities in South-South cooperation, Africa’strade with developing countries, southern official flows to Africa, southernForeign Direct Investment to Africa and making South-South Cooperation work forAfrica.

The report concludes that Africa-SouthCooperation—whether it is Sino— or Indio—not only has the potential to enhanceAfrica´s capacity to address its development challenges but the fullrealization of the benefits requires gearing cooperation towards thedevelopment of productive capacities across the region.

Bottom line is that Africa as acontinent does not yet have a unified strategy relating to Africa-Southcooperation and this is evidenced in part, for example, by the way in which the2010 report was produced by UNCTAD, and not the African Union. Going forward,the AU can use the donation of the building to consolidate the Sino-Africanrelationship—perhaps around infrastructure? — and create an effective strategyround it in a way that will slowly and surely put paid to the West’s.

Projectionof power in the AU’s 10^th anniversary year!

Who has not seen pictures of theBrussels-based European Commission on TV and thought “wow, that’s a hugebuilding!” And for those who have seen it in person, there’s no gainsaying it’sa rather imposing building. This contrasts sharply with what Stuart Hastingrelated to in one of our numerous discussions of his globe-trotting in Asia tosee the secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) in Nepal.

First and most importantly, after havingbeen established in 1985, one would have thought that they might have upgradedtheir building a little. Pictures online of the Secretariat are consistent withthe descriptions associated with Hasting’s sojourn anecdotes. This has promptedmuch speculation among those of us committed to propagating the development ofregional unions and groupings – especially in the developing world— as good –and the greatest exemplification of the very-necessary projection of power theAU so needs to do. Given that this is coming in the tenth anniversary of theAfrican Union, this could not but be a better and fitting presage of Africa’sputative rise!

News on ongoing AU Summit -- Friday 27 Jan, 2012 (twnaf-staff@yahoogroups.com)

2012-01-27T09:01:00.001-08:00

I've shared News on ongoing AU Summit -- Friday 27 Jan, 2012

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News on ongoing AU Summit -- Friday 27 Jan, 2012

Stories on ongoing African Union summit

-- compiled by E.K.Bensah Jr

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from: http://www.afriquejet.com/africa-nepad-to-consolidate-collaboration-with-countries-in-2012-2012012732254.html

Africa: NEPAD to consolidate collaboration with countries in 2012

Lagos, Nigeria - The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is set to consolidate collaboration with African countries and regional economic communities this year, in order to build on the achievements recorded in 2011, Chief Executive Officer Ibrahim Mayaki said.

In a statement made available to PANA here Thursday, Dr. Mayaki said, during the steering committee meeting of the NEPAD Agency in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that to achieve the goal, the Agency would renew and actively engage in dialogue with NEPAD national offices and focal points in various African countries.

"Ten countries registered annual growth rate in agriculture of at least 6 percent in the second half of 2011, 8 countries had reached and surpassed the 10 percent budgetary allocation target, while 9 were in the 5 percent - 10 percent range," the NEPAD CEO said.

The agency has in the last years helped African countries to improve the agricultural sector through the work of its AU-NEPAD Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

Dr. Mayaki said great strides were also made in other areas, including gender, climate change, integration and infrastructure and capacity development, adding that the performance outlook for 2012 is bright.

As the policy-making body of NEPAD Agency, the steering committee, at the two-day meeting, considered the agenda for the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee meeting taking place in Addis Ababa on 28 January, 2012. This will be followed by the 18th AU Summit from 29-30 January 2012.

The NEPAD Steering Committee is currently co-chaired by Ethiopia and Equatorial Guinea. It comprises representatives of the 20 African leaders who are members of the NEPAD Orientation Committee, regional economic commissions, the African Development Bank and other UN agencies.

Also speaking at the meeting, a senior adviser to Ethiopian's Prime Minister, Newai Gebread, said African countries must set very high economic growth targets for themselves in order to get out of poverty.

"It is very important that we set our targets as high as possible. Africa's growth rate should be in double digits, above the five or seven percent annual growth it is currently recording," he said.

To ensure such a robust expansion, according to Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, a director at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA ) in Addis Ababa, Africa would require a strong and visionary leadership.

Prof. Nnadozie, who is Director in charge of the Commission's Economic Development and NEPAD Division, said the growth required must be sustainable, be able to create jobs for African youths and preserve the environment.

He also praised the Ethiopian government for ensuring an annual growth rate of more than 10 percent, saying: "It is good news for Africa."

Pana 27/01/2012

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State's Bid for the AU Top Job – Right Move, Wrong Timing? 0

From: http://www.afronline.org/?p=22383

Jan27

The next Ordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) planned for 29-30 January 2012 in Addis Ababa promises to be unique in many ways. Besides the inauguration of the Chinese-funded new building, aimed at hosting the AU's Headquarters, most of the attention will be focused on the election of new AU commissioners.

The renewal of the AU Commission generally takes place amid impressive political bargaining where member states try to shape the AU's developments by positioning some of their best cadres in an influential position in Addis Ababa. The specificity of this year's elections comes from South Africa's decision to send Ms Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, its former foreign minister and current home affairs minister, as candidate for the top job of head of the AU Commission.

By doing so, South Africa (SA) is challenging the sitting chairperson Jean Ping. This rather "unfriendly" gesture of bidding to replace a chairperson of the Commission, who has only served for one term, has been diversely appreciated in capital cities around the continent. There are many excellent reasons to explain SA's appetite for the chairmanship of the AU Commission and even to justify the choice of Ms Dlamini-Zuma. However, notwithstanding the strength of these arguments, South Africa runs the risk of being perceived as relying on its own strength as a regional power in Africa to get this position.

The reasons to choose Dlamini-Zuma as the new chairperson of AU Commission

There are several reasons why an AU chairperson Dlamini-Zuma would make sense. In typically African consensual manner, the chairmanship of the AU is traditionally expected to follow a rotation principle whereby every sub-region should have its turn. Because it is the last region to achieve its independence,, Southern Africa has never been able to place a Secretary General of the former Organisation of African Unity or an AU chairperson of the Commission.

It is therefore justified to argue that a national from a Southern African country be elected as head of the AU Commission because the region has a lot to offer to the continent. Also, the choice of Ms Dlamini-Zuma appears to be a smart move from SA as she comes with an impressive pedigree for this position. Having served under former president Thabo Mbeki when SA's foreign policy substantially contributed to shape Africa's and the South-South agenda, Ms Dlamini-Zuma is today a rather successful home affairs minister, credited for turning around the fortunes of a ministry previously known for its lethargy. That the election of a woman in that position would bring a much-needed breath of fresh air in a male dominated African intergovernmental institution is another argument in favour of Dlamini-Zuma.

Another important reason why the candidacy of Ms Dlamini-Zuma makes sense from a South African perspective is the current discrepancy between the country's proclaimed prioritization of Africa in its foreign policy and the glaring lack of commitment to support African regional organisations like the AU.

If South Africa remains one of the AU's Big Five (a group of 5 countries accounting for about 75% of the member states' contributions to the AU budget) the country has been widely criticised for committing little more than money. For example, the number of good skilled and experienced South African nationals working for the AU commission is surprisingly low and does in any case not reflect the ambitions of a regional leadership role that the country wants to play. (It is a fact, though, that Addis Ababa does not necessarily exert a strong power of attraction on SA officials who would earn much higher salaries by staying home).

As a matter of comparison, it would be hard to consider a Commission of the European Union without a German or a French Commissioner. In that regard, Ms Dlamini-Zuma's candidacy reflects a shift in SA's foreign policy approach to regional organisations and a welcome move that would probably strengthen the Commission.

In any case, South Africa's decision to send a top official for the AU Commission chair is a sign that the AU is growing in importance and is considered by the continent's biggest economy as a critical position to influence the country's international relations and Africa's voice in the world.

Though is this a question of bad timing?

Despite these positive signs and the apparent confidence of SA's officials regarding their chances of success, it appears that SA might have misinterpreted the current mood in the continent or overestimated itself. There are good reasons to think that Ms Dlamini-Zuma's election is no done deal.

First, it is fair to say that SA put the majority of its African partners in front of a fait accompli by announcing this candidacy. Although this is a sovereign decision for every state, South Africa's failure to consult substantially before taking this decision led to the perception that Pretoria had a hidden agenda. Suspicions of a hidden agenda were centred around South Africa breaking the non-written rule that no 'big country' should apply for the AU's top job. Also, it is alluded to in African capitals that Pretoria is trying to control the AU Commission to boost its bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. Even worse, opponents to Dlamini-Zuma's candidacy fear that she would be taking her orders from Pretoria if elected.

These perceptions have their roots and have been amplified by some recent controversial foreign and security policy decisions taken by Pretoria and which were considered by some observers as rather dividing instead of unifying Africa. SA's management of the Côte d'Ivoire post-electoral crisis will certainly not go down in the diplomatic history of the country as its foreign policy's best hour. By antagonizing Nigeria's and ECOWAS' conflict resolution approach in a West African country where Pretoria's expertise is at best limited, SA not only violated its own foreign policy principles but also divided the AU. In addition, doubts were expressed about SA's commitment to the promotion of democracy in Africa and respect for the stabilising role of regional organisations.

In the Libyan crisis, SA's inconsistency and insistence on an unrealistic political solution to a conflict whose dynamic had long turned violent have raised questions about the country's ability to lead both the AU or play a leadership role in the the UNSC. By championing the AU's roadmap on Libya, which de facto excluded a military solution to end a repressive regime, Pretoria seemed to be more interested in procedural processes of inclusivity than by results-oriented outcomes, particularly when these changes are induced by non-African actors. The involvement of NATO in Libya and of France in the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire gave rise to anti-Western sentiments expressed by various South African officials. The uniformed way in which this primary anti-Western posture was brought to the fore prevented a serious discussion about the grey zones of NATO's rather generous interpretation of UN-Resolution 1973.

Finally, South Africa failed to convince its African partners that Ms Dlamini-Zuma's candidacy was linked to a broader plan to reform the AU, an organization whose political weakness is proportional to the unanimous assertion that it is the only game in town. If Ms Dlamini-Zuma was to lose this election, relationships between the Commission and Pretoria will at best be sour for some time. SA's diplomacy will have suffered another blow that could have been avoided.

By Paul-Simon Handy and Stine Kjeldgaard, Director Research and Intern – Institute for Security Studies (South Africa)

================================

President Mills to play key roles at 18th AU Ordinary Session

from: http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/01/27/president-mills-to-play-key-roles-at-18th-au-ordinary-session/

Page last updated at Friday, January 27, 2012 7:07 AM // Leave Your Comment

The 18th African Union (AU) meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, which officially opened last Monday, has assigned Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills major roles during the session of heads of State and Government.

Aside delivering the keynote address, which is on the theme: "Boosting Intra African Trade," President Mills, who leaves Ghana for the meeting on Friday, would also be the Guest of Honour at the unveiling of the statue of Ghana's first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah at the forecourt of the newly constructed AU building.

The conference centre project, fully-funded by the Chinese government and constructed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), within Sino-African relations, is China's largest-scale aid project for Africa in decades.

The building would be inaugurated next Saturday in the presence of all the Heads of State and Governments at the meeting.

The centre covers a construction area of some 50,000 square meters, and will house a 2,550-seat big conference hall, a 650-seat medium conference hall, five press conference rooms and two VIP rooms, among many other facilities.

According to Mr Koku Anyidoho, Director of Communications at the Office of the President, President Mills had invited Dr. Francis Nkrumah; and Madam Samia Nkrumah, Chairperson of the Convention People's Party (CPP), who are both children of the first President to join in the unveiling of the statue in honour of their father.

