“The Accidental Ecowas
& AU Citizen”:
Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised? (3)...especially
when Africa is rising?
By E.K.Bensah Jr
Even if the cover story of the
latest Economist is somewhat of a redemption of Africa's “loneliness” on the
global stage, truth is Africa did not need that kind of endorsement before
realising it is going places. Admittedly, the apology-of-sorts by the magazine
for calling Africa “a hopeless continent” back in 2001 can only serve to
vindicate the efforts made by the eight AU-recognised regional economic
communities populating the continent.
Truth be told, it is almost hard
to believe that it was only two weeks ago that the African Union rejected the
Economic Partnership Agreements, telling the EU that their priority is regional
integration. It is also hard to believe that it is only four years ago that the
so-called Grand Debate on Union Government took place in Accra when Ghana
played host to the AU Assembly of Heads of State. I mention this only to remind
us that when we couple that July 2007 meeting with the ECOWAS Ministerial
Monitoring Committee meeting and 7th Session
of the Conference of African Trade Ministers in early December, it is easy for
us to speculate that by some twist of fate, Ghana continues to play host to
tectonic changes on the African integration landscape.
Elsewhere, this would have
created the imperative among the populace to be better-sensitized to the
developments in the African Union and regional economic communities. Seeing as
we depend a lot on hope in this country, it seems we can only hope that more of
the Ghanaian media looks beyond reporting on politics excessively.
As I write this, the UN Economic Commission
for Africa(UNECA) is hosting a meeting in the home of the AU for the 2nd
African Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resources
Development.
According
to a press release from the UNECA, “a key premise of the AMV is that mining
should become a catalyst for broad-based sustainable development. The Mining
Vision argues that until now mining has been run as an enclave activity,
meaning that the economic and social linkages within Africa itself have not
been as strong as they should be.”
Secondly,
according to the AMV, African governments have “focused too much on getting
revenue from mining and not enough on using the industry as a catalyst for
development.” Going forward, the industry has to do much more to encourage enterprises
“develop around mining centres.”
In
fact, one of the major outcomes of the Conference is to launch a new major
report, “Minerals and Africa’s Development” that was drafted by an
expert technical task force – the International Study Group, which includes the
Accra-based Third World Network-Africa
– established under the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The UNECA release states that “the
Report reviews current mineral regimes across Africa and against this
background sets out the policy implications for implementing the Africa Mining
Vision. The main recommendations of the report, and the Vision itself, have
formed the basis for an action plan which will be agreed at the Conference. The
plan is expected to form the basis for implementing the vision.”
This significant development is
consistent with the “Productive Capacity Cluster” of the “Action Plan for
boosting intra-African trade” I touched on in the first part of this
three-parter.
Simply put, the action plan
pointed the finger of blame for Africa's woeful productive capacity on the low
level of intra-African trade. The imperative, therefore, is to effectively
implement initiatives like the African Mining Vision, which are considered
essential for the enhancement of the productive capacities of African countries
and for the boosting of intra-African trade. Regrettably, much of this
momentous development seems to be taking place on the blind side of most of the
African media!
When Africa rises, it's thanks
to the people
As you may well know, all is not
entirely lost—as exemplified by the relative success of two weeks ago when
Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry had to, in effect, capitulate to her
hostile intentions of forcing Ghana to sign an interim Economic Partnership
Agreement with the EU. This might not have happened without a people-centred
intervention, including a major statement launched by West African civil
society, including the Accra-based Economic Justice Network.
In the “Joint Statement by the West African Civil Society Platform on
the Cotonou Agreement(POSCAO), Economic Justice Network of Ghana and the
Secretariat of the Africa Trade Network…”, the statement included sections on
“Unity for Development not EU Deadlines”; “Current contentious issues in the
EPA Negotiations”; “ECOWAS CET”; “EPA Development Programme (PAPED)”; “ECOWAS
Solidarity Fund”; “Programming Alternatives to the EPA”; and “West Africa, the
EU and current development in the World Economy.”
Some of the demands include
welcoming the initiative of Nigeria on the ECOWAS Common External Tariff rate
to raise it from 35 to 50 percent, “collectively tak[ing] this as a point of
departure for finalizing [West Africa’s] CET”; supporting the statement made by
the ECOWAS’s Director of Trade “that a proper and binding PAPED” is a
“precondition for an ECOWAS EPA and hold West African officials to this
commitment.”. In addition, there is the call by West African civil society to
“immediately establish its own Solidarity Fund to enable members absorb
associated [costs] with the EPA in the short-term.”
Now while the EPAs are not common
currency in the discourse of Ghana’s national development, it is conceivable
that the statement offered a degree of policy space even for West African
diplomats to use the sliver of opportunity to engage civil society in a way
that might not have been possible a decade ago when civil society agitations
were in their infancy.
In conclusion, we can draw our
own conclusions as to whether Africa is on the cusp of significant and palpable
change. I will not lie to you and pretend I feel it isn’t. There is enough
happening around the African Union—from its celebration of its tenth year in
September 2012; and its AU summit in January on boosting intra-African
trade—for one to be conceivably excited over prospects for growth and economic
emancipation. Africa has been rising a long time – just that it was not being
articulated as strongly as now. In between the trough and crests of structural
adjustment and Breton Woods prescriptions lay buried an African Integration
narrative that is now asserting itself. Africa, arise!
