tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-323867132024-03-13T11:50:29.554+00:00Critiquing Regional IntegrationRegionsWatch was set up in February 2004 to "<i>monitor work of regional organisations; raise awareness of other regionalisms; provide constructive & progressive critiques of global regional integration initiatives</i>". This blog will seek to continue the work that was being done in RegionsWatch's <a href="http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org/regionswatch-observatory/observatory/">Observatory</a> <p>**Access this page by typing *http://critiquing-regionalism.org* **</p>Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.comBlogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-40556956306531734942016-06-29T01:48:00.001+00:002016-06-29T01:48:26.786+00:00How #Brexit & #Grexit Unleashed the Integration Monster from Me<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ccQ2Eyvc1SM/V3Mo6t6AtDI/AAAAAAAAv4Y/H5lv9JxU74Iz3YC6rGbIScWI__7HnSpzQCK4B/s1600/regionswatch-2009-706787.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ccQ2Eyvc1SM/V3Mo6t6AtDI/AAAAAAAAv4Y/H5lv9JxU74Iz3YC6rGbIScWI__7HnSpzQCK4B/s320/regionswatch-2009-706787.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6301425292841890866" /></a></p><p dir="ltr">Let me be clear: <a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org">critiquing-regionalism.org</a> no longer exists, but <a href="http://regionswatch.blogspot.com">http://regionswatch.blogspot.com</a> still does, probably as a testament to my commitment to the continuous study and research of regional integration systems worldwide. </p> <p dir="ltr">Even before 2003 when I graduated from my M.A. in International Politics, I had spent between 2001 and 2003 combing through studies on integration, and having the immense priviledge of time to be able to produce weekly pieces on regional trade for an international development newsletter. Thursday was "Regional integration" day -- a day I always looked forward to. At the age of 24, everyone looked at me funny when I started extolling virtues of integration.</p> <p dir="ltr">When I left my tertiary studies with deeper understanding of comparative regional integration (still very new back in 2002/2003), I felt both victorious for the accomplishment...but lonesome, too. </p> <p dir="ltr">It was going to be almost a decade before the rest of the world caught up with seeing beyond the EU as a global model. ASEAN always looked up to it, and when the AU became the AU in 2002, the very name-change was too similar to the EU to NOT give vent to comparisons with the EU. You could almost hear a scoff from Europe as if to say who do the Africans think they are replicating us.</p> <p dir="ltr"> Well...times have changed. </p> <p dir="ltr">Even as I was comparing ECOWAS and ASEAN in my dissertation, few knew in Europe of what ECOWAS had done in circumventing Chapter VII approval to intervene in Liberia in 1989. Fewer, still, knew of ASEAN(established 1967), and how they had tried to fashion out a regionalism unique to them. </p> <p dir="ltr">To cut a long story short: those very close to me will know that on regional integration, I am a closet academic. I was surprised to see this is my 15th year of research, exploring, writing about the discipline. </p> <p dir="ltr">It isn't as attractive as economics, but gets me high enough!</p> <p dir="ltr">Grexit, last year, came close to unleashing the integration "monster" out, but Brexit has clearly done it. </p> <p dir="ltr">The desire to live, breathe, appreciate ECOWAS and the AU has unecessarily confined me. Couple this with the fact that the non-sexiness of other regionalisms doesn't get a look-in in Ghana, and one may understand why I make so much noise about ECOWAS and the AU combined. </p> <p dir="ltr">Global regional integration is far from dead. </p> <p dir="ltr">BREXIT and GREXIT must offer us lessons, and those of us with a passion for diplomacy and international relations must continue to interrogate regional integration like never before. </p> <p dir="ltr">And please note: the integration "monster"... has been unleashed: RegionsWatch has staged a comeback!</p> <p dir="ltr">Back to offering critiques of progressive and constructive regionalisms.</p> E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-39737175337804916362016-06-25T20:34:00.001+00:002016-06-25T20:34:31.084+00:00Thoughts on #Brexit...& #Grexit<p dir="ltr">To all the IR students out there: if you are missing the point on #Brexit and #Grexit(July 2015), then you probably have yet to connect the dots on what regional integration is.</p> <p dir="ltr">For those interested in the impact on the African Union, pls hold your breath. It will not collapse it. Neither will it collapse countries like Nigeria who are going through a bad economic patch. </p> <p dir="ltr">Both #Grexit & #Brexit offer opportunities to reflect seriously on the qualitative nature of regional integration dynamics, and its relatability to ordinary people.</p> <p dir="ltr">The shocking news (apocryphal or not) of Brits googling about the...EUROPEAN UNION after the deed is done is frightening, even chilling, to the bone to think that a model of global integration worldwide was that UNKNOWN to citizens.</p> <p dir="ltr">As human beings, we falter and get complacent when institutions appear to be working almost automatically by default. Some may not have known how paid leave and whatnot for European citizens were a product of EU law; how free movement remains the most fundamental of freedoms in an integration project and how a Brexit would deny UK citizens of those easy freedoms. Double visas must be a nightmare for any non-European contemplating travelling to the UK and EU.</p> <p dir="ltr">Gone! like the wind...</p> <p dir="ltr">Simply put: the impacts on Africa's integration will be minimal. In fact, there will be new vistas...that may seek to elevate the UK into a new world order that was emerging -- one predicated on regional poles.</p> <p dir="ltr">Some of us saw the light on regional poles a decade ago. It was Belgian European Parliamentarian Guy Verhofstadt who, at a Seminar on Globalization in Brussels in 2001, also talked about regional representation at the UN Security Council (the AU;Asean, etc would be represented at the table in New York).</p> <p dir="ltr">I would hope the new dynamics will spawn regular and edifying conversations on the power of regional integration to uplift people from poverty, sustain fundamental freedoms, and build bridges towards a more peaceful world.</p> <p dir="ltr">The inevitability of integration as a conduit to a more peaceful world must be one we must begin to discuss with the urgency it requires!</p> <p dir="ltr">My two cents!</p> E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-37767062250960974662014-11-01T09:04:00.001+00:002014-11-01T09:04:33.098+00:00Burkina Faso without Compaore!<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v5-3XBvRrI0/VFSiIcFPnlI/AAAAAAAADF4/qyEOUwTY30M/s1600/IMG_00002136-773099.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v5-3XBvRrI0/VFSiIcFPnlI/AAAAAAAADF4/qyEOUwTY30M/s320/IMG_00002136-773099.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6076660063090482770" /></a></p><div>People power!</div><p style="marginTop:2px">Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.</p>Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-65181062622562630902014-10-30T14:03:00.001+00:002014-10-30T14:03:50.159+00:00Request for Expression of Interest - Consultancy Services to undertake the AU Commission Agenda 2063 Capacity Needs Assessment Study and Preparation of Capacity Development Plan | Agenda 2063 | African Union<div style="white-space:pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">http://agenda2063.au.int/en/news/request-expression-interest-consultancy-services-undertake-au-commission-agenda-2063-capacity-n</div><br>Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-54228400720538420032014-08-22T12:21:00.001+00:002014-08-22T12:21:59.147+00:00Emmanuel K Bensah Jr shared "AFRICA IN FOCUS 19-08-14.mp3" with you<center><table cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="*width: 540px; padding: 0; width: 100% !important; background: #ffffff; margin: 0; background-color: #ffffff;" border="0"><tr><td valign="top"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; border: 1px #dceaf5 solid; -moz-border-radius: 4px;" border="0" align="center"><tr><td colspan="3" height="6"></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 0px;"><td width="100%" style="font-size: 0px;" align="center" height="1"><img width="40px" style="max-height: 73px; width: 40px; *width: 40px; *height: 73px;" alt="" src="https://www.dropbox.com/static/images/emails/glyph/glyph_34@2x.png"></td></tr><tr><td><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="line-height: 25px;" border="0" align="center"><tr><td colspan="3" height="30"></td></tr><tr><td width="36"></td> <td width="454" align="left" style="color: #444444; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 11pt; font-family: proxima_nova, 'Open Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Verdana, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, 'Sans Serif'; max-width: 454px;" valign="top">From Emmanuel K:<br><br>"Kindly find a podcast of the 19 August edition of "Africa in Focus", which looked at some of the challenges befalling the Aviation Sector in Africa:<br><br>"Guiding Questions answered: <br><br>· What concrete measures are airlines taking to help bring down tickets? <br>· How satisfied are the airlines operating here that the Yamassoukro Declaration is being implemented? <br>· What is the state of play about aviation fuel? Are some airlines getting it cheaper elsewhere? <br>· Taxes, Charges and Fees are the highest in West Africa. Is it a case of West African governments being insensitive to the necessity of airlines in contributing to Africa's development? <br>· With the onset of Ebola, how are airlines bracing themselves to respond to the crisis? What assurances are they giving their passengers? <br>· What can our governments do better to help the aviation sector, beyond implementing the YD?"<br><br><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/l/j9xfZrBcyC7k72v0Io1zAq">Click here to view</a><br><br>(Emmanuel K shared these files using Dropbox. Enjoy!)</td> <td width="36"></td> </tr><tr><td colspan="3" height="36"></td></tr></table></td></tr></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center" border="0"><tr><td height="10"></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 0; border-collapse: collapse;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center" border="0"><tr style="color: #a8b9c6; font-size: 11px; font-family: proxima_nova, 'Open Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Verdana, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, 'Sans Serif'; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none;"><td width="400" align="left"></td> <td width="128" align="right">© 2014 Dropbox</td> </tr></table></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></center>E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-3808945027920484122014-07-24T18:39:00.000+00:002014-07-24T18:40:17.537+00:00Fwd: [Africa in Focus Blog!] Podcasts of last 10 Episodes of "Africa in Focus"<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div style="background-color:white"> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u>22 July, 2014:</u> Energy Security in West Africa</b></span></div> <div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <br></div> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><u><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ba3ahd0ab0jjps4/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2022-07-14.mp3" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/ba3ahd0ab0jjps4/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2022-07-14.mp3</a></u></span><br> <div> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><u><br></u></span></div> </div> <div> <div style="margin:0px"> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">Kindly find a podcast of the 22 July edition of "Africa in Focus", which interrogated the question that:<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <div style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">"understanding energy security is important because the reliable supply of commercial energy services is critical for growing economies in West Africa. Just like people elsewhere, citizens in West Africa seek a higher standard of living, which is only possible with access to commercially-sustainable energy services.</span><br> <br style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">Yet, most of the region lack the energy infrastructure needed to meet demand, although resources such as oil, gas, hydro and coal are available and there are opportunities for modern use of biomass and other renewables such as wind and solar"</span><br> <br style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';line-height:25px"><b><span style="font-size:large">Other Questions answered:</span></b></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">• What is energy security, and how is it prosecuted in West Africa? (ERERA)</span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">• What are some of the threats to energy security in (West) Africa? (ERERA/GIABA)</span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">• How can energy security be maintained? (ERERA)</span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">• What are the regional & continental responses to countering challenges to energy security? (ERERA/GIABA)"</span><br> <div style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br> </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-size:small;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"> <span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:10pt">Guests included:<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-size:small;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0.0001pt"> <span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal"> </span></span><b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-family:Cambria,serif">Uwem Thompson, </span></b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-family:Cambria,serif">Communications Officer<b>, <i>Ecowas Regional Energy Regulatory Electricity Authority (ERERA), </i></b>Accra</span><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><u></u><u></u></span></div> <div style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-size:small;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0.0001pt"> <span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal"> </span></span><b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-family:Cambria,serif">Stella Attakpah, </span></b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-family:Cambria,serif">Programmes Manager,<b> <i>Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money-Laundering</i></b>(GIABA), Dakar [on the line from Vienna, Austria]</span><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><u></u><u></u></span></div> <div style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-size:small;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0.0001pt"> <br></div> <div style="font-size:small"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;font-size:small;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"> <span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:10pt">Tune in at 13h10 GMT (1:00pm Ghana Time). We’re also streaming live </span><span style="color:#1155cc;font-family:"Georgia","serif";font-size:10pt"> <a href="http://www.radioxyzonline.com" target="_blank">www.radioxyzonline.com</a></span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:10pt">. <u></u><u></u></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u></u></b></span></div> <a name="14769a94181b83c3_more"></a><span style="font-size:large"><b><u><br></u></b></span> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u>15 July, 2014:</u> East Africa Rising: Rwanda, Rwanda!</b></span></div> </div> <div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <br></div> <span style="font-family:arial"><u><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/90cu0snpyjcgfh9/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2015-07-14.mp3" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/90cu0snpyjcgfh9/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2015-07-14.mp3</a></u></span><br> <div> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><u><br></u></span></div> </div> <div> <div style="margin:0px"> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">Kindly find a podcast of the 15 July edition of "Africa in Focus", which interrogated the question that:<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <div style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> "Even as we celebrate this beautiful new star of Africa, we must begin to ask important questions on how it has been able to link conservation and tourism to development in a way that is reflected through the annual gorilla-naming ceremony. As Ghana prepares itself to host the UN World Tourism Organisation international conference on Tourism Branding, what lessons can it learn from Rwanda which makes up to USD300m a year on tourism?"</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <b>OTHER QUESTIONS ANSWERED INCLUDED:</b></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> • <b><i> When did the idea for the gorilla-naming ceremony come about, and why is it important for Rwanda?</i></b> (Ignatius, RwandAir)</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> • <b><i> What are some of the best practices on tourism that Rwanda can share?</i></b></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> • <b><i> What are some of the achievements Rwanda has been able to chalk since the end of the genocide in 1994</i></b> (Ambassador Habineza)</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> • <b><i> Why did the city of Kigali decide to establish the Genocide Memorial museum?</i></b> (Serge Rwigamba)</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> • <b><i> How has the genocide memorial been able to renew the spirit of Rwandans towards re-building their country?</i></b> (Serge)</div> <div style="font-size:small"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> • <b><i> What has Rwanda done right which Ghana can learn from?