The African Union remains open to external initiatives for as long as they are not imposed but rather take into account African interests, are long term and based on the principle of trust, equality and mutual respect, said the African Capacity Building Foundation’s (ACBF) Executive Secretary, Prof Emmanuel Nnadozie in his key note address at a workshop organized by the South African Institute of International Affairs on Tuesday.
The AU’s dependence on external assistance to meet some of its goals remains a source of debate within the organization’s ranks. However, it has not stopped the pan African body from defining a clear vision, which puts the continent and its interests first. “Mixed feelings exist at the AU about external partner initiatives. It is a daily struggle for the AU to balance African Sovereignty and dependency on external support,” said Prof. Nnadozie.
He added that the clear stance taken by the AU has, however, led to a change of approach among its external partners. “In a positive development, most external partners have come to term with practices that intend for their interest to prevail over the AU and African countries’ interests. The emergence of new partners, combined with the growth potential presented by African countries over the past decade, have greatly helped redefine the AU and individual African countries’ partnership policies in a way that is felt by the AU to take more account of African interests.”
These partnerships are increasingly consistent with the clearly defined vision and development strategy of the AU, which particular focuses on speeding up industrialization, development of infrastructure, development and acquisition of technology as well as know-how and development of human capital.
The external partners’ response, despite this positive shift, has remained mixed, said Prof. Nnadozie. “While all external partners seem well-disposed to assist with peace and security, infrastructure development attracts only a few of them. For its transformational agenda to take off, the AU would like to see more enthusiasm on infrastructure development, including support to its prerequisite, which is building capacity to develop bankable infrastructure projects.”
More recently, the AU has sought to increase South-South Cooperation, in a bid to increase Africa’s global role in world’s affairs and balance the approach to international affairs. The AU is also aiming to speed up progress in the Africa-South America cooperation through the Africa-South America Summit.
The SAIIA workshop focused on the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC), a platform established for collective consultation and dialogue and as a cooperation mechanism among developing countries. The forum emphasizes on strengthening consultation and expanding cooperation within a pragmatic framework and second, to promote political dialogue and economic cooperation with a view to seeking mutual reinforcement and cooperation.
The AU sees the FOCAC as a strong partnership, which is doing very well and has the potential of bringing various advantages to the two sides. In many areas, the partnership has delivered some concrete outcomes that are beneficial to Africa although Africa needs to utilize the partnership to the fullest in terms of the potential of the available market and the business opportunities.