Dr Nkrumah, who also played a leading role in the African liberation struggle, was a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity, now the AU, as well as the Pan Africanist Movement.

High on the agenda at the summit would be the voting to elect new leaders to the continental body.

While the AU typically promotes regional diversity in its leadership, some observers have opined that it would be better to favor countries that have best adhered to AU protocols.

The Heads of State and Government as usual at the first meeting in the year, would elect a new chairperson, likely to come from West Africa for a one-year term.

The new chair is usually selected on a rotating regional schedule, with leaders from North, South, East and West Africa getting a fair shot at the top seat.

Meanwhile, a tough diplomatic battle has taken shape at the Union ahead of the Presidential session to elect the Chairperson of the AU Commission.

The AU Commission Chairperson Dr Jean Ping, elected to the position on February 1, 2008 and seeking re-election, is facing South Africa's Interior Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is vying on a platform of change to the continental body, which her country blames for failing to prevent conflicts.

Dr Ping's supporters say their candidate is almost certain of an absolute majority when the elections come on 29 January, but Dlamini-Zuma's backing from the Southern African bloc is not being ruled out.

South Africa has proposed to delay the elections of the Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson during the AU's ministerial meeting on 26 January, but a counter proposal to delay the election of eight other commissioners had also been tabled.

Ghana's candidate for the post of Political Affairs Commissioner has been withdrawn in favour of Aisha Laraba Abudulai, Nigeria's Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea.

Source: GNA

================================================

Work to achieve Pan Africanism ideals-Mumuni, Saturday, October 22, 2011, pg 13

from: http://sethbnews09.blogspot.com/2012/01/work-to-achieve-pan-africanism-ideals.html

AFRICAN countries can no longer remain indifferent to the suffering and plight of their neighbours if the ideals of Pan Africanism is to be realised, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Mohammed Mumuni, has said.

He said a true expression of Pan-Africanism could be achieved when member states of the AU and societies in Africa regarded peace, security and the well-being of their neighbours as fundamentally intertwined with theirs.

The Foreign Minister was speaking in Accra at the opening of a two-day experience-sharing workshop on 'Improving West African Capacities in Mediation and Peace Process organised by the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre.

The CMI is an independent non-profit organisation, working to resolve conflict and to build sustainable peace.

The workshop brought together experts in peace building from ECOWAS countries who would share experiences on past and recent mediation and peace processses in selected West African countries in a manner that allowed participants to reflect on achievement and existing challenges.

Despite many encouraging developments in Africa in recent years, political instability remains a major headache in all regions of the continent, slowing down economic growth, and negatively affecting the people's well being.

While there are still a number of unresolved conflicts on the continent, with many of

them rooted in unequal distribution of power and resources, some of the recent peace agreements have not been implemented, leaving seeds of mistrust within the structures of the society.

But Mr Mumuni noted that the establishment of the African Union had transformed Africa's approach to conflict management on the African continent, and admitted there still remained some challenges.

The advent of the AU, he stated marked a paradigm shift from prior practice on non-interference and non-intervention to the implementation of a policy of non-indifference which is required to generate and sustain a political will to address crisis situations on the continent.

He noted that a very important feature of the instruments which constituted the peace and security was diplomacy and mediation but stated that "the notion of mediation as primarily a diplomatic activity needed to be challenged."

"Diplomats are not the only possible mediators. Thus limiting possible mediators to only one category of actors (state and intergovernmental diplomats) is not judicious and appropriate."

"International mediation needs to be mainstream and incorporate non-official mediators, especially those with sustained presence in conflict zones and established communication channels with protagonists into the peace process," he stated.

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr James Victor Gbeho, in a keynote address read on his behalf said after more than twenty years of involvement in mediations and peace processes within the region, ECOWAS had been able to build impressive structures for peace, security and stability in West Africa.

The regional body, Mr Gbeho stated had in place legal documents, structures and procedures as reference materials for its activities, citing the 1999 Protocol relating to the Mechanisms for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and security as an example.

The document addresses peace-building in a region notorious for rampant conflict situations, with peace, security and political stability as its key components.

The West African sub-region has been, for the last two decades, one of the most conflict-prone areas of the world. The region has witnessed three of the most violent civil wars in contemporary African political history.

In view of that, the Executive Director of the CMI, Ms Tuija Talvitie, said notwithstanding some recent achievements, the persistence of low and high risk intensity conflicts in West Africa required the development of preventive diplomacy in the region.

She, however, commended, The United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) and ECOWAS as well as many civil society organisations for their support for preventive diplomacy and peace mdiation advocacy.

The CMI, Ms Talvitie said had embarked on a three-year project, titled Improving West African Capacities in Mediation and Peace Process from 2011-2013 to further build expertise in peace-building in the region.

Posted by SETH J. BOKPE'S GHANA NEWSREEL at 11:01 AM

=========================================

African Union and Australia Sign Institution and Capacity Building Support Agreement

from: http://africabusiness.com/2012/01/27/african-union-and-australia-sign-institution-and-capacity-building-support-agreement/

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, January 27, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The African Union Commission (AUC) and the Government of Australia have signed an agreement that will enable Australia to support the Institution and Capacity Building Programme of the Commission.

The agreement was signed today, Thursday 26 January 2012, at the AU Headquarters by the Chairperson of the Commission, Dr. Jean Ping and the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Mr. Kevin Rudd MP.

The support of two million Australian Dollars (about USD2.1million) covers two-years and will be implemented and monitored on behalf of the Australian Government by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and for the AU by the Strategic Policy Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Resource Mobilisation Directorate.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chairperson said that he was delighted to welcome the Foreign Affairs Minister and underscored the importance and depth of AU relations with Australia.

Recalling that 2011 was a particularly challenging year for Africa, Dr. Ping expressed appreciation to the Government of Australia for its sustained support of the Commission and renewed the expression of his sympathy to the Australian nation for last year's devastating floods which resulted in several deaths and widespread loss of property in the state of Queensland.

On his part, Minister Rudd said that he was pleased to be back in Addis Ababa and agreed with the Chairperson that AU relations with Australia are excellent. He described the agreement as a concrete demonstration of Australia's strong sense of responsibility towards Africa.

Following the signing ceremony, both personalities exchanged views on issues of mutual interest, including investment opportunities in Africa.

"This Continent of a billion people has the potential to become the next China," the Foreign Affairs Minister stated. He revealed that Australia has 600 projects in 41 African countries and emphasized the commitment of his country to the enhancement of its economic ties with Africa.

"We have been at the receiving end of investment, so we understand the challenges," Minister Rudd added, and underscored the importance to his country of preserving "Brand Australia," – the international reputation and good image of Australia

The Honourable Mr. Rudd was accompanied by Australia's Ambassador to Ethiopia, H.E. Ms. Lisa Filepetto and several other senior Australian diplomats, including the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, H.E. Mr. Gary Quinlan and the Minister Counselor of AusAID in Pretoria, Mr. Jamie Isbister.

On the AU side, the Chairperson was flanked, among others, by the Deputy Chairperson, the Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Bureau of the Chairperson, the Chief of Staff in the Bureau of the Deputy Chairperson, as well as the Chairperson's Political and Diplomatic Advisor.

SOURCE

African Union Commission (AUC)

=====================

African leaders plot Common Trade Zone

from: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000050845&cid=14&j=&m=&d=

Nairobi, Thursday

Africa will be a free trade area in five years, according to the dream that African leaders will stamp in the next few days when they meet for the African Union Summit in Ethiopia.

The intention is to increase trade within Africa, to have a soft landing ground just in case Africa's main trading economies of the United States, Europe, China and India slow down, affecting their ability to sustain commodity imports from Africa.

While this possibility was not thought much about before, the debt crisis in Europe and the financial crisis triggered by loan defaults in the US in 2008 have intensified the need for Africa to depend on her own markets to caution her economy from external shocks.

"The options for Africa are limited. The uncertainties facing Africa's traditional export markets in Europe and the US further exacerbate the risk to the region's development prospects if growth in the emerging market economies of China and India were to slow down significantly," said Stephen Karingi, the Director of Regional Integration in the Infrastructure and Trade Division of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

In a joint briefing early this week with Professor Mwangi Kimenyi, a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, they said ongoing harmonisation of trade among some of Africa's trading blocs offers success models that the continent can replicate.

The numerous regional economic trading blocs have created severe trading barriers within Africa, in some cases making it easier to import goods from Middle East or Europe instead of the neighboring African country because of the high taxation as a result of belonging to a different trading bloc.

As a result, intra Africa trade accounts for 12 per cent of total Africa trade, a very small proportion compared to European Union's 60 per cent trade being internal, according to recently released data by the African Development Bank.

Intra Africa trade

But this reality appears to have dawned on the continent with concerted efforts for example currently ongoing to dissolve several blocs to allow larger trading formations.

For example, negotiations are ongoing to merge Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), East Africa Community and South Africa Development Community into a free trade area.

Dominique Njinkeu, a trade facilitation expert at the World Bank, said having a continent free trade area places Africa at an advantage to attract larger foreign investments.

The decision by the African Union to have a continental free trade area comes at a time when evidence is emerging that some of the major global investors are looking at Africa as their next frontier for investment.

A report released on Tuesday by the Economist Intelligence Unit said that global institutional investors intend to make their first significant step into Africa over the next five years because of the continent's growing middle class.

The report was commissioned by fund manager Invest AD.

The report is based on a survey done on 158 senior executives at institutions such as pension and endowment funds and insurance companies.

"Many of the investors surveyed don't have any allocations in Africa, yet looking out over the next five years, the bulk of the investors will have an allocation into Africa and about a third will have more than five per cent allocation," said Invest AD in a statement.

The marginal increase of intra-Africa trade is, however, credited with being one of the factors that saw the continent not become overly affected by the global financial crisis, enabling it to post growth ranging five to six per cent.

—Xinhua

================================

New blood in AU necessary

from: http://mg.co.za/article/2012-01-27-new-blood-in-au-necessary/

Over the past months, the South African government's representatives have travelled the African continent, lobbying support for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to replace Gabon's Jean Ping as chairperson of the commission of the African Union (AU).

This weekend, African heads of states will meet in Addis-Ababa to decide on whether Ping will continue in that position or whether new blood is needed.

Such is the dichotomous geo-political nature of the continent, that the contest appears to have pitted southern Africa against its Francophone counterparts.

French-speaking Africa will push for Ping. With the backing of France, a country that still retains a neo-colonial grip on her former subjects and seeks to advance her interests on the continent through them. This is not healthy for an independent Africa.

Especially as the AU is a moribund organisation increasingly bereft of the authority and capacity to effect the required shift towards a continent where citizens are not defrauded of their right to democracy through stolen elections, compromise governments of

national unity or just plain-old dictatorships.

The Mail & Guardian believes Dlamini-Zuma is the antidote for such a malaise.

Behind Liberia's Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson (Africa's first female head of state), she is the most prominent female African politician on a patriarchal continent.

But it has less to do with gender and much more to do with her track record. Her two terms as foreign minister means she is au fait with the requirements of international diplomacy, while her work in brokering an end to the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, means she is not afraid to knock heads and ruffle feathers in getting the job done.

And she works tirelessly: anyone who can turn around South Africa's department of home affairs to achieve its first clean audit since the advent of democracy obviously has both vision and stamina. A clinical grasp of what needs to be done, and how to get it done.

CONTINUES BELOW

We don't buy the argument that the post should not go to a "big" country. A bit of heft behind the commission chair will help it to be more effective, and there is no evidence to suggest that small countries more effectively manage the balance of power at the AU.

South Africa's own dithering, inconsistent foreign policy may work against her, and we would miss her in Cabinet, but Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has our support.

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The East African Community Learns Lessons of the EURO for its Monetary Zone...but why not consult ECOWAS, too?