</i></b></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <b><i><br></i></b></div> <div style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#333333;font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0in"> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal"> </span></span><b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif">Ignatius Ahimbisibwe, </span></b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif">Sales & Marketing<b>, </b><i style="font-weight:bold">Rwandair</i></span><span style="color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif"><u></u><u></u></span></div> <div style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#333333;font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0in"> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal"> </span></span><b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif">Francis Agyemang, </span></b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif">Commercial director, <b><i>Eurotours [invited]</i></b></span></div> <div style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#333333;font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0in"> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;line-height:normal"> </span></span><b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif">Ambassador Joseph Habineza, </span></b><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif">High Commissioner of Rwanda to Abuja & Accra</span></div> <div style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#333333;font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:11.5pt;margin-bottom:0in"> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial;color:#222222;font-family:Cambria,serif">j** <b>Serge , </b>Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, Rwanda</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div style="font-size:small"> <br></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">Tune in at 13h10 GMT (1:00pm Ghana Time) every Tuesday. We’re also streaming live</span><span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px"> </span><a href="http://www.radioxyzonline.com/" style="font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px" target="_blank">www.radioxyzonline.com</a><span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">.</span></div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u><br></u></b></span></div> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u><br></u></b></span> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u>8 July, 2014:</u> Informal Economy in Africa</b></span></div> </div> <div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <br></div> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><u><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/45dvhppjxi0nkd4/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2008-07-14.mp3" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/45dvhppjxi0nkd4/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2008-07-14.mp3</a></u></span><br> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><u><br></u></span></div> <div> <div style="margin:0px"> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">Kindly find a podcast of the 8 July edition of "Africa in Focus", which interrogated the question that:<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="color:black;line-height:18.399999618530273px"><span style="font-size:medium">"</span><span style="font-size:x-small"><i>In the difficult prevailing economic conditions, it is likely that more people are operating in a so-called shadow economy where they have a 9-to-5 job, and couple it with one in the informal economy.</i><u></u><u></u></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size:x-small"><i><span style="color:black;line-height:14.949999809265137px">A general discussion needs to be had so Africans can begin to reflect on the trajectory of the sector, and how it can be modernized. And a specific discussion is found wanting because countries, such as Rwanda, do not necessarily have an informal sector in the traditional way that people in West Africa understand it.</span></i><span style="color:black;line-height:14.949999809265137px"><u></u><u></u></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <i><span style="color:black;line-height:18.399999618530273px"><span style="font-size:x-small">So, what is it, for example, that they have been doing to upset the apple cart on modernizing the economy? Is there something that other African countries can, yet again, learn from this small, landlocked country in East Africa that has been getting things right after the country died 20 years ago? If the informal sector is to remain an important part of regions like West Africa, what needs to be modernized about it to ensure it remains equitable for those who are in it, and what are the linkages to the formal economy that can be explored to maximize efficient development of Africa’s global economy?</span></span></i><span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">"<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <b><u><span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">Guests included:</span></u></b><span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px"><u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">*<b>Eunice Marfo</b>, Executive Secretary at Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies (GHASALC)<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px"><br></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">*<span> </span><b>Janet Faden</b>, a freelance Online journalist based in Jos, Nigeria, who practices under her media enterprise called JfadenMultimedia<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px"><br></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">* <span> </span><b>Edmund Benjamin-Addy</b>, who has worked in advisory service for the past five years for individual clients in the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SME's) and works as Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ghana Susu Collector’s Association<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px"><br></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">*<span> </span><b>Dr.Akosua Darkwa</b><span> </span>-- a representative from Network for Women’s Rights (NETRIGHT)<u></u><u></u></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <br></div> <div style="font-size:small"> <u></u><u></u></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:black;font-size:13.5pt;line-height:20.700000762939453px">Tune in at 13h10 GMT (1:00pm Ghana Time) every Tuesday. We’re also streaming live<span> </span><a href="http://www.radioxyzonline.com/" target="_blank">www.radioxyzonline.com</a>.<u></u><u></u></span></div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u><br></u></b></span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u></u></b></span></div> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u><br></u></b></span> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u>24 June, 2014:</u> African Problems? African Solutions!</b></span></div> </div> <div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <br></div> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><u><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/dysyhz9wf5jfq9o/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2024-06-14.mp3?m=" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/dysyhz9wf5jfq9o/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2024-06-14.mp3?m=</a></u></span></div> <div> <br></div> <div> <div style="margin:0px"> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">Kindly find a podcast of the 24 June edition of "Africa in Focus", which interrogated the question that:</span></div> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br></span></span><span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><i>Whether it is in the challenge of combating drug trafficking in the sub-region; controlling our external borders; or the private sector examining concrete solutions to facilitate trade in the sub-region, the bottom line is that we have answers and solutions under our noses.</i></span></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><i><br></i></span></span><span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><i>Same can be said about our agriculture, and how many young people can be more active and proactive in that sector. We couple this with the fact that the AU is celebrating a year-long anniversary for Agriculture (a major talking point at the AU Summit underway in Maputo, Equatorial Guinea). </i></span></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br></span></span><span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><b><u>Guests were:</u></b></span></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br></span></span><span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px">** <b>Stella Attakpah</b>, Programmes Manager at <i>GIABA</i> – the Dakar-based Ecowas agency concerned with combating money-laundering and financing of terrorism; (from Bamako)</span></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br></span></span><span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px">** <b>Temitope Olodo</b> – counter-terrorism and law enforcement expert based in the UK, and host of “Africa Security” programme in the UK; (from the UK)</span></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br></span></span><span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px">** <b>Afua Eshun</b> – of Accra-based <i>BORDERLESS Alliance</i>, concerned with facilitating free movement in West Africa; (studio)</span></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br></span></span> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px">**<b>Edison Gbenga Ade</b> -- of <i>AgriPro Consulting</i>, based in Osu, which works on agribusiness industry in Africa; (studio)</span></span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,Open Sans,Lucida Grande,Segoe UI,Arial,Verdana,Lucida Sans Unicode,Tahoma,Sans Serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:25px"><br></span></span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small;margin:0px"> </div> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u><br></u></b></span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u>17 June, 2014:</u> Forget Africa Rising -- it's East Africa Rising!</b></span></div> </div> <div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <br></div> <span style="font-family:arial"><u><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/l/eirlO2QJeEC96jgPo9oKws?" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/l/eirlO2QJeEC96jgPo9oKws?</a></u></span><br> <span style="font-family:arial"><u><br></u></span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> </div> <div style="font-size:small"> </div> <br> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <div style="margin:0px"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">"Please find a link to the latest edition of the "Africa in Focus" show, which aired on Radio XYZ93.1 fm on Tuesday 17 June at 13h10.</span></div> <div style="margin:0px"> <br style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px"></div> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color:#222222;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><tbody> <tr><td align="left" style="border-collapse:collapse;color:#444444;font-size:11pt;margin:0px;max-width:454px" valign="top" width="454">Kindly find a podcast of the 17 June edition of "Africa in Focus", which interrogated the question that:<br> <br> "Much of the time, there is talk that Africa can learn from the East. We play ball closer to home by asking what can Africa, especially the sub-region of the West, learn from African countries that are East of the continent!"<br> <br> <u>Guests included:</u>** <b>Anthony Annan</b>, a Ghanaian entrepreneur living in Rwanda<br> <br> ** <b>Eyob Tekalign Tolina</b>, an Ethiopian who has worked with the UNECA, and well-versed on Trade Policy<br> <br> ** <b>Uwem Thompson</b>, Communications Officer of Ecowas Regional Energy Regulatory Authority (ERERA)<br> <br> ** <b>Christine Njeru</b>, a Kenyan Lawyer and Consultant living in Nairobi<br> <br> ** <b>H.E. Ambassador Joseph Habineza</b> -- High Commissioner of Rwanda to Nigeria & Ghana.<br> <br> <br></td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="font-size:large"><b><u>10 June, 2014:</u> The State of Civil Society in West Africa post-2015 Agenda</b></span></div> </div> <div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <br></div> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/l/yw0jeG9Lz52KCzydJc0F1s?" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/l/yw0jeG9Lz52KCzydJc0F1s?</a></span><br> <span style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"><br></span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">"Please find a link to the latest edition of the "Africa in Focus" show, which aired on Radio XYZ93.1 fm on Tuesday 10 June at 13h10.</span><br> <br style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px"> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">As Ghana has been identified as a middle-income country, aid flows to the country will diminish significantly with a number of major donors that will begin to set deadlines for the end of their aid frameworks. In this light, civil society will need to answer the question as to where CSOs, as a vital part of society, will continue to find funding in the future.</span><br> <br style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px"> <b style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">Guests included: -</b><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">**Executive Director of WACSI Nana -- Asantewa Afadzinu</span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">**OSIWA Programme Manager in Charge of Law, Justice and Human Rights -- Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei</span><br> <span style="color:#444444;font-family:proxima_nova,'Open Sans','Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Verdana,'Lucida Sans Unicode',Tahoma,'Sans Serif';font-size:15px;line-height:25px">**STAR Ghana's Mary Tobbin-Osei</span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <div style="font-size:small"> <br> <br></div> <span style="font-size:large"><u><b>3 June, 2014:</b></u><b> Is Africa Integrating?</b></span><br> <div style="font-size:small"> <br></div> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/1f5jtdfvsqflrj6/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%20%2003-06-14.mp3" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color:#3b5998;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/<u></u><u></u>1f5jtdfvsqflrj6/AFRICA%20IN%<u></u><u></u>20FOCUS%20%2003-06-14.mp3</a><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px">>> </span><br> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px">Kindly find a podcast to the latest edition of "Africa in Focus", which interrogated the question of how far Africa is integrated. It was a lively discussion </span><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px">that featured two studio guests from Ghana--Dr.Lloyd Amoah of Ashesi, and Charles VanDyck of West Africa Civil Society Institute -- and two from outside Ghana. These were UNECA official Dr.Joseph Attah-Mensah, and Zimbabwean former UNECA official-turned-entrepreneur Mkhululi Ncube</span></div> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <div style="font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span></div> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:large;line-height:20px"><b><u><br></u></b></span><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:large;line-height:20px"><b><u>27 May, 2014:</u> Responsibility to Protect</b> (RtoP)</span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> </div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <br></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/fux4d2r9rotyc5t/AfricainFocus-27May2.wav" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color:#3b5998;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/<u></u><u></u>fux4d2r9rotyc5t/AfricainFocus-<u></u><u></u>27May2.wav</a> >> </span><br> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px">Kindly find the link to the podcast of the interview of the second guest for the Responsibility to Protect edition of the show on 27 May. She is Nana Asantewa Afadzinu -- the Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI). Previously a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Human Rights Advocate Training Programme, completed her Masters in Law at New York University and has worked with Media Foundation for West Africa and the Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, in establishing a West and Central Africa Human Rights Institute. She joined the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) as Governance Program Officer in 2005 and was OSIWA’s Country Coordinator in Nigeria from 2006 to 2008</span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px">*****</span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/92y6zof42eoybbb/AfricainFocus-27May1.wav" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color:#3b5998;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/<u></u><u></u>92y6zof42eoybbb/AfricainFocus-<u></u><u></u>27May1.wav</a> >> </span><br> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px">Kindly find podcast of interview of Dr.Cyril Musila by Host of "Africa in Focus" E.K.Bensah Jr. Dr. Cyril Musila, who is an Associate Fellow within Sub-Saharan Africa program since June 2010. He obtained his Phd in Social Sciences from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).He is professor of Geopoliticis of African Conflicts and Peace Research at the Catholic University of Paris. The theme of the show was on Responsibility to Protect(RtoP).</span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <br> <br> <br></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial"> <span style="font-size:large"><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px"><b><u>13 May, 2014:</u> "</b></span><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px"><b>Peace and Security in West Africa: the missing girls; free movement; Boko Haram; and the role </b></span></span><b style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:x-large;line-height:20px">of ECOWAS</b><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:large;line-height:20px">"</span></div> <div style="color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span> <div> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucida grande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/wjq6rdx6w0wy04k/AFRICA%20IN%20FOCUS%2013-05-14%20REAL.mp3" style="color:#1155cc" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/<u></u><u></u>wjq6rdx6w0wy04k/AFRICA%20IN%<u></u><u></u>20FOCUS%2013-05-14%20REAL.mp3</a></span></span></div> <div style="color:black;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium"> </div> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px">Kindly find a link to the latest 13 May, 2014 edition of "Africa in Focus", entitled "Peace and Security in West Africa: the missing girls; free movement; Boko Haram; and the role of ECOWAS".