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Africa-China-EU Cooperation in Africa : Prospects and Pitfalls

Upphovspersoner: Alden, Chris | Sidiropoulos, Elizabeth
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: international economic relations, Globalization, North south relations, Economic and social development, Africa, China, European Union, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Africa-China-EU cooperation is still in its formative stages. It has the express focus of contributing to peace, stability and sustainable development in Africa. The creation of a virtuous circle of growth and development, one which employs the tools of globalisation to Africa’s best advantage, has to be a fundamental aim of any trilateral cooperation. At the same time, the opening up of trilateral dialogue should allow all three partners to give consideration to areas in which conflicting views or interests arise. Indeed, the spectre of a two-way China-EU “donor cartel” emerging from the process continues to negatively influence perceptions of the initiative in some African circles. Thus, the challenge facing Africa, China and the EU is to envisage a mechanism or modality for managing trilateral cooperation in the era of globalisation that addresses the concerns of all participants while maintaining an overarching commitment to African development. This policy note examines the origins of the trilateral dialogue, makes proposals for building on this dialogue, and ends with possible models for this trilateral cooperation.

The Politics of Language in Eritrea : Equality of languages vs. bilingual official language policy

Upphovsperson: Bereketeab, Redie
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | The Netherlands, Brill
År: 2010
Ämnesord: SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The article analyzes the discourse of politics of language in Eritrea. It argues that the language debate in Eritrea over equality of languages and bilingual official langauge policy is more about power relations than about language per se. It relates to politics of identity that derives from the construction of two identity formations as understood by political elites. Equality of languages is based on ethnic identity, whereas official language is based on the construction of supra-ethnic civic identity. According to the constructivist bilingual official language Arabic and Tigrinya are supposed to represent two different socio-cultural identity formation, notably, Islam-Arabic  and Christian-Tigrinya. Consequently, the official language policy debate could be construed to derive from politics of power relation where two groups of elites supposedly representing the two identity formations are engaged in power competition reflecting real or imaginary socio-cultural cleavage of respective identity. In this sense the bilingual official language is designed to create social equilibrium wherein it is supposed that power would equitably distributed between two rival elite groups.

EPAs and the post-Lisbon Implementation Status

Upphovspersoner: Khumalo, Nkululeko | Mulleta, Fantu
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: international trade, International negotiations, Economic agreements, Trade agreements, Free trade areas, Partnership, Africa, European Union, ACP, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union (EU) were launched in 2000. The talks are carried out in terms of the Cotonou Agreement, which seeks to replace the non-reciprocal export preferences ACP countries have had with the European Community (EC) with reciprocal free trade arrangements. These negotiations have been carried out on a regional basis since January 2008 in order to align the parties’ trade regime with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Accordingly, a number of ACP countries initialled Interim Economic Partnership Agreement texts at the end of 2007. The IEPAs are a stopgap measure meant to prevent trade disruptions while negotiations on fully fledged EPAs continue. The second stage of negotiations, which will include services, investment, competition and government procurement, is expected to lead to the conclusion of fully fledged EPAs. This policy note seeks to provide a brief overview of the implementation status of the EPAs in selected African regions. The paper also looks at the impact of the Interim Economic Partnership Agreements (IEPAs) on the countries that initialled them and provides recommendations on how to ensure that the eventual full EPA agreements promote the interests of African countries.

Situating the EPA negotiations : Issues and unresolved debates in Africa-EU trade relations

Upphovsperson: Goodison, Paul
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: international trade, International negotiations, Economic agreements, Trade agreements, Common markets, Structural adjustment, Sustainable development, Poverty alleviation, Africa, European Union, Business and economics, Ekonomi
For a long time it has been necessary to move beyond sterile debates for or against Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The real issue is: what kind of EPAs will support African governments in their efforts to promote the structural transformation of their economies, so that they can move beyond the production of simple and unprocessed products to the production of a range of higher value products, for national, regional and international markets, and in the process help them tackle poverty and employment issues. This paper seeks to situate the ongoing EPA negotiations and debate around contentious issues in the context of the wider European Union (EU) trade policy and African aspirations for sustainable development and poverty reduction.

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