2012-01-26T06:21:00.001-08:00

Never mind the fact that Britain left 2011 causing a stir with its emphatic stance on the Euro. Never mind the fact that in the 20th anniversary of the Euro, the Europeans, especially Germany and France, are at loggerheads with other European countries over the future of the Euro, it beggars belief that the five-member East African Community are still keen to learn "lessons", which they can adopt for themselves as they anticipate a common currency for the East African sub-region.

Still, if we can get past this minutae,we can probably use it to underscore the fact that the ever-increasingly-regionalized world some of us talked about is developing right before our very eyes. Great will be the day when EAC will ask the West African Monetary Zone(WAMZ) -- comprising Ghana; Guinea; Gambia; Liberia; Nigeria and Sierra Leone -- on lessons over a common currency. Given how convoluted and long the process has been for West Africa, I would have thought the EAC might want to also visit ECOWAS for thoughts on overcoming some of the challenges.

In my view, the fact that the EAC went straight to the beleaguered EU can speak of, at best, a degree of tunnel vision and, at worst, myopia on East Africa managing its own regional integration in Africa when it has formidable African integration actors in the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa??

Enjoy the article below!:

============

from: http://thecitizen.co.tz/magazines/-/19235-eac-team-learns-workings-of-eurozones-monetary-union

EAC team learns workings of eurozone's monetary union

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Thursday, 26 January 2012 10:19

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By Felix Lazaro, BusinessWeek Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Negotiations for the creation of the Monetary Union in the East African Community are at an advanced stage and the region is determined to learn from lessons from other regions to make the envisaged arrangement a success.

But as an EAC mission, dispatched on a study tour to the embattled Eurozone two weeks ago, is about to come back, the region must do its homework before it plunges into a monetary union arrangement, analysts who spoke to BusinessWeek said.

The EAC must check the speed with which it moves towards the creation of a single currency, Hussein Kamote from the Confederation of Tanzania Industries said.

This is because economic challenges and issues to be worked upon, both by each member states and collectively as a region to make the union sustainable, need more time and resources, according to Mr Kamote the director of Policy and Advocacy at CTI.

"It is not about stopping the negotiations. Rather we should make sure the deadline is realizable. Negotiations to create the Eurozone took quite a long time, and is still faced with challenges. We must be more careful," said Mr Kamote who is also an Economist.

The EAC member states currently face a myriad of economic problems characterized by high inflation rates and production costs partly as a result of power problems.

While inflation, for instance, peaked in November with 29 per cent for Uganda, followed by Kenya 19.72, Tanzania 19.2, Burundi 16.4 per cent and Rwanda 7.39 per cent, the different basis for calculating these figures implies they may not be comparable.

Going by a study commissioned earlier by the European Central Bank to guide the region, each of the five countries has a raft of housekeeping tasks to perform before the monetary union springs to life. Each has to maintain an annual GDP growth of at least seven per cent, keep inflation below five per cent, and peg national budgetary deficit to five per cent of the GDP before the union is launched.

In addition, to the fact that member states budgets are heavily donor-dependent, the ongoing economic realities should prompt authorities to re-think about the EAC MU deadline.

The heads of state of EAC countries had put this year as the deadline for the creation of the MU but analysts say the deadline is unrealizable.

The EAC-MU at an advanced stage and a team of top government officials from the five countries, who have been negotiating the monetary union protocol since last year, are expected to finalise their report by end of March, just in time for the April's extra-ordinary summit of heads of state. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Arusha.

A lecturer from Mzumbe University Dr Elisante Ole Gabriel said the EAC members should work on the issue of consistency to avoid divisions and lack of commitments to the negotiations by member states. Already some member states are giving signals that show that they are now entirely comfortable with the entire EAC MU project.

Mr Kamote also urged the EAC to create an autonomous organ like the EU Commission to deal specifically with issues of strengthening the monetary union to relieve the EAC Secretariat whose mandate is not strong enough.

The 20 member delegation from EAC toured Europe for 12 days to learn on issues pertaining to the Eurozone. They visited the Commission and European Development Fund in Brussels; European Central Bank and the German Federal Bank in Frankfurt; Federal Ministry of Finance and Federal Ministry of Economic and Technology in Berlin, and European Investment Bank in Luxembourg.

The delegation comprised chief negotiators of a high level task force negotiating the EAC MU protocol from each country member, five officials from EAC Secretariat led by deputy the Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure.

Here’s how ECOWAS ended up with a War Chest of $US252million (3), and How the African Integration narrative is far from over!

2012-01-25T03:27:00.000-08:00

By E.K.Bensah Jr

Last week, I touched on proposalsfor innovative financing paths; the case of ECCAS and its levy on imports; thecase of UEMOA/CEMAC; and the case of ECOWAS.

On the proposals, you may re-callthat a study by the AU commission had proposed no less than eight scenarios,which included (a) tax on imports; (b)tax on revenue from hydrocarbon exports;(c)tax on insurance premiums; (d)levy on airline tickets, but that the AU hadproposed three, which are: : (i) levy on imports from the rest of the world;(ii)levy on airline tickets; and (iii)levy on insurance policies.

ECCAS has a levy, which it calls communitycontribution for integration (CCI), which is calculated as 0.4%.UEMOA’s levy rate is 1%, whereas ECOWAS’s is 0.5% of the value of goodsimported from third countries. So far,so straightforward. The real story and one I hope has left one salivating longenough is how on earth ECOWAS ended up with a so-called “war-chest” of252million. If you know your figures for how much ECOWAS made between 2007 and2009 from imports, it is not difficult at all to understand how between that period,it managed to bag that amount.

In ECOWAS, during 2007 and 2009,revenue from the Community levy amounted to US$230, 314 and 360 millionrespectively. In that same period, the approved budgets of ECOWAS institutionsrun to US$160, 220 and 274 million, respectively. This left a positive balanceof US$72, 94 and 86 million, respectively.

It is clear that in the threeyears, ECOWAS achieved “a cumulative positive balance of US$252million” andrecorded in its books as carried forward earnings. This balance is what theAU’s “Bulletin of Fridays of the Commission” considers a veritable “war chest”,offering ECOWAS “considerable leeway in implementing its mandate”. There aretwo significant things about this development. First, that while the world wasgoing through the financial crisis in 2008, here was West Africa, through itsinnovative fund-raising mechanisms raising revenue and secondly, getting asurplus for good measure.

Levy on Insurance Policies and airline tickets: Africa Solidarity tax

Even after all this good news onfinancing African integration, the story is not quite over – as exemplified bydiscussions on more levies. In this specific proposal, which is also known as“a citizen tax”, the idea is to get this levy to involve “all African citizens”through insurance subscriptions: automobile and real estate. Heath insurance isexempted.

The so-called “solidarity tax” isso-named because most of the tax is supposed to come from G8 and G20, and canbe applied to flights leaving Africa and with destinations in Africa; flightsdeparting from Africa with destinations outside Africa, with the Commission ofthe African Union proposing US$2 for short distances, and US$5 for lingdistances.

How Senegal innovatively-finances (integration)…and way forward?

Truth be told, ECOWAS memberstate Senegal has been doing this for a while. In the country, the tax appliesonly to flights departing from airports in the country. Collection of the levyis done through IATA for all airlines associated with it. At its monthly paymentoperations, IATA pays the share due Senegal into a bank account (escrowaccount) held with the BNP Paribas.

If we stop and reflect on thisfor a nano-second, can we really say we need to continue depending on donors,or is it perhaps not time to re-consider that fallacy of needing an “aid-exit”plan to woo investors and so-called FDI? If we can get past this mindset – andI believe the sub-region has the capacity to do so, as exemplified by my postlast year where I expatiated on how instrumental the Ecowas Bank for Investmentand Development has been – then the sky will certainly offer itself as theproverbial limit on seed funding for continuing the narrative of Africanintegration which continues to be written summit after summit.

AU summit: 23—30 January, 2012

Speaking of which, this week of23 January is a great week for African integration as between 23 and 30January, the AU hosts its 18^th summit in the home of the AU, withthe theme “Boosting Intra-African Trade”.

Reports online indicate that althoughthe main theme is intra-African trade, it will be a significant summit for themanner in which it will cover the following topics: Election of theChairperson; the Deputy Chairperson and the other commissioners; the state ofpeace and security in Africa in relation to the North Africa Revolution; theissues of “shared values”: good governance; elections and human rights; thehumanitarian situation in Africa; the review protocol of the African Court ofJustice and human rights; the future of the Pan-African Parliament; the wayforward on the political transformation of the AU.

It goes without saying that thiswill be the first AU summit without Gaddafi, and also the first that willinclude the full participation of the new Libyan and Egyptian authorities. Itremains an exciting time for the AU on account of the fact that the AU is noless than 10 years this September. No less than the Chinese President Hu Jintaowill be in Addis to officially hand over the new gargantuan AU Headquarters tothe African Heads of State.

Deconstructing ECOWAS’s war chest of $US252million, or a Brief Tale on Financing African Integration (2)

2012-01-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Deconstructing ECOWAS’s war chest of $US252million, or a BriefTale on Financing African Integration (2)

By E.K.Bensah Jr

January is always a great monthto review and refresh everything – including money. It is no surprise,therefore, I have chosen to focus on an aspect of resource-mobilization infulfillment of the African Integration narrative which ought to see continentalunion—as per the Abuja Treaty of 1991—by 2034. True, it seems quite a long wayaway, but whoever thought the Millennium Development Goals (as prescribed in2000) would now only be two years away? There’s no gainsaying that the road toeconomic emancipation for Africa is very long and hard, so it remains paramountto get more serious now, more than ever, on management of finances of the eightregional economic communities populating the African integration landscape.

Last week, I touched on innovativefinancing and offered an insight into how it is an old battle that needs alittle warming up by both African integration watchers and the African populacealike. It needs must go beyond being a discussion rendered to abstraction bycognoscenti of African policy-makers to a place where media across thecontinent can begin to discuss and engage. Never mind that the idea offinancing African integration seems to be a preserve of “specialists”, it needsmoving to a place where all can freely discuss and debate it.

Proposals for innovative financing paths

The original study by theCommission of the African Union proposed no less than eight scenarios ofinnovative financing sources. These sources are to be structured around: (a)tax on imports; (b)tax on revenue from hydrocarbon exports; (c)tax on insurancepremiums; (d)levy on airline tickets; (e) involvement of the private sectorthrough sponsorship and other forms of support; (f) the sale of items and otherproducts carrying the African Union symbol. However, as a consequence of aseries of expert meetings and ministerial conferences, the Commission’s choicewas limited to the following main components or instruments: (i) levy onimports from the rest of the world; (ii)levy on airline tickets; and (iii)levyon insurance policies.

In order to obtain a greaterinsight into how these three instruments are used in levying taxes for some ofthe AU’s regional economic communities, we shall look at the cases of theEconomic Community of Central African States(ECCAS); UEMOA/CEMAC; and ECOWAS.

Truth be told, ECOWAS, UEMOA,ECCAS and CEMAC are the only RECs that have been implementing the levy onimports from non-member countries with some degree of success

The case of ECCAS and its Levy on Imports

For an organisation that barelymakes the news in this part of the world [for example, they just concluded the15^th session of their summit on Monday, which major outcome was tocall for the application of the convention on free movement of good and people,including the fixing of the date of 1 July, 2012 for the launching of anfree-trade area to be fully realized by 2014], one might find it hard tobelieve that it has a fully-functioning financing mechanism.

In ECCAS, the levy is called the*communitycontribution for integration (CCI)*. Consumer goods, originating fromthird countries, imported by member states are subject to the CCI. Productsthat are excluded from the field of taxation are products originating from theCommunity and imported goods under “suspensive customs regimes”.