<br> <br>We have an eye-witness account of a lady from Chibok who relates how some residents are sleeping on trees and in the bushes out of fear of what might be inflicted on them by Boko Haram. She can confirm there is a clear and present threat of Boko Haram, and that the girls were truly abducted.<br> <br>We also speak to a Janet Faden, a Nigerian journalist, who explains that Nigerians have been kept in the dark as to what is happening, and that it is difficult to authenticate the video that is out on youtube in which one sees what looks like girls in an undisclosed location.</span></div> </div> <div style="background-color:white;color:#222222;font-family:arial;font-size:small"> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucida grande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif"><br></span></div> <div> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucida grande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif"></span><br> <span style="color:#333333;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucida grande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:large"><b><u>6 May, 2014 :</u> "The EPAs & Matters Arising"</b></span></div> <br> This is the FULL 74-minute edition of the very-first edition of the "Africa in Focus" show on Radio XYZ93.1 FM, which examined the Economic Partnership Agreements between Ghana and the EU. It is live on air every Tuesday from 13h00 to 15h00. It is proudly-sponsored by Eastgate Hotel and the West Africa Civil Society Institute(WACSI)<br> <br><br>--<br> Posted By Blogger to <a href="http://africainfocusonradioxyz.blogspot.com/2014/07/podcasts-of-last-10-episodes-of-africa.html" target="_blank">Africa in Focus Blog!</a> at 7/24/2014 11:36:00 AM</div><br><br clear="all"> <div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><font style="font-family:Arial,Verdana">_____________________________________________________________________</font><br style="font-family:Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif"><font style="font-family:Arial,Verdana"><font><b>E.K.Bensah Jr</b>, Head of Research & Host -- "Africa in Focus"(Radio XYZ 93.1FM)</font><br> <font><a href="http://www.ekbensah.net/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.ekbensah.net</a> | <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ekbensah" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/ekbensah</a> | <a href="http://www.ekbensahdotnet.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.ekbensahdotnet.org</a></font><br> <font size="4">*TEL:</font><font color="#000000"><b><a value="+233268687653">+233.268.687.653</a> / <a value="+233233311789">+233.233.311.789</a> / <a value="+233243111789">+233.243.111.789</a></b></font></font></div><div> <font style="font-family:Arial,Verdana"><font color="#1155cc">*</font><font color="#000000"><b>Telegram/Whatsapp</b></font><font color="#1155cc">:+233.311.789<br></font></font><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,Verdana"> <font style="font-size:8pt"><span style="font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">________________________________________________________________________________</span></font></div><div style="font-family:Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif"> <b><font face="Tahoma">EKBENSAH DotNet:</font></b><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="1"> </font><font>Regional integration Intelligence| West Africa-ECOWAS | Communications | Civil society </font></font></div><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,Verdana"> <span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">______________________________</span><u></u><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">_________________________________</span></div></div></div> </div> E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-63204102103227051272014-05-03T15:33:00.000+00:002014-05-03T15:34:17.534+00:00Fwd: [Africa in Focus Blog!] Countdown to the Maiden Edition of "Africa in Focus" on 6 May: Research & Communications Team Meet<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div style="clear:both;text-align:center"> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7urliKNqg8g/U2UDKQvYgEI/AAAAAAAAS7Q/Gkgq-Qn8EdU/s1600/africainfocus-eastgate-wacsi.jpg" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7urliKNqg8g/U2UDKQvYgEI/AAAAAAAAS7Q/Gkgq-Qn8EdU/s1600/africainfocus-eastgate-wacsi.jpg" height="255" width="320"></a></div> <span style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px">It was with with more-than-bated breath that the Research & Communications Unit/Business Desk of Radio XYZ's "Africa in Focus" show met 2 May, 2014 at <a href="http://eastgatehotelghana.com/" target="_blank">Eastgate Hotel</a> to make final preparations for the very-first edition of the show on 6 May.</span><br> <br style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px"> <span style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px">With sponsors in <a href="http://www.wacsi.org/" target="_blank">West Africa Civil Society Institute(WACSI)</a> officially on board to take the programme to even greater heights, the Unit was happy to have interacted with key WACSI staff who paved the way on the future of the partnership. </span><br> <br style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px"> <span style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px">There was general reporting of activities, and a lot of exciting information-exchange on developments during the past week, including on the just-ended Pan-African Conference on Inequalities that was held here in Accra.</span><br> <br style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px"> <span style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px"><b><i>The Research & Comms Unit meets every week at Eastgate Hotel with the Business Desk to monitor and evaluate previous editions of AIF show; progress on the direction of the research component of the "Africa in Focus" show; the state of communication instruments (facebook; twitter; google plus community); how far weekly activities are contributing to enriching the Unit's monitoring of African integration dynamics of ECOWAS; the AU; and Africa's engagement with members of the Global South. </i></b></span><br> <span style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px"><b><i><br></i></b></span> <span style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px"><b><i>Finally, the meetings seek to undertake innovative strategies to further-educate the public on Africa's development.</i></b></span><br> <div style="clear:both;text-align:center"> <span style="background-color:white;color:#404040;font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18.200000762939453px"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uCmwQ4QZ91M/U2UC8nE785I/AAAAAAAAS7I/SylAbawT-K0/s1600/africainfocus-recommunit1.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uCmwQ4QZ91M/U2UC8nE785I/AAAAAAAAS7I/SylAbawT-K0/s1600/africainfocus-recommunit1.jpg" height="40" width="200"></a></span></div> <br><br>--<br> Posted By Blogger to <a href="http://africainfocusonradioxyz.blogspot.com/2014/05/countdown-to-maiden-edition-of-africa.html" target="_blank">Africa in Focus Blog!</a> at 5/03/2014 07:58:00 AM</div><br><br clear="all"> <div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><font style="font-family:Arial,Verdana">_____________________________________________________________________</font><br style="font-family:Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif"><font style="font-family:Arial,Verdana"><font><b>E.K.Bensah Jr</b>, Head of Research & Host -- "Africa in Focus"(Radio XYZ 93.1FM)</font><br> <font><a href="http://www.ekbensah.net/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.ekbensah.net</a> | <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ekbensah" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/ekbensah</a> | <a href="http://www.ekbensahdotnet.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.ekbensahdotnet.org</a></font><br> <font size="4">*TEL:</font><font color="#000000"><b><a value="+233268687653">+233.268.687.653</a> / <a value="+233233311789">+233.233.311.789</a> / <a value="+233243111789">+233.243.111.789</a></b></font></font></div><div> <font style="font-family:Arial,Verdana"><font color="#1155cc">*</font><font color="#000000"><b>Telegram/Whatsapp</b></font><font color="#1155cc">:+233.311.789<br></font></font><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,Verdana"> <font style="font-size:8pt"><span style="font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">________________________________________________________________________________</span></font></div><div style="font-family:Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif"> <b><font face="Tahoma">EKBENSAH DotNet:</font></b><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font size="1"> </font><font>Regional integration Intelligence| West Africa-ECOWAS | Communications | Civil society </font></font></div><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,Verdana"> <span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">______________________________</span><u></u><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">_________________________________</span></div></div></div> </div> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-56012741023750210802013-11-09T02:50:00.001+00:002013-11-09T02:50:53.618+00:00Why Ecobank must deliver for African citizens<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tg1jt74Dq1s/Un2jDrBnzuI/AAAAAAAAOpE/_xxAjroADw0/s1600/image-753619.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tg1jt74Dq1s/Un2jDrBnzuI/AAAAAAAAOpE/_xxAjroADw0/s320/image-753619.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5944086366683385570" /></a></p><p>_________________________________________________________ sent from my Samsung tablet. . . <br> *<a href="http://twitter.com/ekbensah">twitter.com/ekbensah</a> <br> *<a href="http://www.ekbensah.net">www.ekbensah.net</a> <br> *<a href="http://facebook.com/ekbensahdotnet">facebook.com/ekbensahdotnet</a> <br> *mob: <a href="tel:%2B233.268.687.653">+233.268.687.653</a>/<a href="tel:%2B233.243.111.789">+233.243.111.789</a> __________________________________________________________ ekbensah DotNet: Regional integration Intelligence| West Africa-ECOWAS | Communications | Civil society __________________________________________________________</p> E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-33145441071294579532013-08-23T10:12:00.001+00:002013-08-23T10:12:59.139+00:00The UN Economic Commission for Africa wants to know YOUR views on Single AFRICAN currency<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0dEF3UdYEDI/Uhc1q0XNn6I/AAAAAAAAC9s/XU2Bj5fLyhA/s1600/uneca-jamensah-single%2Bcurrency-779139.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0dEF3UdYEDI/Uhc1q0XNn6I/AAAAAAAAC9s/XU2Bj5fLyhA/s320/uneca-jamensah-single%2Bcurrency-779139.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5915255645301219234" /></a></p><div dir="ltr">The decision by Africa to have a single currency has been a long-contested issue in African integration circles.<div><br></div><div>In 2009, the AU-sponsored First Congress of African Economists discussed it as a theme.<br> <div><br></div><div>Today, on Facebook, UNECA's Joseph Atta-Mensa, working on a paper on that theme, asks your views on the topic. Is it feasible? Is it workable? Can be achieved on time, etc.</div><div><br></div><div> Join the discussion on his facebook timeline now: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/joseph.attamensah/posts/10201994965903682?notif_t=close_friend_activity">https://www.facebook.com/joseph.attamensah/posts/10201994965903682?notif_t=close_friend_activity</a></div> <div><br></div><div>See you there!</div><div>Emmanuel<br clear="all"><div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div></div> </div></div></div> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-71228904720040734312013-08-07T11:38:00.000+00:002013-08-07T11:42:54.970+00:00A Reflection on the necessity of monitoring BURKINA Faso<div class="mobile-photo">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WkdVlN9m5D4/UgIx29sKhUI/AAAAAAAAMdo/wRvOTkTZ-80/s1600/BlaiseCompaore2_0-747242.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5909340481406010690" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WkdVlN9m5D4/UgIx29sKhUI/AAAAAAAAMdo/wRvOTkTZ-80/s320/BlaiseCompaore2_0-747242.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Thanks to <a href="http://linkedin.com/">linkedin.com</a>, I was compelled to put my thinking cap on (which I often like to leave off...): a Ghanaian "friend" asked me a dicey, juicy question about Burkina Faso politics (the President there (Compaoré) has been in power since 1987) and the possibility of the President there tweaking the constitution to remain in power. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">A simple question brought about ramifications never thought possible: here's the case that ECOWAS Commission President is from Burkina; he is eyeing the Presidency himself in 2016. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Small problem is that incumbent will step down in 2015 (in theory!) at a time when current ECOWAS President has to show his mettle that he presided over celebrations of ECOWAS' 40 years. So what does he do: try his luck at the Presidency of Burkina Faso -- or stay at ECOWAS and make an impact? Either way, Burkina is a country to watch in the sub-region in the next couple of years!</span></div>
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E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-71442283679205194322013-07-24T14:36:00.000+00:002013-07-24T14:36:53.476+00:00COMMENT:"Communicating the ECOWAS Message (4): A New Roadmap for the Ouedraogo Commission(1)"<div dir="ltr">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.4em;">For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reform. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July, 1993; the second was in 2007, when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. Professor Senghor, an authority on Sene-Gambian relations, quintessential Pan-Africanist; and former UN diplomat, speaks of the ECOWAS Treaty as 'the Bible' of where West Africa needs to be. In an ideal world, West African media ought to be agog with the 20 years of the revised Treaty. We settle for second-best today by touching on the outcomes of the 43rd Ordinary Session, as well as the significance of what a new 15-member Commission means for West African governance</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">Diplomats at the European Commission might not yet be quaking in their boots, because they have probably been so consumed by their arrogance for the institution they work for -- the permanent European civil service -- as setting the trend for the rest of the world, including for the emergence of the permanent West African Civil Service, or the ECOWAS Commission. But they should be a little worried, because the emergence of Commissioners for the other seven regional economic communities(RECs) of IGAD; SADC; COMESA; ECCAS; EAC; AMU; CENSAD might offer a double-edged sword for the EU's typical engagement with Africa. But that is another story!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">Immediately upon hearing from a trusted and reliable source at the ECOWAS Commission that ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences), I sought to review my patchy notes on its European counterpart of the EU Commissioner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">Suffice-to-say, Wikipedia has quite a detailed account of what constitutes a European Commissionereven almost to salaries, and the percentage to which it is a reflection many times over of the European civil service grade. Most importantly, it covers how they are appointed; the Oath they are supposed to take; the history of the evolution of the European Commissioner; the extent to which they are accountable to European citizens; salaries; and finally which member state of the 28-member European Commission holds what portfolio. (I daresay there is no Wikipedia entry yet of an ECOWAS Commissioner. Any takers?).</span><br />
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<strong style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">The emergence of an ECOWAS Commissioner</strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">Setting up a Wikipedia stub on an '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">ECOWAS Commissioner</em><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">' will not be a problem; it is just a matter of getting committed people to do adequate research on what entails an official becoming an ECOWAS Commissioner (even against the odds of scant information in the capitals of member states on the institutional development of ECOWAS' architecture). If we lived in a perfect world, we should by now have sufficient information in all member states about the Ecowas Treaty; the evolution of ECOWAS from a Secretariat to a Commission in 2007; and finally, the build-up to the newly-expanded Commission, which is highly significant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">This is because it sets a precedent for a veritable and permanent West African civil service, for in the same way the European Commissioners are equivalent to national ministers, so will this expansion signify an attempt by West Africa to have its own national ministers as well. As to the extent to which they remain accountable to the ECOWAS Parliament and other Community institutions are important indicators of the future of any kind of West African governance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">If we quickly look at the revised Ecowas Treaty of 1993, article 20 enjoins staff of the Community to ensure that '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;"><strong>in the performance of their duties, the [erstwhile] Executive Secretary, the Deputy Executive Secretaries, and other staff of the Community shall owe their loyalty entirely and be accountable only to the Community</strong></em><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">'. It continues '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;"><strong>In this regard, they shall neither seek nor accept instructions from any government or any rational or international authority external to the Community</strong></em><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">.' What article 20 does not say is what happens when staff of the Community is found to have breached this article. Are there any sanctions that will be meted out to them? For example, could they be accountable to the ECOWAS Parliament and/or to the Community Court of Justice?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">In my view, what this can only serve to remind us about is this: until and unless the ECOWAS Commission begins to fast-track synergy with the ECOWAS Parliament, it will be a great deal easier for ECOWAS staff to be bullied by Eurocrats, who, along with their interests, are explicitly '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;"><strong>external to the [ECOWAS] Community</strong></em><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">Professor Senghor's suggestion for all West African citizens, including policy-makers, through to the average Community citizen to pay attention to the revised ECOWAS Treaty, which turns 20 this week, cannot go unheeded at a critical juncture when institutional changes are taking place at the ECOWAS Commission and ECOWAS turns 40 only in 2 years time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 1.4em;"><i>In 2009, in his capacity as a 'Do More Talk Less Ambassador' of the 42nd Generationan NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (<a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org/" target="_blank">http://critiquing-regionalism.org</a>). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on <a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net" target="_blank">ekbensah@ekbensah.net</a> / Mobile: <a href="tel:%2B233-268.687.653" target="_blank" value="+233268687653">+233-268.687.653</a>.<br /> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">Source: Emmanuel K. Bensah Jr.</span><br />