In this grouping, the taxablevalue is the customs value of goods. In other words, the CIF(cost insurancefreight) or the transaction value. The rate of the CCI is calculated as 0.4%.In other words, if the customs value is 2,000,000CFA, the CCI is 2,000,000 X0.4% = 8000CFA. This is collected by national authorities – or customs or theTreasury.

These amounts collected under theCCI are deposited into an account opened on behalf of ECCAS at the Central Bankof each of the 15 member countries of ECCAS. In addition, a central account forECCAS is also opened at the Central Bank of the country, which hosts theheadquarters – as in the case of the cash account in Libreville, Gabon.

On the plus side, if the CCI iswell-implemented and all countries have a surplus in t he ECCAS account openedin their central bank, it is the entire region that is strengthened.

The case of UEMOA/CEMAC

According to the AU’s “Bulletinon Fridays”, these two organizations implement fully the Community levy system.One of the major reasons for this is because they are both customs unions,which facilitates the implementation of this measure.

The levy rate in UEMOA is 1%. Asa consequence, the levy rate in the member countries of UEMOA is 1.5%, brokendown as follows: (i)1% for UEMOA; (ii)0.5% for ECOWAS countries.

The case of ECOWAS

In ECOWAS, as in ECCAS, thecommunity levy is placed on taxable value of goods imported into the Communityfrom third countries and marketed for consumption. The following are exemptfrom the community levy: (i)aid, grants and non-repayable subsidies for astate, public corporations and state-approved charities; (ii)goods importedfrom third countries through financing provided by foreign partners, subject toa provision exempting such products from all tax levies; (iii) good imported byfirms under the existing tax system at the date of entry into force of thisProtocol; (iv) the goods having been charged the community levy under anyprevious tax regime.

ECOWAS Community levies arepredicated on: (i) CIF (cost insurance freight) value at the port of landingfor imports by sea; (ii) the CIF value of imports by land at the point of entryinto the customs territory of theCommunity; (iii)the customs value at the port of landing (APOD) for imports byair; (iv)the market price list of the respective goods.

The actual rate, as in the caseof ECCAS being at 0.4%, is set at 0.5% of the value of goods imported fromthird countries. This rate, however, can, if necessary, be changed every threeyears by the Authority of Heads of State and Government on the recommendationof the Council and the collection is done by heads of competent customsoffices. To this end, an additional line is opened in their accounting books inwhich daily collections of the Community levy are recorded. In turn, the Commission of ECOWAS, on its ownbehalf, opens an account in the books of the Central Bank of each member state(for countries having their own Central Bank) and with a branch of theUEMOA-based BCEAO.

Based on the import value ofimported goods, the customs requires the importer (who is also from the privatesector) to issue two cheques: one in favour of UEMOA(1%) and the second infavour of ECOWAS(0.5%). The Customs Services in turn deposit the chequesreceived from importers to the accounts of UEMOA and ECOWAS, which have beenopened at the Central Bank of each state.

Finally, in ECOWAS, what will bemost useful to the reader is how these funds are used. First, the funds go tothe regular budget of the Community and its institutions’, such as the WestAfrican Monetary Institute (located around the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange) andthe Spintex Road-based ECOWAS Regulatory Electricity Authority (ERERA). Thefunds exclude the budget of the Cooperation, Compensation and Development Fund;(ii)the budget to compensate revenue losses suffered due to tradeliberalization; (iii) the financing of development activities; and (iv)anyother allocation decided by the Authority or the Council including the capitalincrease of the ECOWAS Fund.

In the interests of space, I willconclude next week’s third part by providing greater insight into thatso-called “war chest” I have alluded to in the two parts. It goes withoutsaying that without an explanation of how ECOWAS innovatively-finances itsfunds for regional integration, it would be veritrably difficult understandinghow one arrived with a “war chest” of that considerable sum!

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://regionswatch.blogspot.com ). Established in 2004as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regionalintegration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regionalintegration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You canreach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.

Deconstructing ECOWAS’s war chest of $US252million, or a Brief Tale on Financing African Integration (1)

2012-01-11T03:00:00.000-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Deconstructing ECOWAS’s war chest of $US252million, or a BriefTale on Financing African Integration (1)

By E.K.Bensah Jr

One of the major highlights ofthe festive season was hearing on no less than the BBC world service businessnews that apart from Africa’s supposed rise (which has spawned thenow-platitudinous “Africa rising” tag), the regional economic communities aredoing well. Truth be told, as in the case of the Economist magazine apologizingfor calling the African continent “hopeless” in 2001 in its Dec 2011 edition, wereally did not need the venerable BBC to acknowledge the presence of the RECsto know that they are making waves.

Those African integration actorsat the UN Economic Commission for Africa(UNECA); the African Union(AU) and theAfrican Development Bank(AfDB) who have been working tirelessly and assiduouslyto ensure the narrative is consistent with that of the Abuja Treaty are perhapsthe unsung heroes of the fight for continental integration. It is good to know that their efforts havenot been in vain. The fact, though, is that these achievements cannot havehappened without resources.

It is an article of faith of thecontinental integration naysayer to claim that institutions like the AU and theRECs will never get far because apart from the political will, they do not haveresources. Those of us that have grown thick skins to this kind of criticismappreciate the castigation as a valid point, but also readily dismiss it as weknow this case to be untrue. While it is a well-known fact that a major part ofthe funds that the AU and institutions like ECOWAS receive is that of donors,it is also true that apart from ECOWAS, another AU-REC—the Economic Communityof Central African States(ECCAS)—, and two other non-AU-RECs—UEMOA(West Africa)and CEMAC (in central Africa)—have innovative financing methods. Now, the keyword here is “innovative”.

History of Innovative Financing in African Integration

The fact is that the recondite ideaof innovative financing for organizations like the African Union is not new asthey have been ongoing since 2001. The actual idea emanated from a summit inLusaka, Zambia in 2001. In conceiving of the AU, the Heads of State andGovernment of the AU appreciated the fact that they needed to pursue the ideaof a new source and mechanism to finance the AU. In doing so, they realizedthat there were limitations to the existing financing mechanism. To this end,they authorized the Commission of the African Union to undertake studies, withthe assistance of experts, to identify what one AU press release of December2010 calls “alternative modalities of funding” the programmes of the then-OAU.

Currently, the African Unionfunds are predicated on two sources of financing: member states contributionsand partner’s contributions. It is conceivable that the major constraintassociated with these two sources constrain the AU from implementing itsintegration agenda. At no time has this become as important as now when theeffects of the 2008 financial crisis are affecting Africa in different ways. Asa consequence, AU policymakers believe it is high-time the AU got its acttogether by implementing the decisions of the Lusaka Summit.

Explaining the Lusaka Appeal

The Lusaka Appeal is contained inDecision AHG/Dec.160(XXXVII), which reads as follows:(1)The Conferenceauthorizes the Secretary-General to: (i)Explore the possibility of mobilizingextra-budgetary contributions from member states, OAU partners and others;(ii)Undertake studies, with the assistance of experts, to identify alternativemodalities of funding the activities and programmes of the OAU, bearing in mindthat the Union cannot operate on the basis of assessed contributions frommember states only, and to make appropriate recommendations thereon.” It goeson to list challenges, which include funding that fluctuates and is “paltry”;funding sources that are limited and “are not diversified and remainpermanently uncertain”; the “largely inadequate” and “unstable” funds that aregiven to the AU, and which are not given “in real-time”.

It finally concludes that “theone and only solution allowing Africa to meet all these challenges lie inAfrica making available to the AU and its organs, their own resources that arestable, substantial and more or less permanent; and hence the Lusaka Appeal ofJuly 2001”.

How the AU Commission has responded

The study was first validated byindependent expert, followed by experts from member states. At the request ofexperts of member states, the study was further complemented by an impact studymeasuring the effects of the proposed instruments on the economies ofindividual African countries. Truth be told, all the theoretical issues, suchas the practical aspects of introducing the initiatives or the adoption ofalternative sources of funding, have been explored in-depth. Furthermore, thestudy has even been the subject of two extraordinary conferences of Africanministers of Economy and Finance (CAMEF).

As one might expect, theimplementation of the Lusaka Appeal has been fraught with challenges, whichinclude, for example, country delegations. Most often than not, the expertsworking on the Appeal are not the same ones from one meeting to another; andthe government changes in our countries also change with every government,inevitably taking with them vital information that would have been necessary asinput for the implementation.

This trend has inevitablyderailed the “virtually-permanent achievements” of previous meetings, with eachnew delegation wanting to make its mark on the proposed instruments.

The good news is that a decisionwas adopted at the 15^th ordinary sessions of the Assembly of the AUin Kampala, Uganda, in July 2010, and that decision reflects the firm politicalwill of the Heads of State and Government to finalize the issue. Furthermore,the political will expressed by Heads of State and Government in the KampalaDecision invites experts as well as the ministers, to truly address the issueand make clear, consensual and concrete recommendations very much-needed forinnovative financing to make the impact it so needs for African integration.

In the second part, we’ll belooking at the scenarios for innovative financing; the different cases of theregional economic communities; as well as how ECOWAS ended up with a surplus ofUSD252million in its coffers from its innovative financing under the ECOWASLevy.

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://regionswatch.blogspot.com ). Established in 2004as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regionalintegration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regionalintegration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You canreach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

2011-12-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

To paraphrase the legendary Mark Twain, reports of my blog's death have been greatly exaggerated!

This blog--whether it is Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana; Accra Pictures by Day & Night; or Critiquing Regionalism; et al--are very much alive. The silence is attributed to the usual end-of-year pandemonium and cacophony.

No doubt, they shall all be back in full swing in 2012!

Suffice-to-say, as the sun sets on 2011, I sincerely hope however and whichever way you arrived at this blog entry, you'll be touched by the spirit of Christmas and goodness in the air and make sure you and your family HAVE YOURSELVES a great and scintillating Christmas break.

May it sound, peaceful and stress-free!

Have a supremely enjoyable and wonderful Christmas -- till we meet again in January 2012!;-D

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised? (3)...especially when Africa is rising?

2011-12-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised? (3)...especiallywhen Africa is rising?

By E.K.Bensah Jr

Even if the cover story of thelatest Economist is somewhat of a redemption of Africa's “loneliness” on theglobal stage, truth is Africa did not need that kind of endorsement beforerealising it is going places. Admittedly, the apology-of-sorts by the magazinefor calling Africa “a hopeless continent” back in 2001 can only serve tovindicate the efforts made by the eight AU-recognised regional economiccommunities populating the continent.

Truth be told, it is almost hardto believe that it was only two weeks ago that the African Union rejected theEconomic Partnership Agreements, telling the EU that their priority is regionalintegration. It is also hard to believe that it is only four years ago that theso-called Grand Debate on Union Government took place in Accra when Ghanaplayed host to the AU Assembly of Heads of State. I mention this only to remindus that when we couple that July 2007 meeting with the ECOWAS MinisterialMonitoring Committee meeting and 7th Sessionof the Conference of African Trade Ministers in early December, it is easy forus to speculate that by some twist of fate, Ghana continues to play host totectonic changes on the African integration landscape.

Elsewhere, this would havecreated the imperative among the populace to be better-sensitized to thedevelopments in the African Union and regional economic communities. Seeing aswe depend a lot on hope in this country, it seems we can only hope that more ofthe Ghanaian media looks beyond reporting on politics excessively.

As I write this, the UN Economic Commissionfor Africa(UNECA) is hosting a meeting in the home of the AU for the 2ndAfrican Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral ResourcesDevelopment.

Accordingto a press release from the UNECA, “a key premise of the AMV is that miningshould become a catalyst for broad-based sustainable development. The MiningVision argues that until now mining has been run as an enclave activity,meaning that the economic and social linkages within Africa itself have notbeen as strong as they should be.”

Secondly,according to the AMV, African governments have “focused too much on gettingrevenue from mining and not enough on using the industry as a catalyst fordevelopment.” Going forward, the industry has to do much more to encourage enterprises“develop around mining centres.”

Infact, one of the major outcomes of the Conference is to launch a new majorreport, “Minerals and Africa’s Development” that was drafted by anexpert technical task force – the International Study Group, which includes theAccra-based Third World Network-Africa– established under the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

The UNECA release states that “theReport reviews current mineral regimes across Africa and against thisbackground sets out the policy implications for implementing the Africa MiningVision. The main recommendations of the report, and the Vision itself, haveformed the basis for an action plan which will be agreed at the Conference. Theplan is expected to form the basis for implementing the vision.”

This significant development isconsistent with the “Productive Capacity Cluster” of the “Action Plan forboosting intra-African trade” I touched on in the first part of thisthree-parter.

Simply put, the action planpointed the finger of blame for Africa's woeful productive capacity on the lowlevel of intra-African trade. The imperative, therefore, is to effectivelyimplement initiatives like the African Mining Vision, which are consideredessential for the enhancement of the productive capacities of African countriesand for the boosting of intra-African trade. Regrettably, much of thismomentous development seems to be taking place on the blind side of most of theAfrican media!

When Africa rises, it's thanksto the people

As you may well know, all is notentirely lost—as exemplified by the relative success of two weeks ago whenGhana’s Minister of Trade and Industry had to, in effect, capitulate to herhostile intentions of forcing Ghana to sign an interim Economic PartnershipAgreement with the EU. This might not have happened without a people-centredintervention, including a major statement launched by West African civilsociety, including the Accra-based Economic Justice Network.

In the “Joint Statement by the West African Civil Society Platform onthe Cotonou Agreement(POSCAO), Economic Justice Network of Ghana and theSecretariat of the Africa Trade Network…”, the statement included sections on“Unity for Development not EU Deadlines”; “Current contentious issues in theEPA Negotiations”; “ECOWAS CET”; “EPA Development Programme (PAPED)”; “ECOWASSolidarity Fund”; “Programming Alternatives to the EPA”; and “West Africa, theEU and current development in the World Economy.”

Some of the demands includewelcoming the initiative of Nigeria on the ECOWAS Common External Tariff rateto raise it from 35 to 50 percent, “collectively tak[ing] this as a point ofdeparture for finalizing [West Africa’s] CET”; supporting the statement made bythe ECOWAS’s Director of Trade “that a proper and binding PAPED” is a“precondition for an ECOWAS EPA and hold West African officials to thiscommitment.”. In addition, there is the call by West African civil society to“immediately establish its own Solidarity Fund to enable members absorbassociated [costs] with the EPA in the short-term.”

Now while the EPAs are not commoncurrency in the discourse of Ghana’s national development, it is conceivablethat the statement offered a degree of policy space even for West Africandiplomats to use the sliver of opportunity to engage civil society in a waythat might not have been possible a decade ago when civil society agitationswere in their infancy.

In conclusion, we can draw ourown conclusions as to whether Africa is on the cusp of significant and palpablechange. I will not lie to you and pretend I feel it isn’t. There is enoughhappening around the African Union—from its celebration of its tenth year inSeptember 2012; and its AU summit in January on boosting intra-Africantrade—for one to be conceivably excited over prospects for growth and economicemancipation. Africa has been rising a long time – just that it was not beingarticulated as strongly as now. In between the trough and crests of structuraladjustment and Breton Woods prescriptions lay buried an African Integrationnarrative that is now asserting itself. Africa, arise!

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk LessAmbassador” of the 42^nd Generation—an NGO that promotes anddiscusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuelgave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating aPan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to thedearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, thisnon-profit blog features regional integration initiatives onMERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.

AFRICA must Stop SOUTH AFRICA from enlisting EU help to get top AU position in 2012

2011-12-08T05:00:00.001-08:00

Dear friend,

I am only a proud AU-frican citizen, but I am profoundly disturbed to read that the EU's top boss Baroness Ashton is ready to support South Africa to replace Gabon's Jean Ping in 2012. After the SOUTH AFRICA-NIGERIA duplicity and confusion at the Security Council in 2011 over Cote d'Ivoire, why must Africa sit back and watch the Africa's biggest economy to curry favour with the EU, which is going through its own internal crisis with the EUROZONE, just so that it can pave the way for further support for a permanent position at the UN Security Council?

Read the story below, and make your own judgement as to whether Jean Ping should be offered a UN position...or if it is to be SOUTH AFRICA, should it not be someone like Mbeki?

"Ashton should rather send Zuma to the top UN job, or challenge SA to put Mbeki up at the AU post!!"

============================

from: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=160546

EU heavyweight backs Dlamini-Zuma for AU post

The endorsement will boost SA's campaign to have Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma replace Jean Ping as the next African Union Commissioner but it is likely to infuriate France

LOYISO LANGENI

Published: 2011/12/07 06:44:31 AM

EUROPEAN Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is campaigning in Africa to have Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma appointed as the next African Union (AU) Commissioner, according to a senior government official.

This endorsement will boost SA's campaign to have her replace Jean Ping. But it is likely to infuriate France, which favours Mr Ping for a second five-year term.

Lady Ashton agreed to assist SA to convince the AU's heads of state, especially in west Africa, to have Mr Ping withdraw his candidature, paving the way for Ms Dlamini-Zuma to be elected uncontested, said the official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

In return for Mr Ping's withdrawal, the EU would ensure he was "rewarded with a suitable and senior position" at the United Nations. "We met with Catherine Ashton in Perth on the sidelines (of the Commonwealth meeting in October) where she endorsed our plan for our candidate," the official said. "She supports SA's position to strengthen the AU, which is weak, ineffective and has poor administration and governance controls.

"Our strategy will neutralise France which is actively funding the re-election of Mr Ping, even though it is publicly denying it."

EU spokesman Frank Oberholzer said yesterday he was not aware of the Perth meeting. "The EU salutes democratic processes wherever it happens and would support whatever outcome the AU concludes," he said.

The French embassy would only refer to comments by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe during his visit to SA last month — that France had no interest in recolonising Africa.

Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela said yesterday he was not aware of any deal.

Mr Ping arrived in SA on Monday to attend the United Nations climate-change conference in Durban. His countryman, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, attended the conference yesterday.

A senior Gabonese official refused to shed light on Mr Ping's campaign. "We are in competition with SA on the AU position, but we are here in Durban to support SA to conclude a climate agreement."

langenil@bdfm.co.za

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised (2), (or a Tale of Africa’s Zeitgeist!)

2011-12-07T02:31:00.001-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Will the African IntegrationRevolution be Televised (2), (or a Tale of Africa’s Zeitgeist!)

By E.K.Bensah Jr

After the indefatigable effortsof West African civil society organizations, including the Economic JusticeNetwork, to stall and stop Ghana from signing an interim Economic PartnershipAgreement(EPA) with the European Union, you could be forgiven for thinking theguard of African integration watchers might be let down. Truth be told, thestalling serves only as a reminder of Nkrumah’s call for eternal vigilance.That no less than the African Union has stated categorically that the EPAs arenot “a priority” for Africa, but regional integration is, can only helpvindicate all those who work assiduously every day towards the emancipation ofAfrica—be it in West Africa, or continentally.

Last week, I touched on three(out of five) major developments that might lend weight to the view thatAfrica’s about to take off in 2012. The first was the Africa Trade Forum,hosted by the UN Economic Commission in Africa; next was the Seventh OrdinarySession of Conference of African Trade Ministers that just concluded meetingsin Accra on 3 December; third was the launching of the Least DevelopedCountries report in Geneva – at which I expressed disappointment that there wasno coverage of it probably because Ghana is not an LDC.

The two remaining developmentsare the Second Congress of African Economists; and the ECOWAS MinisterialMonitoring Committee—and related activities by civil society—that concludeddiscussions in Accra on 1^st December.

Second Congress of African Economists

If there is a second, then itsurely means there was a first – and the First Congress took place in Nairobi,Kenya in July 2009. The theme was: “Towardsthe Creation of a Single African Currency: Review of the Creation of a SingleAfrican Currency: Which optimal Approach to be adopted to accelerate thecreation of the unique continental currency?” Doubtless, a heavy topic, soit is little wonder the outcome document is more than 200 pages!

The Second Congress of AfricanEconomists took place from 24-26 November in the West African state of Coted’ivoire. The theme is “Achieving strongand sustainable economic growth in Africa to curb unemployment and promoteregional and continental integration dynamics.” Unbeknownst to many AfricanIntegration watchers, the main objective of this gathering is to provide aplatform for Economists from Africa; the continent and the Diaspora to “come upwith concrete solutions to integration and development challenges facingAfrica.” Above all, the Congress promotes knowledge sharing; and provides clearrecommendations “to assist African countries in reformulating their economicpolicies with a view to addressing current socio-economic challenges.”

The Abidjan Declaration is thefinal outcome statement from the Congress. Recommendations were made on thefollowing: foreign direct investment and domestic resource mobilization as atool for alleviating poverty and generating employment in Africa; Unemploymentas a barrier to sustainable economic growth in Africa; Governance,institutional reform and the role of the private sector in boosting economicgrowth in Africa; Africa and the new development paradigm; Boostingintra-African trade; and Aid effectiveness.

On “foreign direct investment anddomestic resource mobilization as a tool for alleviating poverty and generatingemployment in Africa”, the Congress recommends that Africa should agreeon its own definition of poverty as well as an appropriate system ofmeasurement; second, the AU should work with member states and RECs to “developa comprehensive plan for the promotion of long-term investment and strategiesfor the creation and retention of labour in Africa.”

On “Unemployment as a barrier tosustainable economic growth in Africa”, the Congress includes“comprehensive strategies should be developed aimed at the transformation ofAfrica’s natural resource based economies into knowledge-based economies…”;second, there should be more investment in research and development; third,gender dimension should be reflected in employment policies.

As regards “Governance, institutional reformand the role of the private sector in boosting economic growth in Africa”,the recommendation includes “specific strategies on SME development” and howthey should be led by African countries; the need to improve thecompetitiveness of African industries; as well as the need for member states to“implement financial sector reforms aimed at deepening the financial system…”

With respect to “Africaand the new development paradigm”, the Declaration states that “Africancountries should consider enhancing the use of the Human Development Index tocomplement GDP as a measure of development”; African countries ought to worktowards implementing African-led development initiatives, such as NEPAD. Aboveall, and most importantly, the AU; RECs; and member states ought to “take allnecessary measures to expedite the regional and continental integration processas a stepping-stone towards integration into the global economy throughmeasures such as the implementation of the Minimum Integration Programme(MIP)”,which was the outcome of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers ofIntegration(COMAI IV) in Yaounde, Cameroon, in 2009. In addition, Africancountries should set their sights on outreach with the Diaspora and seek “tobuild alliances” with them to attain development.

On “Boosting intra-African trade”,the AU should be tasked to work with RECs and Pan-African institutions “topromote monetary and financial integration in Africa”; African countries oughtto take steps to implement regional and sub-regional agreements on freemovements of persons; goods; services; and capital; the AU and member statesshould support “cross-border infrastructure development programmes”, such asthe Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa(PIDA). Critical to allthese ought to be the support given by the AU and its member states to boostintra-African trade and create a continental free trade area – as prescribed bythe just-ended 7^th ordinary session of African Trade ministers herein Accra.