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Story from Modern Ghana News:<br />
<a href="http://www.modernghana.com/news/477274/1/communicating-the-ecowas-message-4-a-new-roadmap-f.html" target="_blank">http://www.modernghana.com/news/477274/1/communicating-the-ecowas-message-4-a-new-roadmap-f.html</a><br />
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Published: Wednesday, July 24, 2013</div>
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E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-77095702447874695022013-05-16T10:09:00.000+00:002013-05-16T10:09:23.461+00:00GIABA, and Why Ghana must support ratification of 2005 protocol establishing CIIB in West Africa<br />
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<strong><i>The GIABA Meeting should remind Ghana to support ratification of 2005 protocol establishing Criminal Investigative Intelligence Bureau for West Africa</i></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">In February 2013, I wrote a piece entitled '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">Where is the ECOWAS Sahel Strategy to Secure & Protect West Africa from Criminals</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">? In October 2012, I penned an article entitled '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">Mission: ECOWAS has a responsibility to protect West Africa from Criminals</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">.' It summarized and reprised arguments from previous articles I had written about ECOWAS and its responsibility to secure the sub-region.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">Back in October 2011, I wrote yet-again another, entitled '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">Time for ECOWAS to Ratify the Criminal Investigative Intelligence Bureau</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">'. The idea behind the piece was to argue that free movement is great for the ECOWAS sub-region, but comes at a cost - cross-border crime. The provision of free movement is possible thanks to the Protocol on Free Movement, Right of Residence and Establishment which was adopted in 1979. In 1980, ECOWAS members would ratify the first phase of the Protocol guaranteeing free entry of citizens from member states without visa for ninety days.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">I also touched on how West African leaders, working through ECOWAS, had made significant strides on combating drug trafficking, crime; and what I described as '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">all the attendant vices associated with un-policed porous borders</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">'</span><br />
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<strong style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">ECOWAS structures for securing peace GIABA included!</strong><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">At the sub-regional level, ECOWAS has a number of structures that are helping rein in what might otherwise be a chaotic sub-region. These include the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan on illicit drugs trafficking, organized crime and drug abuse; ECOWAS Committees of Chiefs of Security Services, and Chiefs of Defence Staff; WAPCCO; and GIABA.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">Backed by the Canada-based 'The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre', the ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Security Services has assisted ECOWAS since May 2009 to create a committee that ensures proper communication and coordination efforts with member states on the police component of the African Standby Force and other regional security issues. The committee is now funded by the ECOWAS Commission's regular annual budget and meets twice a year.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">The ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staffan exclusively military componentreviews security in the sub-region through quarterly meetings. The most recent meeting was some two weeks ago when they met to discuss the character of the African-led International Force in Mai (AFISMA).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">The ECOWAS agency that is the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money-Laundering, or GIABA, is responsible for the prevention and control of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in the West African Sub-Region. Critical to its mandate is the '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">improvement of measures and intensifying efforts to combat the laundering of proceeds of crime in West Africa</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">'. Incidentally, GIABA happens to be one of the ECOWAS agencies associated with Kofi Annan's newly-established West Africa Commission on the Impact of Drugs on Governance, Security and Development (WACD).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">ECOWAS's formulation of a regional response through their Political Declaration of 2005 (that put forward the idea of establishing a criminal investigative intelligence bureau) has helped nip the problem in the bud. However, considering the fact that that the Criminal Investigative Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) had been proposed as far back as 2002 by Ghana for a meeting of the INTERPOL-backed West Africa Police Chiefs Committee (WAPCCO) in Abidjan, the challenge would have been better dealt with had member states resolved to establish the-said CIIB.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">While ECOWAS community citizens continue to enjoy free movement in the sub-region, this is a region that has played host to internecine conflicts especially in the Mano River Union, such as the Liberian conflict of 1990 that prompted the intervention of ECOMOG. I wrote back in October 2011, '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">add to that the porous border, the free movement of mercenaries, coupled with small arms trafficking and the recruitment of child soldiers and fighters to the cross-border crimes and we have ourselves a potential powder-keg that needs significant monitoring through significant systems of intelligence - as proposed by the yet-to-be-ratified CIIB</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">'.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">Although the intensity of the Mali conflict has died down - at least away from the glare of the media - there is no gainsaying that 2013 continues to be a year in which ECOWAS has not completed its work in Northern Mali; neither done with piracy nor the Sahel crisis. These are new elements forcing ECOWAS to take the bull by the horns on factoring not just the visceral peace and security instruments it is so used to, but a law-enforcement perspective that is sufficiently holistic to secure and protect West Africans from criminals and miscreants.</span><br />
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<strong style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">Way Forward for ECOWAS</strong><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">At a time when African integration observers are talking of both the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and a putative Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)-ECOWAS-CENSAD free trade area (along the lines of the tripartite COMESA-EAC-SADC free-trade area), this second FTA is unlikely to go anywhere quickly without ECOWAS getting very serious on distinguishing between what I would call 'hard'(war; drug-trafficking; human-trafficking) and 'soft'(cross-border and petty crime) conflict. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">It is very encouraging to read of Joint Border Patrols in the sub-regionas prescribed by the INTERPOL-backed West African Police Chiefs Committee. A recent conference by the Mano River Union countries only two weeks ago that was held in Liberia re-visited the idea of Joint Border Patrols as a way of securing their borders. Coming from a micro-region that served as a catalyst for ECOWAS' first-ever intervention in West Africa under ECOMOG, this can only be good news that West Africa is capable of managing its own affairs.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">I continue to press that ECOWAS might not have had the foresight of establishing a West African law enforcement mechanism (like the EU did with EUROPOL with respect to the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992) the very moment the Treaty of Lagos was revised in 1993 to reflect the current challenges of ECOWAS, but it can never be too late, I wrote in October 2011, '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">to rectify the imperative of a sub-regional police force along the likes of INTERPOL or EUROPOL</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">'. ECOWAS's imperative and comparative strengths on peace, security, and conflict prevention ought to give it the necessary impetus to bring to fruition the belated '</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">ECOWASPOL</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif';">'/CIIB the sub-region so desperately needs to secure the region for its citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif'; line-height: 1.4em;"><em>In 2009, in his capacity as a 'Do More Talk Less Ambassador' of the 42nd Generationan NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "<a href="http://critiquing%20regionalism/" target="_blank">Critiquing Regionalism</a>" (<a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org/" target="_blank">http://critiquing-regionalism.org</a>). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233-268.687.653</em>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'MS sans serif'; font-size: 14px;">Source: Emmanuel K. Bensah Jr.</span><br />
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E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-92142255698881934272013-02-20T10:39:00.001+00:002013-02-20T10:39:28.637+00:00Enter the Chad Dragon in the ECOWAS-CENSAD region!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lbGyWxQcX_k/USSmd98--uI/AAAAAAAAHd8/4zx5XpMgKtk/s1600/chad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lbGyWxQcX_k/USSmd98--uI/AAAAAAAAHd8/4zx5XpMgKtk/s1600/chad.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Back in October 2011, my piece “</span><b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Hot
Issues on the AU needing popular advocacy (I) – or Travelling Cheaply in
Africa, & Southern Sudan</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">touched briefly on
CENSAD. I started off with a history of CENSAD, going on to ask the way
forward.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Community of Sahel-Saharan States was established in 1998 by
the late Colonel Qaddafi. After the rationalization of the regional economic
communities in 2006, it became an AU-REC – that is one of the eight RECs
mandated and recognized by the African Union. It has twenty-eight members, and
Ghana is a member.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Despite many meetings that had taken place and a then-fully-functioning
website on<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><u><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.censad.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http://www.censad.org</span></a></span></u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">, the
uprising that started in Libya in March threw a huge spanner in the works of
the organisation, effectively throwing the regional grouping out of sync with
the other RECs at its base in Tripoli. Regrettably, the conspicuous absence of
the African Union itself on the future of CENSAD has not helped dispel the
notion that the AU is nothing more than a “toothless” bulldog.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The passing of Qaddafi, I intoned, has effectively taken the
wind out of the sails of CENSAD, probably throwing all the good work –
including the Great Green Wall being built along the sub-region to protect the
region from climate change; as well as the establishment of a free-trade area
of ECOWAS-UEMOA-CENSAD/ECOWAS-CENSAD/ECCAS along the likes of the
SADC-COMESA-EAC tripartite free trade area, which was mooted in 2008.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Going forward, I would expect to see the AU taking serious the
need to engage the National Transitional Council in Libya on their commitments
to the African Union. This would include discussions on Libya and where it
stands on the establishment of the AU-mandated and Tripoli-hosted African
Investment Bank, as well as the state of play of CEN-SAD, and how it can be
factored into discussions of Africa’s ongoing discussions over Africa’s
integration.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In January 2013, an organisation by the name of Centre 4S, which
is based in Morocco, and which researches defence and security in the
Sahelo-Saharian band /strip; armed violence and terrorism, among other
subjects, released a paper in French entitled “<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Revitaliser le CENSAD</i></b>”, or reinvigorating CENSAD.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The main idea of the paper is to look at the critical role
CENSAD can play in the Sahel; ways in which cooperation and synergy can be
created around the zone, and ways in which there can be strengthened
cross-border cooperation.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Truth be told, the uniqueness of CENSAD is in its ability to
merge ECOWAS; Arab Maghreb Union and ECCASS countries together. The article
maintains that the contribution that CENSAD offers its member states ought to be
re-examined. Furthermore, the crisis in Mali has set an important precedent for
the member states to really get serious on what can be done to use the body as
a tool for securing the region politically and diplomatically.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
paper states that “CENSAD should present itself as an institutional and
diplomatic framework, of unity and action, capable of formulating a pertinent
response, inclusive and varied, to current security challenges.” Even more
important for a reinvigorated and re-launched CENSAD should be the aspiration
to complement ECOWAS and the Arab Maghreb Union, especially as they are two
RECs most-familiar with the security deficits of the Sahel region. These
efforts will “equally allow for a better coherence and coordination of
different initiatives on the Sahel”, such as Algeria’s Joint Military Command
with Mali; Niger; and Mauritania.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Chad rising, Chad in
ECOWAS?</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Chad is a Central African
country and a member of the Economic Community of Central African States
(ECCAS). Some wonder why it should not also become a member of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) According to one Elvis Kodjo, writing
in fratmat.info, 'although the idea has not been officially announced, the
spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Moussa Mahamat Dago indicated on
19 January 2012 in Abidjan during a celebration of Chad's 50th anniversary that
the issue was currently being considered.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The idea for joining rests
with the fact that Chad has emerged from several decades of unrest, and
understands “more than any other African country that “African integration is
necessary for its development”.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The fact is that since the
start of oil production in 2005, “Chad has become the ninth largest African oil
producer and has improved its network of roads, which has expanded from 200 to
more than 3 000 km. Plans for a new, ultramodern airport are underway, and a
railroad linking the country to Cameroon will soon be constructed”. Kodjo
maintains that “while being a veritable construction site, Chad also has forty
million hectors of arable land”.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In order to encourage the
effective use of this land, the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mahamat
has said that the country “has equipped itself with a particularly attractive
investment code” and is looking to secure the best opportunities for itself by
diversifying its economic partners in both Central and West Africa.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In March 2011, Chad was, in
fact, granted observer status of ECOWAS and my monitoring of Chad's wooing
suggests that Chadian President Idris Deby is still keen on sweet-talking
Jonathon—in his capacity as leader of the regional hegemon, Nigeria—to accept
Chad as a full member of ECOWAS. In April 2012, I was quick to speculate that it
is unlikely to happen soon, given the instability in the Sahel region and the
headaches of Mali and Guinea-Bissau. All that can be said for now is for
observers to keep a keen eye on Chad making “incursions” into ECOWAS sooner
than later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Then Mali happens.