If there is anything that hasbrought into sharp relief this year the need for the AU to seek alternativessources of financing, then it must be the Libyan crisis. Although this does notfeature in the Abidjan declaration, what does is the need for the AU and itsmember states to continue to seek alternatives to the conventional sources ofOverseas Development Assistance(ODA); and the donor funding, which is oftenlate and inadequate in any case.

Little wonder, therefore, that inthe final point on “Aid effectiveness”, the Congress recommends how “Africa shouldexplore innovative sources of finance, including domestic resource mobilizationn and Diaspora bonds as a means of reducing dependence on aid.” Closely tied tothis is the proposal for a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, which findsexpression in an “annual reporting on the delivery and utilization of aidwithin member states as well as regional institutions such as RECs and the AU.”

If, like me, you can feel somesense of Zeitgeist of African Integration, then you’ll look out for next weekwhen I conclude on the fifth development that will contribute to sending Africaoff to better places in 2012.

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiativeto respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integrationinitiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integrationinitiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised?

2011-11-30T04:01:00.001-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised? (1)

By E.K.Bensah Jr

You would not know it if you sawit, but Africa’s at the cusp of historic change. If the month of November isanything to go by, you might think that Africa’s about to take off in 2012.Five major developments have conspired to remind us that the issue of regionalintegration and trade are very much at the forefront of the minds ofpolicy-makers, civil society activists and citizens alike.

Africa Trade Forum

According to the website of theATF, the “strategic objectiveof the inaugural AfricaTrade Forum, ATF 2011is to promote and enhancemulti-stakeholder policy dialogue and advocacy on trade issues in Africa, bymobilising all the different trade constituencies Africa and theworld in general, to debate and exchange views on allthe key issuesrelating to intra-African trade, and Africa’strade with the rest of the world”. Additionally, the Executive Secretary of theUNECA was perhaps more instructive and insightful. In his opening speech, hetouched upon the low performance of Africa’s trade performance at“international and regional levels”, going on to say that “the continent’sshare of global trade remains low at about 3% and continues to be dominated byprimary commodity exports.”

He also touches upon howintra-African trade is faring, saying that it is “just about 11% of total tradeas compared to 72% in Europe and 52% in Asia.” He suggests that a solution isthrough “regional value chains, which have contributed to high intra-regionaltrade elsewhere, which in turn has helped firms in other parts of the world tobe key players in global value chains.”

Another positive outcome findsexpression in the forthcoming Economic Report on Africa2012, which shows“some regional economic communities have exceeded the average intra-Africantrade growth.” One example cited is that of intra-COMESA trade that is reportedto have grown “by at least 35.4 percent between 2009 and 2010, rising fromUS$12.7 billion to $17.2 billion.”

Janneh further maintains that theForum is “intended to deepen the dialogue on how these challenges can be bestaddressed including through sharing of best practices.” In this respect, theHeads of States and Governments from the Tripartite of COMESA-SADC-EAC havecommitted themselves to the establishment of an FTA by 2014 “that will be basednot just on market integration, but that will seek shared benefits throughindustrialization and infrastructure development.”

That the AU Assembly will inJanuary 2012 focus its meeting on the discussion of boosting intra-Africantrade can only “contribute to the process of helping build consensus aroundsome key areas.” In addition, the forthcoming Assessing Regional Integrationin Africa V, (jointly published by the AUC and AfDB) “suggest thatharmonization of RECs trade policies through a continental FTA would result toan additional US$34 billion in intra-African exports…” In short, he maintains,“if we do what is required, we can optimize intra-African trade.”

Seventh Ordinary Session ofConference of African Trade Ministers

A second major development is that of theConference of African Trade Ministers currently being held in Accra this week,and which ends on 3rdDecember. A quick perusal of the AU website reveals two majordocuments that make recommended reading – that of an “Action Plan forboosting Intra-African Trade” a ‘Draft Framework, Roadmap andArchitecture for Fast-Tracking the Continental Free Trade Area(CFTA)”. Inthe interests of space, I will seek to summarise the major highlights of theaction plan, which comprises no less than six(6) programme clusters—namely:Trade policy; Trade Facilitation; Productive Capacity; Trade-RelatedInfrastructure; Trade Finance; and Trade Information.

The primary objective of theTRADE POLICY cluster is to fast-track intra-African trade development. Some ofthe activities outlined include: mainstreaming of intra-African trade innational trade development strategies; boosting of intra-African trade in foodproducts so that tariffs, non-tariff measures and quantitative restrictions onintra-African trade in food products are removed; promotion of “Buy in Africa”and “Made in Africa” goods, which ought to lead to increased trade in goodsamong member states.

The main objective of TRADEFACILITATION is to reduce the time it takes to move goods from one point toanother by 50%. Activities include: reduction of road blocks; the harmonizationand simplification of customs and transit procedures, documentation andregulations; and the establishment of an “Integrated Border Management”, whichoutput is a harmonized and simplified set of customs procedures; standards;regulations and documentation.

The third cluster – thePRODUCTIVE CAPACITY cluster – is perhaps the most contentious – and not justbecause the Action Plan dedicates a longer explication of it! The Plan reportsthat “to a large extent…the inadequacy of productive capacity, especially inthe dynamic sectors of global trade” has a lot to do with the low level ofintra-African trade. While Africaexports more than it imports of ores, “metals, precious stones and fuels”, thereverse is the case with manufactured goods, chemicals, machinery andtransport.

In short, the necessity of thediversification of Africa’s economy and the enhancement of its productivecapacity and competitiveness for meeting the challenges of sustainable economicgrowth and development has led the Assembly of Heads of State and Government ofthe AU to adopt a number of initiatives.

These include the adoption of theAction Plan for Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa(AIDA),which is aimed at the enhancement of the continent’s industrial capacities andcapabilities. In addition, there is the African Productive Capacity Initiative(APCI);the Action Plan for the Development of Science and Technology; and the AfricaTechnology and Innovation Initiative(ATII); the African Mining Vision;and the African AgriBusiness and Agro-industry Development Initiative(3ADI).The report maintains “the effective implementation of these initiatives isessential for the enhancement of the productive capacities of African countriesand for the boosting of intra-African trade.”

Little wonder, then, that themain objective of this cluster is to create regional and continental valuechains/complementarity, to increase local production/ trade in goods producedin Africa. Some of the programmes and activities scheduled include: theprioritization of the implementation of continentally-agreed programmes, suchas AIDA; ATII; APCI; and 3ADI; the establishment of integrated andinter-connected trade information systems; and the establishment of RegionalCenters of Excellence for technology development, adaptation and diffusionresulting in each regional economic community(REC) having its own regionalcentre.

The fourth cluster deals withTRADE-RELATED INFRASTRUCTURE, with its main objective being the development ofinnovative, legal, financial and other mechanisms for multi-countryinfrastructural development projects. Some of its programmes include: theprioritization of the implementation of the AU Programme for InfrastructuralDevelopment in Africa(PIDA); and theenabling environment for private sector participation in the development ofinfrastructure.

Cluster number five—TRADEFINANCE—focuses on developing and strengthening African financial institutionsand mechanisms to promote intra-African trade and investment. Programmesinclude: strengthening and enhancing the capacity of existing regional andcontinental financial institutions; improving payment systems so thatcross-border payments are facilitated; and finally, enabling environment forfinancial service companies to supply export credit and guarantees.

The sixth and final cluster—TRADEINFORMATION—focuses on bridging the information gap so as to enhanceopportunities for intra-African trade, with, among other things, the envisagingof the creation of inter-connected centers of trade information exchange; aswell as the development of “innovative legal, financial and other mechanismsfor multi-country infrastructure and industrial projects”.

All this notwithstanding, thereis even better good news to help resolve the problem of Africa’s low level oftrade – and that is with the establishment of CFTA, or a Continental FreeTrade Area Architecture. This would include: a High-Level African TradeCommittee; a Joint Conference of Trade/Finance Ministers; an African TradeForum; African Business Council; Trade Observatory; and an African Court ofJustice. AU policymakers envisage the CFTAA to be ready by 2017.

UNCTAD’s Least DevelopedCountries Report

The report was launched lastweek—sadly without much fanfare. First, Ghana is not a Least Developed Country,and secondly, LDCs rarely make the headlines these days. Nonetheless, thereport came out with much interesting analysis, including an issue I touched onlast week – that of the regional and sub-regional banks.

According to the report, regionalmonetary funds are “instrumental in avoiding uncontrolled exchange devaluationsthat may compromise the integration process.” The report maintains “it might beargued that a regional reserve pool would not work if an external shock affectsthe whole region.” Despite that, they continue to be “an important source of developmentfinance for regional member countries.”

It was back in 2002 that theMonterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing forDevelopment (FfD) emphasized the crucial role regional and subregional bankscan play “in serving the development needs of developing countries andcountries with economies in transition.” Further, they can serve as “a vitalsource of knowledge and expertise on economic growth and development for theirdeveloping member countries.” Third, given the structure of regional ownership,regional development banks can facilitate a stronger voice to developingcountry borrowers, as “well as enhance regional ownership and control”. Fourth,they can be effective because they tend to govern more through informal peerpressure “rather than imposing conditionality.” Finally, “informationasymmetries are smaller at the regional level, given the proximity as well asclose economic and other ties.”

(to be continued…)

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and discussesPan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS andthe AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "CritiquingRegionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org ). Established in 2004 as aninitiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integrationinitiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integrationinitiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.

How Ecowas Can Help reduce Ghana's Dependency on Foreign Aid

2011-11-23T03:46:00.001-08:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Aid-Exit Plan Found: Enter ECOWAS...

By E.K.Bensah Jr

Last week, the Business and Financial Times papercovered an all-important story entitled “Wanted:Aid-Exit Plan”. In my view, itbrought into sharp relief the absolute necessity by African countries ofpursuing by any means necessary a more sub-regional path through ECOWAS.

The premise of the article wasrooted in three points: first, given Ghana's graduation in November 2010 fromlow-income to lower-middle income status, it is likely to lose out concessionalfinance from the World Bank, “which has been the country's most importantcreditor for the past three decades”; second, after Ghana's recalibration ofits GDP per capita to USD1,363, the country was “travelling the road” of losing“not just IDA funding, but other bilateral and multilateral assistance.”Finally, for Ghana to “build up its credibility”, it must—as per the findingsof Western economists and consultants--”show fiscal restraint, maintainmacroeconomic stability and demonstrate that it is capable of putting funds toproductive use.”

All these points notwithstanding,the picture is too gloomy, and optimism can easily be found through ECOWAS.

New Realities,Oldopportunities

The bottom line is that cheaploans may have dried up, but through the Lome-based ECOWAS Bank for Investmentand Development (EBID), Ghana can easily obtain funding to finance both itsprivate and public sector initiatives.

Formerly known as the ECOWASFund, EBID is the principal financial institution of ECOWAS. With its holdingcompany operating through its two subsidiaries—the public-sector-focused ECOWASRegional Development Fund (ERDF) and the private-sector-led ECOWAS RegionalInvestment Bank (ERIB has), EBID remains the financing bank of NEPAD projectsin the region. In so many ways, it is the European Investment Bank counterpartin the ECOWAS sub-region, and has been around since the inception of ECOWAS in1975.

Observers of the sub-regionbelieve EBID has, in many respects, been a trailblazer in the sub-region in theway it has maintained a consistent brief of fostering greater integration inthe sub-region among its member states – especially in the light of theconflicts that mired the sub-region in the early nineties. So focused has itbeen in facilitating sub-regional integration that in 2004, in conjunction withthe African Development Bank, it set up a Conflict Prevention Fund, which isindeed managed by EBID.