And suddenly, we are confronted with a Chad that is offering support to the
Africa-led support mission in Mali (AFISMA) to the tune of around 3000 troops,
which is around a third of what all ECOWAS troops have offered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">One of the reasons
why Chad is an important country to look out for is for what happened on
Saturday 16 February when Chad’s president Idris Deby hosted some eleven
leaders of the CENSAD regional economic community that was established in 1998.
The capital N’djamena played host to what should have been 20 members of the
populous grouping. Even if a little over a third of the Heads of State showed
up, it was encouraging to see that the 17 other member states dispatched
representatives. Furthermore, it has shown that the raison d’être for the
establishment of the grouping might still be relevant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Some of the major
outcomes include a revision of the Charter, to reflect the fact that the
organisation is interested in two major things: peace and security; and
sustainable development. Two permanent organs will be established to this end,
and Egypt is likely to host the peace and security organ.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As this is a
developing story, with much of the material in French, watch this space over
the next couple of weeks when the implications of a rising Chad will begin to
unfold. For what it is worth, CENSAD’s next meeting will be in Morocco, which
is itself making overtures to re-join the African Union.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In April 2012, I
wrote of how there is talk of an <span style="color: #333333;">ECCAS-ECOWAS-CENSAD
free trade area along the likes of the Tripartite FTA (T-FTA) of
SADC-COMESA-EAC that was mooted in 2008. With Central Africa only last week
meeting and seeking concretely to rationalise its programmes for ECCAS and
CEMAC to harmonise and merge, it is really exciting times for African
integration! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">ENDs</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">In
2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42<sup>nd</sup>
Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the
role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. </span>Emmanuel
owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (</span></i><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org/"><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif";">http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org</span></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">). Established in 2004 as an initiative to
respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives
worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on
MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on </span></i><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net"><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif";">ekbensah@ekbensah.net</span></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.</span></i></div>
E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-36059057754259085112012-11-09T14:38:00.001+00:002012-11-09T14:38:42.879+00:00Fate of EurAsian Economic Community to be sealed in December 2012<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,tahoma;font-size:11px;text-align:start;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><tbody><tr><td class="newstext" style="padding:10px 15px 0px 22px"> <h1 class="header" style="font-size:11px;color:rgb(51,51,51)">EurAsEC fate to get sealed in December</h1><br></td></tr><tr><td class="newstext" width="100%" style="padding:0px 0px 0px 22px"><font class="header" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:11px;color:rgb(51,51,51);border-bottom-width:4px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(200,226,208)">09.11.2012 13:20</font><br> <br></td></tr><tr><td class="newstext" style="padding:0px 15px 20px 22px">MOSCOW, 9 November (BelTA) – The future fate of the Eurasian Economic Community that unites Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan will be decided at a meeting of the heads of state in December 2012, Mr Mikhail Yevdokimov, Director of the First Department of the CIS States of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told media on 9 November.<br> <br>BelTA has learned that the decision to gradually reform the EurAsEC was made in late 2011 because the EurAsEC parallels many functions of the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The workforce of the EurAsEC Secretariat has been reduced from 97 to 22 people, said Mikhail Yevdokimov.<br> <br>In his words, forms of interaction of the Customs Union with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are being discussed. "Belarus has made an interesting proposal on partnership and we are going to discuss it," said the diplomat.</td> </tr></tbody></table><div>source: <a href="http://news.belta.by/en/news/politics?id=698380">http://news.belta.by/en/news/politics?id=698380</a></div>-- <br><br> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-52013531576321285592012-10-30T15:58:00.000+00:002012-10-30T15:58:12.981+00:00All Hail the Russian Eurocrat?, or a Tale of the Rise of the Eurasian Economic Community?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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from: <a href="http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2658/eu-wary-of-new-soviet-empire-in-disguise">http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2658/eu-wary-of-new-soviet-empire-in-disguise</a></div>
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<h1 class="a-title" style="color: #777777; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
EU wary of new Soviet empire in disguise</h1>
<br /><span class="art-r-text" style="color: #666666; font-size: 1.1em;">by Justin Stares</span></div>
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<strong class="art-r-text" style="color: #666666; font-size: 1.1em;">30 October 2012</strong><br /><ul class="bookmark" style="display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<strong>Is the Eurasian economic commission set to become the next regional government, or is it little more than a horse-rabbit stew? <em>PublicServiceEurope.com</em> charts the rise of the Russian 'Eurocrat'</strong><br /><br />Brussels officials besieged by the Eurosceptic press may be relieved to discover that for the first time they have a natural ally: Russian 'Eurocrats'. While currently more of a club than an aspiring federal government, there are already not far from a thousand Moscow-based 'Eurocrats' beavering away at what some suggest could be the next regional powerhouse: the Eurasian Economic Commission.<br /><br />The commission is growing at an "impressive" speed, according to Michael Pulch, head of division for Russia at the European External Action Service, the European Union's diplomatic arm. "They have a new building and there are already 800 people working on Eurasia issues," he told a seminar organised by the EU-Russia Centre, a think-tank. Intrigued, the Russian newspapers have begun to run stories on their no doubt over-the-top salaries and holiday entitlements. Responsibility for trade, agriculture and related phytosanitary rules for the three members of the would-be EU of the east – Russia, Belorussia and Kazakhstan – has already been handed to these Eurasian bureaucrats, taking Brussels somewhat by surprise. "We have a mandate to negotiate with Russia, not the Eurasian commission," Pulch told the seminar, held at the Brussels Press Club. Russian Eurocrats will soon be devising policy in the field of competition, energy and investment, he predicted.<br /><br />While officially supportive of all regional integration processes around the world, the EU is clearly wary of this supranational upstart. Europe fears it may in reality be nothing more than a facade for the renaissance of the Russian empire. After all, around 85 per cent of staff at the Moscow headquarters are Russian. And Russia represents 90 per cent of the bloc's gross domestic product. Given the economic insignificance of the other two members, the Eurasian community was something of a "horse-rabbit stew", EU-Russia Centre adviser Marco Franco told the seminar. A horse-rabbit stew has a hint of rabbit, but tastes overwhelmingly of horse, Franco explained. In his former role as EU ambassador to Russia, Franco asked his bosses for instructions on how to handle the Eurasian commission. He was told, he revealed, "to leave it well alone".<br /><br />"This is the only case of the EU being suspicious of economic integration," said Olga Shumylo-Tapiola, senior fellow at Carnagie Europe, another think-tank. "The west is very negative," she said. The Eurasian commission might reflect Russia's desire to be treated as an equal by the EU, she suggested, though Russian officials deny this theory. The alleged benefits of the existing customs union between the three states were not convincing, the seminar heard. Kazakhstan was the "clear loser", while Belorussia was probably in search of much needed political legitimacy and, even more importantly, cash. Even for Russia, the economic justification is not obvious – studies claim the Eurasian customs union has until today resulted in economic contraction, not growth. Russian public opinion was against subsidising new members, said Shumylo-Tapiola.<br /><br />Is the fledgling Eurasian community a political alliance rather than an economic one? There were suggestions members might be coming together out of shared fear of China. Alternatively, it could be a Russian plan to counter the EU's eastern partnership programme, a policy considered by Moscow to be "an incursion into the Russian zone of influence". Either way, the proof of the pudding was likely to be Ukraine, panellists agreed. Would Ukraine be asked, or obliged, to join the Eurasian community? "All approaches must be voluntary," said Pulch. There have until now be no signs of coercion by Moscow, Shumylo-Tapiola said. A similar question mark hangs over Moldova's future.<br /><br />The EU suspects that the nascent Eurasian community is a reborn Soviet empire in disguise. Until these suspicions are allayed, calls for a wider Eurasian alliance running from the Atlantic to Vladivostok are likely to remain 'Putin's dream', as the seminar was entitled. If they care to pop over, Eurasian commission officials are however likely to get a warm welcome in Brussels from their supranational counterparts. When talks on agriculture or energy get bogged down by geo-political grandstanding, they can always compare pension plans.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2658/eu-wary-of-new-soviet-empire-in-disguise#ixzz2AnZ6iqSa" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2658/eu-wary-of-new-soviet-empire-in-disguise#ixzz2AnZ6iqSa</a></span></div>
E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-8609443768687329772012-08-16T10:27:00.000+00:002012-08-16T10:28:10.261+00:00When the African Integration Revolution is Televised (4), & why Duodu’s article must be revised<div><br></div>from: <a href="http://www.thebftonline.com/index.php/feature/accidental-ecowas/1628-when-the-african-integration-revolution-is-televised-4-a-why-duodus-article-must-be-revised">http://www.thebftonline.com/index.php/feature/accidental-ecowas/1628-when-the-african-integration-revolution-is-televised-4-a-why-duodus-article-must-be-revised</a> <br clear="all"> <div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph">"<b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen":</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:26.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">When the African Integration Revolution is Televised (4), & why Duodu's article must be revised</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">By E.K.Bensah Jr</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">It is no accident I have spent the better part of four weeks focussing specifically on another dimension of what I call the "African integration revolution". Last year, I wrote three articles on another aspect that touched on the so-called rise of Africa. This recent series has, by way of backdrop, the non-visibility of ten years of the African Union; with a special focus on one article by veteran Ghanaian journalist Cameron Duodo – who writes for "New African" magazine – and what I consider to be a fairly-biased article that does not do adequate justice to the progress of the flawed African Union. This article is the culmination of three weeks of necessary Duodo-biting—necessary because as a prolific writer on African affairs and Ghana, Duodu could have written a far better piece than he did. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Considering the magazine for which he is writing, it beggars belief the article even passed the Editor's table into the marketplace of ideas. In my view, if this kind of writing can pass muster into the debate on African integration, then we're in trouble. The first port of call on African integration, in my view, is on education: educating Africans and non-Africans about the challenges impinging upon Africa's integration is as important as understanding and appreciating the history. This means that there is a responsibility on all Africa-loving integrationists to make the effort to report regularly, clearly and accurately. The minute we start infusing Afro-pessimistic ideas of Africa's long history to integration into any debate, we begin to change the narrative for our progeny who must come to understand that, yes, there are challenges, but we have come a long way, and must work harder to achieve continental unity.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Today's piece is to buttress that point by juxtaposing it against an article by a less-known author who wrote a short but, in my view, balanced piece on how far the AU has come. Before we get to that piece, it is important to remind ourselves that Duodu's piece is by no means a bad piece, but a piece that merits serious revision by those reading through the filter of what one might call "African Zeitgeist".</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Where Africans fear to tread</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">I concluded my last piece on the visa regime of Africa. Duodu touched on the important fact that Africans continue to grapple with the challenge and hassle of obtaining visas to travel to other African countries. The most glaring example of this is travelling to Addis from Ghana, where one has to obtain a visa! I have made this point in other forums of the importance of visas to Africa's diplomatic capital being scrapped for, at best, "strategic countries", and, at worst, all countries with representations to the African Union. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">How is it that Dr.Nkrumah's statue was unveiled at the new Chinese-sponsored AU building, but the nationals of that great visionary have to endure the frustration of passing by an embassy to travel to Addis? It beggars belief! Why can Ghanaians travel to Kenya (a country with which we have less strategic ties) without a visa, but have to swallow hard to make one's way to the Ethiopian Embassy? If this is not an indictment of African policy-makers, I'm not quite sure what is. This is the kind of moral indignation that Duodu did well to capture, but failed to touch on how far African policy-makers have come on ensuring it becomes a thing of the past. Discussions on the Continental Free Trade Area in the UN Economic Commission for Africa's flagship piece "Assessing Regional Integration for Africa V" point to how Africa is addressing some of these challenges, and I daresay the venerable Duodu might have had access to news that a report like this would be launched simultaneously at the AU Summit. A piece on how this publication seeks to respond to those challenges might have been useful for the reader.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Still on the visa regime, ECOWAS is perhaps the only regional economic community (REC) that offers visa-free travel to its community citizens. While it is true that a discussion about the AU can be had without specific reference to the regional economic communities <i>per se</i>, in my view, there cannot be any reference at all. This is the reason why ECOWAS could have been propped up as an example of how Africa has managed to respond to the challenge of travel. This could have been contrasted against our Central African countries which continue to demand visas to travel throughout the sub-region!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Duodu's conclusion that therefore "the AU's change of name could not but be cosmetic" is unfortunate. The claim that "in imitation of the European union, the AU has created the Pan-African parliament" is equally so, especially because it is not referenced against the Abuja Treaty of 1991, which had stipulated that the establishment of the parliament is consistent with one of the six stages towards the realization of the African Economic Community(AEC) by 2034. Truth be told, the Pan-African parliament was supposed to be established as the sixth stage of the AEC, but was established back in 2004—way ahead of the 2034 date. Few people will know this fact unless specialist writers on Africa tell them!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">To cut a long story short, it might have been a better idea for Duodu to include how NEPAD became integrated into AU structures in 2010 to become the technical body of the AU—better known as the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA). Why anyone might care about this is because this integration demonstrates that the AU itself was sensitised to civil society concerns of the neo-liberal nature of what-was-NEPAD to have done something about bringing it back home to the AU—where it ought to originally have belonged.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">A different take on 10 years of the AU</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;font-style:normal;background-repeat:initial initial">Tjiurimo HENGARI is the Head of the South African Foreign Policy and African Drivers Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs, based at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His piece on the website entitled "</span></em><em><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial">Ten Years of a contrasted Union: The African Union at the Crossroads or Business as Usual</span></b></em><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;font-style:normal;background-repeat:initial initial">" is perhaps what one might call a vindication of the African Union. Truth be told, it's perhaps a more objective piece about the progress of the AU, and comes highly recommended.</span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;font-style:normal;background-repeat:initial initial"><br> </span></em></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;font-style:normal;background-repeat:initial initial"> </span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;font-style:normal;background-repeat:initial initial">Set against the backdrop of the-then upcoming AU summit, Hengari writes: "</span></em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial">it is fitting to debate and reflect how this organization has fared a decade on, both in light of its promise of new principles, new thinking, including new approaches to African challenges and governance. These principles and approaches seek to capture on a wide continuum, the nexus between democracy, good governance on the one hand, and on the other Africa's economic development and integration in the global economy." He touches on governance; and the need to create "the institutional infrastructure and processes …necessary for a more efficient African Union"; </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"><br></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial">While acknowledging that the AU is flawed, he writes that "the AU is still a work in progress and the past decade of its existence did not mask contradictions between what the AU ambitiously purports to be on the one hand, and the structural and institutional impasse in which it finds itself when it comes to achieving Africa's developmental aims on the other. A continental institution is a sum of its composite parts." We can add to that that any institution is only as efficient as the members help it be. Remember how no less than the Un General Assembly last week criticised the UN Security Council for the permafrost on Syria? If a world body –replete with decades of experience and efficiency— can experience problems, why must we expect the world for the AU, which is only 10 years old?