Unbeknownst to many, EBID is thelargest shareholder of the Ecobank group, which also has its headquarters inLome. EBID’s subsidiary ERIB also has shares in the capital of the so-called“ECOMARINE”, which is a West African maritime transport company, while ERDFco-finances integration of electric networks of Niger; Benin; Togo; and Ghana.,extending it towards Cote d’ivoire.

Simply put, ERIB—concentrating onpromoting the private sector and commercial sub-sectors in the ECOWASzone—grants medium and long-term loans for commercial projects in all sectors;conversely ERDF—specializing in the disbursement of funds to the publicsector—finances basic economic infrastructure and poverty-alleviation projects.These include medium and long-term concessionary loans for basicinfrastructure, as well as economic and social projects in member states.

Ghana and EBID

Ghana naturally has arelationship that is expressed through its relationship as a member of ECOWAS.More recently, though, EBID came closer to home in Ghana when in May this year,no less than the incumbent Minister of Finance Dr.Kwabena Duffour was electedChairman of the governing board of the ECOWAS Bank for Development andInvestment (EBID) at the end of the bank’s ninth ordinary session inAccra.

At the same meeting, Duffour saidthat in Ghana, EBID had financed private sector in the areas of hotel,infrastructure, engineering and social amenities. With regard to the publicsector, EBID’s interventions in Ghana include electrification of 114communities in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions to the tune of $30 million;modernization of the headquarters of the Ghana national fire Service at thecost of $15 million.

In October, Ghana News Agencyreported that EBID is negotiating with Chinese banks “to raise $1.5 billion tofinance infrastructure projects in four French-speaking countries.” It furtherreported that in July this year, EBID signed a credit line of $150 million withIndia for various projects in member states. The Accra meeting was likely toalso appoint a new president of the bank, as well as set new limits inauthorized capital for the bank.

The meeting would conclude withDr.Duffour himself saying that the meeting discussed strategies to make theinstitution “more relevant to West African economies in the face of the currentfinancial crisis in Europe.”

Given these statements, it thenbeggars serious belief that any Ghanaian might feel that an “aid-exit plan”needs to be found. None needs finding. We already have it right here in thesub-region we like to call the ECOWAS zone.

Add to that the fact that ECOWASis finalizing a Common External Tariff(CET) for its customs union, which would,in theory, give the sub-region some clout at the World Trade Organisation, andyou have an ECOWAS that needs monitoring now more than ever to ensure that itdelivers a sustainable and prosperous West Africa to all its citizens.

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiativeto respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integrationinitiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integrationinitiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.

Towards a Continental AU Government?

2011-11-15T08:31:00.001-08:00

Towards aContinental AU Government?

By E.K.Bensah jr

When The 12th Ordinary Session of the Africa Union Assemblyof the Heads of State and Government ended on 3rd February 2009 with a call by the heads ofState for continental government, the election of the late, controversialLibyan leader Al-Qaddafi as chair of the AU for one year helped deepenskepticism about what some believe to be lofty ideals of a United States ofAfrica.

Not a New idea

Let’s face it: the idea of a United Africa is not new. Ghana’sown first, late head of State Dr.Kwame Nkrumah continues to remain thequintessential pioneer of a United Africa. His call is what would stir him tojoin the countries of Algeria, Guinea, Morocco, Egypt, Mali and Libya in 1961under what would be called the Casablancabloc; this group believed in a federation of African states. As acounterweight, the Monrovian bloc,led by Senegal’s Senghor—comprising Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia and most of the former Frenchcolonies—believed that unity should be achieved gradually, through economiccooperation.

It is fair to say that theage-old duality of what would represent an united Africa continues to play outin the new terms of rapidists and instantists. However, for whatever one mightthink or say about al-Qaddafi, it is that he had been consistent in his dreamabout an Africa with one military, passport, and one foreign policy.

What many observers hadbeen attributing to the Libyan leader of a continental African Union governmentis in fact a follow-up of the Grand Debate of Accra in 2007.

From AU Commission to AU Authority

The idea is to establishan “African Union Authority” that would replace the existing AU Commission.According to the late Libyan president, it would have been a “government of the union.” According to out-gone AU Chairman, TanzanianKikwete, who held the post from 2008-2009, the new Authority should have beenlaunched and made operational in July 2009. It will have a President and VicePresident, while present Commissioners of the AU Commission will serve assecretaries, with portfolios structured along nine areas of shared competence.These include free movement of persons; goods and services; international tradenegotiations; peace and security matters and foreign affairs.

In fact, in July 2009, inSirte, Libya, the AU Assembly did adopt a decision on the modalities of theTransformation of the AUC into an Authority.

Theidea remains for the Authority to exercise its functions on the basis of theprinciple of subsidiary with regards to Member States and Regional EconomicCommunities (REC’s). It shall have competence in continent-wide povertyreduction, free movement of persons and goods, peace and security, coordinationof common defence policy of the continent as well as coordination of foreignpolicy of the continent among others.

Challenges

While there remain a number of challenges associated with thisenterprise, perhaps the two biggest sticking points find expression in therelationship between any putative AU Authority and the regional economiccommunities (RECS), as well as the legal implications of a continentalgovernment. As regards the RECs, many diplomats are unclear what the roles ofthe RECs should be, and speculate whether they should not first be strengthenedwith a view to integrating them into a government. Secondly, the AU Authoritywould not merely be a matter of semantics, but involve the amendment of the AUConstitutive Act. This would certainly represent a boon to the naysayers who believethis would stall the project indefinitely.

If the 2006 “AU study onUnion government” is anything to go by, some challenges have been identifiedwhich require some attention if the RECs are to succeed in theirmission as building blocks towards deep continental integration.Almost all RECs are “inward-looking” and consider their objective (economicunion or political federation) at regional level as the ultimate goal. There isno road-map at the level of the RECs for their eventual integration into a continentalunion; there are duplications of some AU organs at the level of RECs, notablythe parliament, development/investment bank, and the ECOSOC. More importantly,there seems to be no vision in the RECs for a continental agenda.

Because of that, there isneed for the AU to take the lead in the promotion of the integration agenda atthe continental level.

Another challenge isrelated to the rationalization debate that is currently underway.You mayre-call that in my earlier posts, I referred to South Sudan being member ofCOMESA, and contemplating becoming a member of East African Community. If onehad a proper rationalization underway, whereby one AU member state can belongto only one REC, South Sudan would never have even contemplated the decision ofbeing member of another REC.

Currently, for example,Southern and East Africa are covered by SADC, COMESA, EAC, IGAD and CEN-SAD;some countries belong to up to four RECs. The report maintains that “besidesthe eight RECs recognized by the AU, there are a number of customs and/ormonetary unions whose mandate and work somehow duplicate what the eight RECsare expected to do”. For example, five of the SADC members belong to theSouthern African Customs Union; while eight of ECOWAS members belong to the WestAfrican Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) which has economic union as anobjective,and the six members of the Central African Economic and MonetaryCommunity (CEMAC) an organization that also has economic union as an objective,are members of ECCAS.

These shortcomings interms of the objective of rational regional economic integrationnotwithstanding, the logic of using the RECs “as building blocks for theeventual deep, continental integration remains valid”, the study continues. Thechallenge is “in aligning, synchronizing and harmonizing the integrationefforts of member states, the RECs themselves, and the AU”. As a consequence, “aroad-map for the attainment of deep continental integration and theestablishment of Union Government should learn, first, from the difficulties experiencedin the implementation of the two previous road-maps (i.e. the Lagos Plan ofAction and the Abuja Treaty); second, from the experience of the RECs as the buildingblocks; and, third, from the past four years of the existence of the AU”.

Hence to facilitate theUnion Government project, it is important to also address the currentproblems faced at the regional level. It is fair to say that while there exista number of protocols facilitating the addressing of these challenges, thestages of development of the RECs vary, and are likely to slow down theattainment of any Union government of AU member states.

you can also find this article on JOY online: http://opinion.myjoyonline.com/pages/feature/201111/76411.php

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiativeto respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integrationinitiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integrationinitiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. He is also Ag.Presidentof the Association of Ghanaian Journalists in ICT (AJICT-Ghana).You can reachhim on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.

Cote D’Ivoire 2011, or A Tale of ECOWAS & The AU’s Test of Legitimacy?

2011-11-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Cote D’Ivoire 2011, or A Tale of ECOWAS &The AU’s Test of Legitimacy?

ByE.K.Bensah Jr

At first, it looked like justanother African electoral headache: a relatively peaceful first round that setthe stage for a second round; and a round which, despite initial figuressupporting the opposition, would end with the declaration of the incumbent aswinner. So far, so familiar.

Soon after, one wouldsee a flurry of envoys from both the African Union and its regionalcounterparts in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)shuttling up and down the two headquarters of the AU and ECOWAS in Addis, andAbuja respectively. In December 2010, the AU was quick to appoint SouthAfrica’s Thabo Mbeki, whose mediation efforts had been instrumental in the 2005peace accord that brought about cessation of hostilities. Mbeki would bereplaced soon after by the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the AU envoy.This was indeed unprecedented given his erstwhilecombative comments that Cote d’Ivoire should be dealt with a strong hand withrapid, military intervention.

The appointmentby the AU of Odinga was from the outset highly problematic as it suggested tothe outside world that the AU was in favour of power-sharing—despiteprotestations to the contrary. Secondly, given that Gbagbo had dealt with hispresidential “equals” five years prior, it was quizzical for the AU to dispatchwhat Gbagbo’s entourage would later call a “mere Prime minister”. Though Odingawas quick to talk of peaceful measures to resolve the crisis, all his manyattempts to enable concessions from the incumbent leader of Cote d’Ivoireproved futile.

In January 2011,diplomatic success would also elude the West African troika of the presidentsof Cape Verde (Pedro Pires); Benin (Boni Yayi); and Sierra Leone (ErnestCoroma) who all left Abidjan without any concessions from Gbagbo.

ECOWAS was quickto react to the post-electoral breakdown in Côte d’Ivoire, coming out firmly insupport of Ouattara’s election, which was firmly endorsed at an extraordinarysummit in Abuja on 7 December 2010, and attended by seven heads of state. Thesummit would suspend Côte d’Ivoire from all ECOWAS decision-making bodies andmake an appeal to Gbagbo “to yield power without delay”.

When only ten ECOWAS member states met on 24December, they issued a communiqué that “legitimate force” as a “last resort” wouldbe used in the event of failed attempts to mediate the crisis. The majority ofthe international community went agog, with claims that “military intervention”was being considered at a time when pacific measures were possible. This wasstrange, given that nowhere in the communique does the statement even use theterm "military intervention".

Power Players

Critical to understanding theunprecedented nature of this crisis is the role of intergovernmental andregional institutions—key among which are ECOWAS and UEMOA. West Africa’sunique case of having an AU-recognized regional economic community (REC) underECOWAS coexisting with the smaller UEMOA (comprising eight francophone ECOWASmembers) has been a reality of the sub-region since 1994. Since then, therehave been crises in the UEMOA countries, including Guinea-Bissau, Niger, andTogo. Interestingly, this was the first time UEMOA would be proactive in sanctioninga member state. Given that the West African Central Bank is located in thecountry, it was even more significant, as it spoke volumes about how far UEMOAwas apparently prepared to go ineconomically-strangling the economy of Cote d’Ivoire to ensure it would complywith demands of ECOWAS. When this was coupled with efforts of ECOWAS, itsymbolized a veritable force against the obduracy of Gbagbo.

Though ECOWAShad acted first by convening a meeting soon after the crisis erupted inDecember 2010, and which lead to the suspension of Cote d’Ivoire, the AU—as theputative custodian of continental peace—was equally quick to ensure it wasright in the thick of resolving the crisis. The execrable quality of thatintervention has already been touched upon, but what has yet to be addressed isthe intervention by the United Nations – or lack thereof.