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"><br></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial">Going forward, the author recommends three areas for attention: the first is how "in line with its theme the summit should put explicit emphasis on the translation of modest democratic governance into concrete developmental deliverables in African countries; second, "more attention should be placed than what has been otherwise the case thus far on the strengthening of regional economic communities as essential anchors in matters of peace, security and development". Finally, "0the summit should provide clear guidelines and principles around leadership of the Commission."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"><br></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial">Simply put: "a continental institution is a sum of its composite parts". It behoves all to remember this as we all go forward in our desire to see a more prosperous and assertive Africa that can do justice to the calls for it to "arise". Africa is at the cusp of historic change. The road towards economic emancipation is long, but it is achievable. As for the African integration revolution, it's only just started—and the RECs are going to play a more central role in that revolution.<em><span style="font-style:normal"></span></em></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;background-color:white;font-style:normal;background-repeat:initial initial"> </span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">In 2009, in his capacity as a "Do More Talk Less Ambassador" of the 42<sup>nd</sup> Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org/">http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org</a><i>). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on </i><a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net">ekbensah@ekbensah.net</a><i> / Mobile: 0268.687.653.</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p></div>-- <br><br> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-63914944689564901882012-06-15T13:56:00.001+00:002012-06-15T13:56:33.938+00:00TRADE: "EU support to regional integration: between cuts and ‘unfailing’ commitment"from: <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/eu-support-to-regional-integration-between-cuts-and-unfailing%E2%80%99-commitment/">http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/eu-support-to-regional-integration-between-cuts-and-unfailing%E2%80%99-commitment/</a><div> <br></div><div><div class="headline_area" style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 2em;color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Arial,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span class="date_abv_title" style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 2em;font-size:1.1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:bold;line-height:1.436em;letter-spacing:0px">June 15, 2012</span><br style="padding:0px;margin:0px"> <h1 class="entry-title" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(0,152,212);line-height:1.4em">EU support to regional integration: between cuts and 'unfailing' commitment</h1><p class="headline_meta" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;font-style:italic;font-size:1em;line-height:1.8em;color:rgb(136,136,136)"> Posted: <span style="padding:0px;margin:0px;font-style:normal;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:1px">14:13 PM UTC</span></p><div class="cleardiv10" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;width:600px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(0,152,212);height:10px"> </div><p class="headline_meta" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;font-style:italic;font-size:1em;line-height:1.8em;color:rgb(136,136,136)">by <span class="author vcard fn" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;font-style:normal;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:1px">KATHLEEN VAN HOVE</span> on <abbr class="published" title="2012-06-15" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;line-height:1em;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:1px;border-bottom-style:none;font-style:normal">JUNE 15, 2012</abbr></p> </div><div class="format_text entry-content" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;font-size:1.3em;line-height:1.538em;color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Arial,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em">Despite being hit by the current economic and financial crisis, Europe remains a strong advocate and keen supporter of deep regional integration, at home and abroad. In Africa, the arguments for fostering integration are manifold; from building larger markets that can attract Foreign Direct Investments, achieving economies of scale, enhancing competitiveness, to fundamental security considerations. Today <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">there are a host of ambitious integration arrangements among African states</strong>, many of them <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AfricanOrgs-Diagram.svg" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,152,212)">overlapping in space</a> and scope. However the track record is quite disappointing for a variety of reasons. What could the EU do to improve this trend?</p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em">For decades, the <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">EU has used a combination of instruments to support regional integration</strong> in other regions of the world. The instruments in the toolbox ranged from political dialogue, to trade agreements and considerable envelopes of development support at regional level. In Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific this was translated into the negotiation of <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/trade/wider-agenda/development/economic-partnerships/" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,152,212)">Economic Partnership Agreements</a>(EPAs) between the EU and various sub-regions. The EU argued that negotiating and concluding these comprehensive <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">free trade agreements</strong> with sub-regions would foster their integration processes, build regional markets to attract more investment. Many <a href="http://epawatch.eu/" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,152,212)">opponents</a> have argued the EPAs will do exactly the opposite and further complicate regional integration, such as in West Africa for example where the EU has concluded interim EPAs with individual countries who stood to loose market access, namely Ivory Coast and Ghana. This was also up for discussion at the <a href="http://www.ecdpm.org/Web_ECDPM/Web/Content/Download.nsf/0/3F29023E33D58571C1257A1E0062CB36/$FILE/2012_pfg_dokumentation.pdf" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,152,212)">Potsdam Spring Dialogue</a> that I attended for ECDPM last month, although the debate focussed more on the appropriateness of the European structuralist model of deeper integration for Africa versus a lighter version of regional integration that would be more adapted to realities on the continent.</p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em">Beyond the trade instruments, the European Commission has been a frontrunner in supporting the regional economic communities by providing sizeable regional indicative programmes funded through the European Development Fund. For many years, these <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">programmes financed both the activities of the economic communities as well as the functioning of their institutions</strong>. However, in the recent<a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/e-on-trade-growth-and-development-a-good-start-or-a-missed-opportunity/" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,152,212)">Trade & Development Communication</a> (a guiding policy document on the future of its trade policy) the EU announces its plans to take a more strategic approach to supporting regional integration. The European Commission intends to do this by addressing regional integration in political dialogue with developing countries and regions and by <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">putting a greater focus on "those regions that show political will and have the capacity to delive</strong>r". It remains rather silent on how it intends to do so.</p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em">In line with this logic, the <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">European Commission has decided to considerably cut its development support to various African regions</strong> in the context of the mid-term review of the European Development Fund, while simultaneously reaffirming its 'unfailing' commitment to supporting crucial regional integration projects. For example, the funds for East and Southern African region were halved, the ones for West Africa cut by a third. The main argument used by the European Commission to justify these cuts is the lack of capacity of the African regional economic communities to spend the funds in an effective way.</p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em">The next months will show how exactly <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">the EU's new approach to supporting regional integration</strong>will take shape. Various <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">scenarios</strong> are floating around, but little has leaked from the EC corridors so far. One of the concepts could be to increase support to national envelopes to implement 'cross-border' and regional projects. Another idea could be to provide regional support to other regional institutions which are more effective in managing such funds. Some argue that the RECs were never the adequate institutions to be charged with the responsibility of managing EU development funds and are now being unduly blamed for not delivering. At the Potsdam Conference I mentioned before <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/sefbonn" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,152,212)">a call was launched to find innovative ways</a> of 'outsourcing' to other development partners in the region, who have the capacity on the ground to work on regional programmes, based on concrete needs and bankable projects.</p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em">Surely, if the EC is changing its approach to supporting regional integration, the question begs of whether EU member states will step in to provide the funds that were cut or whether the African regional economic communities will find <strong style="padding:0px;margin:0px">alternative ways of financing</strong> themselves and their programmes. ECDPM is planning more analytical work on innovative ways of financing for regional integration in the near future.</p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em">——————————————–</p><p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em"><a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/kathleen.jpg" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,152,212)"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1766" title="kathleen" src="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/kathleen.jpg" alt="kathleen EU support to regional integration: between cuts and unfailing' commitment " width="100" height="100" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 1.538em 1.538em 0px; border: none; float: left; "></a>Kathleen van Hove is Programme Manager, Trade & Regional Integration at ECDPM.</p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em"><span style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(255,255,255)">break</span></p><p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em"><span style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(255,255,255)">break</span></p> <p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em"><span style="padding:0px;margin:0px;color:rgb(255,255,255)"><br style="padding:0px;margin:0px"></span></p><p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.538em"><em style="padding:0px;margin:0px">This blog post features the authors personal views and does not represent the view of ECDPM.</em></p> <p class="post_tags" style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 1.818em;color:rgb(102,102,102);font-size:0.846em;line-height:1.818em">Tagged as: <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/tag/aid-for-trade/" rel="tag nofollow" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,152,212)">aid for trade</a>, <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/tag/eu-development-policy-by-region/" rel="tag nofollow" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,152,212)">EU development policy by region</a>, <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/tag/eu-external-action/" rel="tag nofollow" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,152,212)">EU External Action</a>, <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/tag/kathleen-van-hove/" rel="tag nofollow" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,152,212)">Kathleen van Hove</a>, <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/tag/regional-integration-2/" rel="tag nofollow" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,152,212)">regional integration</a>, <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/tag/trade-and-regional-integration/" rel="tag nofollow" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,152,212)">trade and regional integration</a>, <a href="http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/tag/trade-policy-and-epas/" rel="tag nofollow" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,152,212)">trade policy and EPAs</a></p> </div><div><br></div><br> </div> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-67474531104593650852012-05-15T16:50:00.001+00:002012-05-15T16:50:45.044+00:00Another (regional) Bloc [MERCOSUR] Bites the Dust?When no less than the FT concludes its piece on Mercosur like this ( <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"><font size="1">High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our <a href="http://www.ft.com/servicestools/help/terms" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">Ts&Cs</a> and <a href="http://www.ft.com/servicestools/help/copyright" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">Copyright Policy</a> for more detail. Email <a href="mailto:ftsales.support@ft.com" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">ftsales.support@ft.com</a> to buy additional rights. <a href="http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/05/15/mercosur-dead-in-the-water/#ixzz1uxRjaASy" style="color:rgb(0,51,153);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/05/15/mercosur-dead-in-the-water/#ixzz1uxRjaASy</a></font><br> <br></span><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:18px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Nobody is saying Mercosur itself will be killed off. But with its biggest members at each other's commercial throats, whether the institution survives is of not much more than academic interest. The common market as original proposed has long been dead in the water</span> ), then you know something is not quite right in the Mercosur 'hood.<br clear="all"> <div><br></div>-- <br>enjoy the article below: <div><br></div><div><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> "I don't know what Argentina will do. I believe Brazil will have to reconsider Mercosur." That's what the head of Brazil's pork exporters' association <a title="Exclusive: Brazil targets Argentina with trade licenses - Reuters" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/15/us-brazil-argentina-trade-idUSBRE84E0AZ20120515" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">told Reuters after Brazil imposed non-tariff barriers</a> on several perishable products including wheat flour and wine.</p> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"><br> </p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> While the rules apply to products from anywhere they will hit Argentina hardest. They come as Buenos Aires is pulling every string it can to reverse its trade deficit, including <a title="Trade partners rebuke Argentina over restrictions - FT" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2acd5706-7a8e-11e1-8ae6-00144feab49a.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">forcing importers to become exporters too</a> and raising <a title="Brazil/Argentina: trade spat - Lex" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/13352bee-8d51-11e0-bf23-00144feab49a.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">barriers against Brazilian goods</a>. It is all making Mercosur, the supposed common market, look like a nonsense.<span id="more-708491"></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"><br> </p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> As the 1991 <a title="Treaty Establishing a Common Market between the Argentine Republic, the Federal Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay " href="http://www.sice.oas.org/trade/MRCSR/treatyasun_e.asp" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">Treaty of Asunción</a> puts it, the primary objective of Mercosur is to establish "the free movement of goods, services and factors of production" between its member countries: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.</p> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"><br> </p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> As <a title="Mercosur "needs to be reborn" with an honest integration spirit, says Cardoso - MercoPress" href="http://en.mercopress.com/2012/05/08/mercosur-needs-to-be-reborn-with-an-honest-integration-spirit-says-cardoso#add-comment" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso put it</a> last week, "Mercosur got stalled at the start and did not advance much." Its founders, he said, were thinking of something along the lines of the European Union and didn't get beyond setting up a common external tariff.</p> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left">Even within its boundaries, though, Mercosur has not done much for trade. <a title="China is now region's biggest partner - FT" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cce437bc-6ef5-11e0-a13b-00144feabdc0.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">As the FT reported</a> a year ago:</p> <blockquote style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:2em;margin-bottom:1.8em;margin-left:1.5em;padding-top:1.7em;padding-right:1.5em;padding-bottom:1px;padding-left:1.5em;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">In the past decade, trade within Mercosur has grown less than among [Latin American] countries outside it, or even between individual Mercosur members and other Latin American countries.</p> </blockquote><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> Things have only got worse since then. This from the FT this month:</p><blockquote style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:2em;margin-bottom:1.8em;margin-left:1.5em;padding-top:1.7em;padding-right:1.5em;padding-bottom:1px;padding-left:1.5em;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">The tit-for-tat measures have reduced trade. In April this year, Argentine imports from Brazil fell 23.2 per cent compared to a year earlier, while Argentina's exports to Brazil have also fallen 9.7 per cent.</p> </blockquote><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> Even so, Mercosur still has ambitions beyond its original four-member grouping. Venezuela was accepted as a member in 2006, though Paraguay has refused to ratify its accession ever since. Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are all "associate" members. But the most recent talks on enlargement, at the end of last year, <a title="Mercosur enlargement? Not likely - beyondbrics" href="http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/20/mercosur-enlargement-not-likely/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">predictably got nowhere</a>.</p> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"><br> </p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> Even less likely to be realised is the long-held ambition of a free trade agreement with the European Union. Desultory talks have been dragging on for years. It has always been hard to imagine anyone in Brussels taking the proposal seriously. Argentina's <a title="Argentina to renationalise oil group YPF - FT" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae91248c-87e0-11e1-b1ea-00144feab49a.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">renationalisation of YPF</a>, the oil company hitherto controlled by Repsol of Spain, was surely the last nail in that idea's coffin. It seems almost as far-fetched today as the idea of <a title="Trade common currency in Mercosur's agenda - MercoPress" href="http://en.mercopress.com/2006/08/29/trade-common-currency-in-mercosur-s-agenda" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(46,110,158);border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;text-decoration:none">a single Mercosur currency</a>.</p> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"><br> </p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px;text-align:left"> Nobody is saying Mercosur itself will be killed off. But with its biggest members at each other's commercial throats, whether the institution survives is of not much more than academic interest. The common market as original proposed has long been dead in the water.</p> <br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-2014817019003425592012-04-12T16:55:00.000+00:002012-04-12T16:56:11.524+00:00Guyana & Suriname Improve Regional Integration<br clear="all"><div>from: <a href="http://www.insidedominica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=775:guyana-a-suriname-improve-regional-integration&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18">http://www.insidedominica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=775:guyana-a-suriname-improve-regional-integration&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18</a></div> <div><br></div><div><h2 class="contentheading clearfix" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:24px;background-image:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:Cambria,Times,serif;line-height:1.2"> <a href="http://www.insidedominica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=775:guyana-a-suriname-improve-regional-integration&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18" class="contentpagetitle" 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style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:5px;padding-right:5px;padding-bottom:5px;padding-left:5px;border-top-width:1px;border-right-width:1px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-left-width:1px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:12px;background-image:initial;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);clear:both;color:rgb(153,153,153);border-top-style:solid;border-right-style:solid;border-bottom-style:solid;border-left-style:solid;border-top-color:rgb(221,221,221);border-right-color:rgb(221,221,221);border-bottom-color:rgb(221,221,221);border-left-color:rgb(221,221,221);text-transform:uppercase;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> <div class="article-meta" 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style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:2px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent;float:right"> </div><div class="sharemebuttonf" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:2px;padding-right:2px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent;float:right"> </div></div><p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> The Governments of Guyana and Suriname are taking steps towards regional integration, with a recent re-launch of Suriname Airways to Georgetown, Guyana after a six-year absence.</p><p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> In keeping with CARICOM's Single Market and Economy (CSME) mandate, presidents of both countries met on Tuesday in Guyana, to launch the return of airline.</p><p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> Guyanese President Donald Ramotar dubbed the initiative "ground-breaking" stating that it stands to benefit both countries.</p><p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> "This shows that Guyana and Surinam is taking very seriously, our commitment to integration of our countries economies and CARICOM as a whole," Ramotar stated.</p><p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> The Guyanese leader is convinced that the re-launch will help create investment opportunities and boost tourism for both countries, both based on their geographic location and ties to the Caribbean region.</p><p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> Suriname's Head of State Desi Bouterse said that the two countries have been leading the way in the process of regional and South American integration, in many ways. "Our two countries have made great progress in the field of land connectivity, for example through the implementation of the ferry service between Canawaima and Springlands," Bouterse stated.</p> <p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> Guyana and Suriname are also currently weighing options for the construction of a bridge in the Corentyne River, Berbice, in attempts to tackle border crime. Guyanese are reportedly the second largest group to visit Suriname; with an increase in the last two years, Suriname authorities said.</p> <p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> Suriname Airways will now be offering non-stop flights from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) in Georgetown to Miami. It will fly to several other destinations including Europe and Brazil and offer flights from Georgetown to Paramaribo twice a week, on Tuesday and Saturday.</p> <p style="margin-top:15px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-color:transparent"> The inaugural ceremony was attended by Caricom's Secretary General Irwin LaRoque, Suriname's Minister of Transport, Industry and Communication Falisie Pinas and other officials of both the Surinamese and Guyanese governments along with business and tourism stakeholders. <br> </p></div></div> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-80048127993154282152012-04-05T15:05:00.000+00:002012-04-05T15:05:19.740+00:00ARTICLE:"Regional integration and elite power politics in East Asia"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
An insightful read. The parts in bold and italics are my emphasis of what I read as important components of regional integration dynamics of East Asia. Enjoy!<br />
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from: <a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/04/05/regional-integration-and-elite-power-politics-in-east-asia/">http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/04/05/regional-integration-and-elite-power-politics-in-east-asia/</a><br />
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<header style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><h2 style="font-family: TrebuchetMS, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Regional integration and elite power politics in East Asia</h2>
<time datetime="2012-04-05T22:00:44+10:00" style="color: #666666; font-family: TrebuchetMS, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold;">April 5th, 2012</time></header><section class="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><div align="left" style="font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-top: 0.2em;">
Author: Christian Wirth, Waseda University</div>
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Recent developments have revealed the deepening contradiction between economics and politics in East Asian international relations.</div>
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<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25697" height="266" src="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120331000422653126-layout.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.148438) 0px 6px 10px; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.148438) 0px 6px 10px; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; max-width: 400px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; width: 400px;" title="China Considers Family-based Income Tax Reform" width="400" /></div>
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On the one hand, cooperative mechanisms, especially those related to economic regional governance, have been enhanced. <span id="more-25694"></span>This is apparent in the expansion of currency swap agreements within the Chiang Mai Initiative, which have constituted a key regional response to the European fiscal crisis. It can also be seen in the new dynamics of free-trade negotiations that developed after the Obama administration renewed its push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a move which in turn invigorated talks about China-Japan-South Korea, ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6 FTAs.</div>
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At the same time, a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute survey of international arms transfers <a href="http://books.sipri.org/product_info?c_product_id=443" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in; color: #ca2027; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">published this March</a> showed some surprising results.<b><i> Amid an overall volume increase of 24 per cent, the world’s five largest importers of conventional weapons between 2007 and 2011 — India, South Korea, China, Pakistan and Singapore — are all in Asia</i></b>. Given the presence of hotspots such as the Taiwan Strait and the 38th parallel on the Korean Peninsula, and in view of the securitisation of the maritime sphere, this trend should be taken seriously. Other recent events — such as the September 2010 clash between Beijing and Tokyo over the arrest of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat intercepted near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands — have revealed the inadequacy of isolating either economics or politics in regional analysis. The two cannot be separated if we are to gain a more complete understanding of regional dynamics in East Asia.</div>
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In view of such trends, prominent scholars have argued that the Asia Pacific’s post-war order is no longer tenable and have called for the establishment of a ‘<a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2011/10/27/can-india-and-china-coexist-in-an-asian-concert-of-powers/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in; color: #ca2027; text-decoration: none;">Concert of Asia</a>’ in order to divert the great powers from their current collision course. According to this school of thought, simple strategies of deterrence are inadequate and rising powers, especially China, need to be given more ‘space’ — that is, a legitimate role in the international relations of the Asia Pacific. This proposition also requires that Washington <a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2010/09/12/the-end-of-american-supremacy/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in; color: #ca2027; text-decoration: none;">relinquish its primacy</a> in the region.</div>
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But there is a major flaw in the conception of such a balance of power: <b><i>the era of 19th-century European-style foreign politics is over. Foreign policies can no longer be made and decided upon among a small number of national elites.</i></b> Trust among top leaders, even if they were to stay in power for sufficiently long periods of time — wishful thinking in itself — is insufficient for stable international relations. Instead, the formulation of foreign policy must account for domestic political constraints.</div>
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The contradiction between economics and politics and the tensions between policy elites and public opinion were evident when Beijing sought to diplomatically engage Japan in the East China Sea dispute in 2008. China’s attempt at formalising earlier tacit understandings between Chinese and Japanese elites — epitomised by Deng Xiaoping’s call for ‘shelving’ dispute politics — has ultimately failed. This was not only due to Japan’s uncompromising stand. It was also due to popular resistance — both among Chinese academics and the general public — to the Chinese leadership’s perceived weakness toward foreign demands.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Similar to calls for adjusted balances of power, </span><b style="font-size: 13px;"><i>the discourse of Asian regionalism also has a strong elite bias</i></b><span style="font-size: x-small;">. While the former assumes that foreign policy can be conducted more or less autonomously from the domestic realm, </span><b style="font-size: 13px;"><i>the latter implicitly assumes that economic growth, spurred on by free trade and other related policies, has a trickle-down effect strong enough to maintain social cohesion and thereby legitimise incumbent political systems</i></b><span style="font-size: x-small;">. Given the salient income disparities and other social and environmental </span><a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/03/08/three-challenges-to-asia-s-global-ascent/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in; color: #ca2027; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">problems in East Asia</a><span style="font-size: x-small;">, however, it must be asked: </span><b><span style="font-size: large;">what is actually being integrated, who should be cooperating and for what purpose?</span></b></div>
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To be sure, European regional cooperation and integration has been an elite project with the aim of economic competitiveness and prosperity at its core. But although economic development is a real priority for contemporary East Asian governments, prevailing circumstances during Europe’s 20th-century integration differ greatly from those of contemporary East Asia.</div>
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As a result of past and present development policies, Asia’s populations and economic and political power are now largely concentrated in a few urban centres. This leads to the horizontal fragmentation of societies between their cities and the countryside, and to a vertical fragmentation among the few rich and an increasing number of poor city dwellers. China’s 240 million ‘migrant workers’ is but the most extreme example of this.</div>
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The question for East Asia is how ruling elites will maintain the cohesion of their societies given these recent trends. The answer will have crucial implications for the conduct of foreign and security policies, and with it the future of order in the Asia Pacific. If incumbent elites, be it for material gains or fear of ‘disorder’, cling to the status quo, top-down and bottom-up nationalism will inevitably continue to rise. This does not bode well for the future of East Asia, even if economic growth continues as expected.</div>
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This is not to deny that East Asia is coming together socially and economically — but understanding the social processes underlying economic and security policies depends on a deeper analysis of the foundation of domestic political legitimation, especially in times when economic growth alone is insufficient to achieve this end.</div>
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<em>Christian Wirth is Research Fellow at <a href="http://www.waseda-giari.jp/eng/organization/member27.html" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in; color: #ca2027; text-decoration: none;">Waseda University</a> and Adjunct Lecturer at <a href="http://www2.fla.sophia.ac.jp/professors/2012/wirthchristian" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in; color: #ca2027; text-decoration: none;">Sophia University</a>, Tokyo.</em></div>
</section></div>E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-34597176665052806382012-03-29T16:25:00.001+00:002012-03-29T16:25:27.517+00:00Statement by BRICs at New Dehli Meet on 29 March, 2012<div class="gmail_quote"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">Five emerging economic powerhouses - Brazil, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/396/russia/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">Russia</span></a>, India, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/227/china/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">China</span></a> and South Africa - are meeting in Delhi for the BRICS summit to discuss a range of issues, including increased financial integration of the member countries, energy security and the ongoing crisis in Syria.</font></span></p> <div style="border:solid #f0f0f0 1.0pt;padding:8.0pt 8.0pt 8.0pt 8.0pt;background:white;margin-right:18.75pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;background:white;border:none;padding:0in"><font size="1"><span style="font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';line-height:normal"> </span></span><span style="border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><a href="http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2012/03/29/255027-brics-summit-2012.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration:none;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"></span></a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"></span></font></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:12.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">Close</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:15.6pt;background:#666666"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:white"><font size="1">(Photo: Reuters)<span style="border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><br> </span>(From L-R) Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao and South African President Jacob Zuma join their hands together during a group photo for the BRICS Summit in New Delhi March 29, 2012.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;background:#f5f6f8"><b><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-transform:uppercase"><font size="1">SHARE THIS STORY</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:12.75pt"><font size="1"><span style="border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><a href="http://oascentral.ibtimes.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/us.ibtimes/world/articles/1400799870/x96/default/empty.gif/7842336867453930686655414352364f?x" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration:none;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><img border="0" width="1" height="1" alt="http://imagec18.247realmedia.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/default/empty.gif"></span></a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">Here is the document the BRICS members released to explain their agenda.