While it is truethat the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was quick to proclaim Outtara as thepresident, through information that came from his special representative inthat country Y J Choi, the conspicuous absence of the UN Office on West Africa,headed by Said Djinnit is equally noteworthy. Much of the media was focused onChoi and surprisingly less on UNOWA. This is curious, considering its mandate,among many, “to facilitate systematic andregular linkages in the work of the UN in the sub region, to define and harmonizenational and sub regional policies and strategies…” Beyond Choi and Ban,not once did we see or hear Djinnit make a statement about the crisis. Clearly,even the “good offices role” that has been conferred it was not made available.

Interestingly,UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was in his most-activist mode yet. First camethe immediate backing of Outtara. Secondly, it would be a UN/French-sponsoredhelicopter attack on Gbagbo’s residence in late March, where stockpiles ofheavy weapons had been kept. It would be this attack that would culminate inthe beginning of the end for Gbagbo.

As for the AU,it seemed to have another chance to redeem itself under increasing criticism ofits inconsistent stance on the crisis. Time and again, member states weredivided as to whether there should be a re-count or whether it was actuallyGbagbo who had won, with Angola and Equitorial Guinea being two of the foremostproponents of the anti-Outarra camp. That the head of state of the latter,Teodoro Obiang, would be elected by Central Africa at the AU’s powerful Peaceand Security Council to the rotating chair of the AU Commission has done little to improve the imageof the AU.

Diplomatic Divisions

Furthermore, the composition ofthe panel – comprising South Africa; Mauritania; Chad; Tanzania and BurkinaFaso—was considered problematic, especially with former coup-leader ofMauritania heading the panel, and a skeptical (and some might say duplicitous) South Africa which felt Gbagbo had been dealttoo harsh a blow.

Though each hadtheir entrenched positions, it was clear that the real and influential power-brokersin South Africa and Burkina Faso were diametrically opposed. Burkina’s BlaiseCompaore was fiercely resisted by Gbagbo’s supporters. The Jeunes Patriotes and other Gbagbo loyalists regard Compaoré ashaving been complicit in the original insurgency staged by the Forces Nouvellesthat led to the coup in September 2002, and which are strongly allied toOuattara before and after the elections, and now working through ECOWAS toprepare the ground for a military solution.

Conversely, mediareports indicate that South Africa’s Jacob Zuma made claims of voterirregularity, which was bound to antagonize ECOWAS even more. South Africa’s 1^stFebruary edition of the “Daily Maverick”maintained: “it is tragic that thisever-increasing pissing contest between South Africa and Nigeria over who hasthe most influence on the Dark Continent is being fought over the future of anentire country.” Arguing that “the AU’s involvement…stands in directcontrast to the way Madagascar coup was handled in 2009”, the paper goes on: “InCote d’Ivoire, every man and his dog wants to have a say, especially those whodisagree with Ecowas.”

To buttress the ideaof an apparently-antagonistic role of South Africa was the public statement by ECOWASCommission President Victor Gbeho. Speaking in Abuja, Gbeho warned of disunitytowards the Ivoirian crisis. “The concern we have is that apart from somegeo-political interests by some countries, there are others that areencouraging Gbagbo not to leave,” he said. “Because of certain individualinterests, some countries have decided to break the tradition of solidarity inECOWAS. What is happening is a matter of serious concern to ECOWAS and theinternational community, as certain countries have taken sides.”

Gbehofurther accused South Africa of stationing a warship in Côte d’Ivoire’s coastalwaters, “apparently in anticipation of any military action”. The South AfricanDefence Ministry said the SAS Drakensberg was a supply vessel undertaking aroutine training operation in West Africa. For a ship to appear at a time whendivisions were emerging has only lent further credence to a South Africaninterference in a very West African conflict which hard-line-stance wasostensibly being spearheaded by Nigeria.

Furthermore, despitethe fact that Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan was given a second mandate as ECOWASChairman, the sub-regional body’s absence was made all the more conspicuousbecause of his re-election as President in the Nigerian elections. Predictably,this gave rise to speculation that he was too preoccupied in exercising hisfranchise to care about ensuring ECOWAS’ leadership was shown and felt. Thereality is that ECOWAS was seeking to solicit UN Security Council support—asper the provisions of Chapter VII of the UN’s Charter – to continue with asolution predicated on “legitimate force.”

Conclusion

The UK-based Africa ResearchInstitute reports that “Cote d’Ivoire is the latest testing ground for Africa’sregional institutions.” Truth be told, it is more than that: it has exposedheretofore latent cleavages between two of the biggest financial contributorsto the AU who double as hegemons in their own right – Nigeria in West Africaand South Africa in Southern Africa.

Even if one isto dismiss what the Daily Maverickwrites about it being “bewildering…that South Africa so reliably goes alongwith countries that are consistently riding roughshod over their own people’sbasic rights…”, what is clear is that in the long run, it has been Africandiplomacy – for all the bluff and bluster – that has taken a blow.

This is becausethis conflict has revealed how both an AU and ECOWAS failed to clarify thequalitative nature of "legitimate force". The use of “legitimateforce” was inevitably going to be about the utilisation of an ECOWAS StandbyForce(ESF), comprising some 6,500 men, that would act as a Rapid DeploymentCapability (RDC) force to oust Gbagbo.

The AU has beenworking on a grand project of an African Standby Force for many years now.Discussions of it reached a climax during the celebration of its Year of Peaceand Security (climaxed on 21st September, 2010). It is from this ASF that thereare regional nodes (ECOWAS represents the West African flank). The AU is fullyaware of this development--as is ECOWAS.

For both theECOWAS and AU’s peace and security architecture, such a dent at theircredibility is significant as it calls into question a far-from-coordinatedapproach to resolving crises on the continent – despite the regional andcontinental mechanisms that exist through the ECOWAS Conflict PreventionFramework and the AU’s Peace and Security Council. Contrasted with the 2009crisis in Madagascar, where SADC was given room to play its regional role withthe AU offering more of an ancillary support, the narrative of this crisis iscertainly a case of one step forward, two steps back in how the AU conductsdiplomacy under the ambit of its putative peace and security architecture.

Even moresignificantly, what the Ivorian crisis has revealed is an absence of acontinental framework—never mind regional – to address electoral crises. As AUmember states move increasingly towards democratization, the one constant willbe management of elections. Foreign and sub-regional observers are all well andgood, but to avoid a repeat of the Kenyan and Zimbabwean models of governance,it behooves regional institutions, and the African Union, to certainly nip themigraine of future electoral headaches definitively in the bud.

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiativeto respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integrationinitiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integrationinitiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: 0268.687.653.

Hot Issues on the AU needing popular advocacy (I) – or Travelling Cheaply in Africa, & Southern Sudan

2011-10-26T03:23:00.000-07:00

“The Accidental Ecowas& AU Citizen”:

Hot Issues on the AU needing popular advocacy (I) – or TravellingCheaply in Africa, & Southern Sudan

By E.K.Bensah Jr

Given the untimely passing of Qaddafi, it is all-too predictable towrite more column inches about the man and his works for Africa. Suffice-to-sayif Africa had a more vivacious media than we like to think we have, then mediapractitioners should have been making more noise about the manner in which hisbody was dragged through the streets of Sirte, and how the distribution offootage of his bloodied body worldwide shattered to smithereens any sense ofdecency the media is supposed to have – anywhere.

That notwithstanding, today I want to focus on equally-importantissues that have lost their way off the radar of mainstream news.

Travellingcheaper in Africa?

For thelongest time, travelling throughout Africa has been a hellish affair, what withnever-falling cost of air tickets and entry of new airlines. Take the case oftravelling throughout the sub-region, where the average cost of a ticket isaround 500USD. This absolutely-unacceptable situation is made all the morepainful by the fact that despite the increasing assertiveness of theeight-AU-recognised regional economic communities (ECOWAS; CENSAD; Arab MagrebUnion; SADC; COMESA; ECCAS; East African Community; and IGAD), there arevirtually no “regional carriers” that represent the “power” of the RECs.

It seems forever that ECOWAS has been talking about “ECOAIR”, which would be the carrier forthe ECOWAS sub-region. We all know that it has not happened. There is a glimmerof hope that ECOWAS will make some headway on the viability of air transport—asper the meeting it is holding as I write this—but results are likely to be veryslow in coming.

Themeeting in question is attended by air transportexperts and Chief Executive Officers of airlines from all the 15 ECOWAS MemberStates, with the objective of discussing “measures of creating an enablingenvironment conducive for viable, efficient, affordable and sustainable airtransport industry in the West Africa sub region.” While this is encouraging,it looks like the real nettlesome challenge about travelling cheaply in WestAfrica has everything to do with air fuel costs.

To thisend, in August, the 33-member Association ofAfrican Airlines (AFRAA) resolved to work on the project whose aim is to lowerfuel costs for Africa, by jointly purchasing fuel. With only 33 members of theassociation,however, I wonder whether it is not high-time the AU is lobbied tojoin and help subsidise and operationalise this project?

Whither the future of CEN-SAD?

The Community of Sahel-SaharanStates was established in 1998 by the late Colonel Qaddafi. After therationalization of the regional economic communities in 2006, it became anAU-REC – that is one of the eight RECs mandated and recognized by the AfricanUnion. It has twenty-eight members, and Ghana is a member.

Despite many meetings that hadtaken place and a fully-functioning website on http://www.censad.org,the uprising that started in Libya in March threw a huge spanner in the worksof the organisation, effectively throwing the regional grouping out of syncwith the other RECs at its base in Tripoli. Regrettably, the conspicuousabsence of the African Union itself on the future of CENSAD has not helpeddispel the notion that the AU is nothing more than a “toothless” bulldog.

The passing of Qaddafi willeffectively take the wind out of the sails of CENSAD, probably throwing all thegood work – including the Great Green Wall being built along the sub-region toprotect the region from climate change; as well as the establishment of afree-trade area of ECOWAS-UEMOA-CENSAD/ECOWAS-CENSAD/ECCAS along the likes ofthe SADC-COMESA-EAC tripartite free trade area, which was mooted in 2008.

Going forward, I would expect tosee the AU taking serious the need to engage the National Transitional Councilin Libya on their commitments to the African Union. This would includediscussions on Libya and where it stands on the establishment of theAU-mandated and Tripoli-hosted African Investment Bank, as well as the state ofplay of CEN-SAD, and how it can be factored into discussions of Africa’songoing discussions over Africa’s integration.

South Sudan – which REC to belong to?

SouthSudan might have slipped off the radar of news—not because it is not important,but other hot issues might naturally have tipped it off. Still, what has notbeen making the rounds too much has been the regional economic community towhich South Sudan should belong. Given the location of that country, one cannottake it for granted that they would necessarily want to go with their Northerncounterpart—and to the RECs is no exception.

There isno mechanism that can predict that South Sudan will want to become member ofthe East Africa Community or the IGAD. And what of COMESA? This is an importantdebate that African media practitioners – aware of the utility and increasingassertiveness of the RECs – might be ruminating over on the continent.

Althoughthere have been major developments around South Sudan and its membership ofsome of these RECs, the point I am making here is about the absence of a debatein much of the African media. Going forward, African media practitioners,including here in Ghana, should move beyond the stage of talking about other AUmember states only when they’re, at best, embroiled in conflict and/or atworst, are headline news over at the BBC!

You mightbe happy to know that South Sudan was made a member of COMESA at the 15thComesa Heads of State and Government summit on 14^th October inMalawi. Furthermore, on 17 October, SouthSudan President General Salva Kiir confirmed that his country has started onthe application process to become a member of the East African Community (EAC).

In2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^ndGeneration—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on therole of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuelowns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiativeto respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integrationinitiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integrationinitiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: 0268.687.653.