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">Source: <a href="http://www.mea.gov.in/mystart.php?id=190019162" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">India's Ministry of External Affairs</span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">1. We, the leaders of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/396/russia/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">Russia</span></a>n Federation, the Republic of India, the People's Republic of <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/227/china/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">China</span></a> and the Republic of South Africa, met in New Delhi, India, on 29 March 2012 at the Fourth BRICS Summit. Our discussions, under the overarching theme,<i>"BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity",</i> were conducted in an atmosphere of cordiality and warmth and inspired by a shared desire to further strengthen our partnership for common development and take our cooperation forward on the basis of openness, solidarity, mutual understanding and trust.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">2. We met against the backdrop of developments and changes of contemporary global and regional importance - a faltering global recovery made more complex by the situation in the euro zone; concerns of sustainable development and climate change which take on greater relevance as we approach the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) and the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity being hosted in Brazil and India respectively later this year; the upcoming G20 Summit in Mexico and the recent 8th <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/266/wto/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">WTO</span></a> Ministerial Conference in Geneva; and the developing political scenario in the Middle East and North Africa that we view with increasing concern. Our deliberations today reflected our consensus to remain engaged with the world community as we address these challenges to global well-being and stability in a responsible and constructive manner.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">3. BRICS is a platform for dialogue and cooperation amongst countries that represent 43 percent of the world's population, for the promotion of peace, security and development in a multi-polar, inter-dependent and increasingly complex, globalizing world. Coming, as we do, from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, the transcontinental dimension of our interaction adds to its value and significance.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">4. We envision a future marked by global peace, economic and social progress and enlightened scientific temper. We stand ready to work with others, developed and developing countries together, on the basis of universally recognized norms of international law and multilateral decision making, to deal with the challenges and the opportunities before the world today. Strengthened representation of emerging and developing countries in the institutions of global governance will enhance their effectiveness in achieving this objective.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">5. We are concerned over the current global economic situation. While the BRICS recovered relatively quickly from the global crisis, growth prospects worldwide have again got dampened by market instability especially in the euro zone. The build-up of sovereign debt and concerns over medium to long-term fiscal adjustment in advanced countries are creating an uncertain environment for global growth. Further, excessive liquidity from the aggressive policy actions taken by central banks to stabilize their domestic economies have been spilling over into emerging market economies, fostering excessive volatility in capital flows and commodity prices. The immediate priority at hand is to restore market confidence and get global growth back on track. We will work with the international community to ensure international policy coordination to maintain macroeconomic stability conducive to the healthy recovery of the global economy.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">6. We believe that it is critical for advanced economies to adopt responsible macroeconomic and financial policies, avoid creating excessive global liquidity and undertake structural reforms to lift growth that create jobs. We draw attention to the risks of large and volatile cross-border capital flows being faced by the emerging economies. We call for further international financial regulatory oversight and reform, strengthening policy coordination and financial regulation and supervision cooperation, and promoting the sound development of global financial markets and banking systems.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">7. In this context, we believe that the primary role of the G20 as premier forum for international economic cooperation at this juncture is to facilitate enhanced macroeconomic policy coordination, to enable global economic recovery and secure financial stability, including through an improved international monetary and financial architecture. We approach the next G20 Summit in Mexico with a commitment to work with the Presidency, all members and the international community to achieve positive results, consistent with national policy frameworks, to ensure strong, sustainable and balanced growth.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">8. We recognize the importance of the global financial architecture in maintaining the stability and integrity of the global monetary and financial system. We therefore call for a more representative international financial architecture, with an increase in the voice and representation of developing countries and the establishment and improvement of a just international monetary system that can serve the interests of all countries and support the development of emerging and developing economies. Moreover, these economies having experienced broad-based growth are now significant contributors to global recovery.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">9. We are however concerned at the slow pace of quota and governance reforms in the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/264/imf/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">IMF</span></a>. We see an urgent need to implement, as agreed, the 2010 Governance and Quota Reform before the 2012 <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/264/imf/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">IMF</span></a>/World Bank Annual Meeting, as well as the comprehensive review of the quota formula to better reflect economic weights and enhance the voice and representation of emerging market and developing countries by January 2013, followed by the completion of the next general quota review by January 2014. This dynamic process of reform is necessary to ensure the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Fund. We stress that the ongoing effort to increase the lending capacity of the IMF will only be successful if there is confidence that the entire membership of the institution is truly committed to implement the 2010 Reform faithfully. We will work with the international community to ensure that sufficient resources can be mobilized to the IMF in a timely manner as the Fund continues its transition to improve governance and legitimacy. We reiterate our support for measures to protect the voice and representation of the IMF's poorest members.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">10. We call upon the IMF to make its surveillance framework more integrated and even-handed, noting that IMF proposals for a new integrated decision on surveillance would be considered before the IMF Spring Meeting.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">11. In the current global economic environment, we recognize that there is a pressing need for enhancing the flow of development finance to emerging and developing countries. We therefore call upon the World Bank to give greater priority to mobilizing resources and meeting the needs of development finance while reducing lending costs and adopting innovative lending tools.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">12. We welcome the candidatures from developing world for the position of the President of the World Bank. We reiterate that the Heads of IMF and World Bank be selected through an open and merit-based process. Furthermore, the new World Bank leadership must commit to transform the Bank into a multilateral institution that truly reflects the vision of all its members, including the governance structure that reflects current economic and political reality. Moreover, the nature of the Bank must shift from an institution that essentially mediates North-South cooperation to an institution that promotes equal partnership with all countries as a way to deal with development issues and to overcome an outdated donor- recipient dichotomy.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">13. We have considered the possibility of setting up a new Development Bank for mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, to supplement the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development. We direct our Finance Ministers to examine the feasibility and viability of such an initiative, set up a joint working group for further study, and report back to us by the next Summit.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">14. Brazil, India, China and South Africa look forward to the Russian Presidency of G20 in 2013 and extend their cooperation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">15. Brazil, India, China and South Africa congratulate the Russian Federation on its accession to the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/266/wto/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">WTO</span></a>. This makes the WTO more representative and strengthens the rule-based multilateral trading system. We commit to working together to safeguard this system and urge other countries to resist all forms of trade protectionism and disguised restrictions on trade.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">16. We will continue our efforts for the successful conclusion of the Doha Round, based on the progress made and in keeping with its mandate. Towards this end, we will explore outcomes in specific areas where progress is possible while preserving the centrality of development and within the overall framework of the single undertaking. We do not support plurilateral initiatives that go against the fundamental principles of transparency, inclusiveness and multilateralism. We believe that such initiatives not only distract members from striving for a collective outcome but also fail to address the development deficit inherited from previous negotiating rounds. Once the ratification process is completed, Russia intends to participate in an active and constructive manner for a balanced outcome of the Doha Round that will help strengthen and develop the multilateral trade system.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">17. Considering UNCTAD to be the focal point in the UN system for the treatment of trade and development issues, we intend to invest in improving its traditional activities of consensus-building, technical cooperation and research on issues of economic development and trade. We reiterate our willingness to actively contribute to the achievement of a successful UNCTAD XIII, in April 2012.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">18. We agree to build upon our synergies and to work together to intensify trade and investment flows among our countries to advance our respective industrial development and employment objectives. We welcome the outcomes of the second Meeting of BRICS Trade Ministers held in New Delhi on 28 March 2012. We support the regular consultations amongst our Trade Ministers and consider taking suitable measures to facilitate further consolidation of our trade and economic ties. We welcome the conclusion of the Master Agreement on Extending Credit Facility in Local Currency under BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism and the Multilateral Letter of Credit Confirmation Facility Agreement between our EXIM/Development Banks. We believe that these Agreements will serve as useful enabling instruments for enhancing intra-BRICS trade in coming years.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">19. We recognize the vital importance that stability, peace and security of the Middle East and North Africa holds for all of us, for the international community, and above all for the countries and their citizens themselves whose lives have been affected by the turbulence that has erupted in the region. We wish to see these countries living in peace and regain stability and prosperity as respected members of the global community.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">20. We agree that the period of transformation taking place in the Middle East and North Africa should not be used as a pretext to delay resolution of lasting conflicts but rather it should serve as an incentive to settle them, in particular the Arab-Israeli conflict. Resolution of this and other long-standing regional issues would generally improve the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. Thus we confirm our commitment to achieving comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of the universally recognized international legal framework including the relevant UN resolutions, the Madrid principles and the Arab Peace Initiative. We encourage the Quartet to intensify its efforts and call for greater involvement of the UN Security Council in search for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We also underscore the importance of direct negotiations between the parties to reach final settlement. We call upon Palestinians and Israelis to take constructive measures, rebuild mutual trust and create the right conditions for restarting negotiations, while avoiding unilateral steps, in particular settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">21. We express our deep concern at the current situation in Syria and call for an immediate end to all violence and violations of <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/366/human-rights/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">human rights</span></a> in that country. Global interests would best be served by dealing with the crisis through peaceful means that encourage broad national dialogues that reflect the legitimate aspirations of all sections of Syrian society and respect Syrian independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty. Our objective is to facilitate a Syrian-led inclusive political process, and we welcome the joint efforts of the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/391/united-nations/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">United Nations</span></a> and the Arab League to this end. We encourage the Syrian government and all sections of Syrian society to demonstrate the political will to initiate such a process, which alone can create a new environment for peace. We welcome the appointment of Mr. Kofi Annan as the Joint Special Envoy on the Syrian crisis and the progress made so far, and support him in continuing to play a constructive role in bringing about the political resolution of the crisis.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">22. The situation concerning Iran cannot be allowed to escalate into conflict, the disastrous consequences of which will be in no one's interest. Iran has a crucial role to play for the peaceful development and prosperity of a region of high political and economic relevance, and we look to it to play its part as a responsible member of the global community. We are concerned about the situation that is emerging around Iran's nuclear issue. We recognize Iran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy consistent with its international obligations, and support resolution of the issues involved through political and diplomatic means and dialogue between the parties concerned, including between the IAEA and Iran and in accordance with the provisions of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">23. <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/231/afghanistan/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">Afghanistan</span></a> needs time, development assistance and cooperation, preferential access to world markets, foreign investment and a clear end-state strategy to attain lasting peace and stability. We support the global community's commitment to <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/231/afghanistan/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">Afghanistan</span></a>, enunciated at the Bonn International Conference in December 2011, to remain engaged over the transformation decade from 2015-2024. We affirm our commitment to support Afghanistan's emergence as a peaceful, stable and democratic state, free of terrorism and extremism, and underscore the need for more effective regional and international cooperation for the stabilization of Afghanistan, including by combating terrorism.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">24. We extend support to the efforts aimed at combating illicit traffic in opiates originating in Afghanistan within the framework of the Paris Pact.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">25. We reiterate that there can be no justification, whatsoever, for any act of terrorism in any form or manifestation. We reaffirm our determination to strengthen cooperation in countering this menace and believe that the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/topics/detail/391/united-nations/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0051a1">United Nations</span></a> has a central role in coordinating international action against terrorism, within the framework of the UN Charter and in accordance with principles and norms of international law. We emphasize the need for an early finalization of the draft of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UN General Assembly and its adoption by all Member States to provide a comprehensive legal framework to address this global scourge.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">26. We express our strong commitment to multilateral diplomacy with the United Nations playing a central role in dealing with global challenges and threats. In this regard, we reaffirm the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more effective, efficient and representative so that it can deal with today's global challenges more successfully. China and Russia reiterate the importance they attach to the status of Brazil, India and South Africa in international affairs and support their aspiration to play a greater role in the UN.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">27. We recall our close coordination in the Security Council during the year 2011, and underscore our commitment to work together in the UN to continue our cooperation and strengthen multilateral approaches on issues pertaining to global peace and security in the years to come.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">28. Accelerating growth and sustainable development, along with food, and energy security, are amongst the most important challenges facing the world today, and central to addressing economic development, eradicating poverty, combating hunger and malnutrition in many developing countries. Creating jobs needed to improve people's living standards worldwide is critical. Sustainable development is also a key element of our agenda for global recovery and investment for future growth. We owe this responsibility to our future generations.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">29. We congratulate South Africa on the successful hosting of the 17th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 7th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP17/CMP7) in December 2011. We welcome the significant outcomes of the Conference and are ready to work with the international community to implement its decisions in accordance with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">30. We are fully committed to playing our part in the global fight against climate change and will contribute to the global effort in dealing with climate change issues through sustainable and inclusive growth and not by capping development. We emphasize that developed country Parties to the UNFCCC shall provide enhanced financial, technology and capacity building support for the preparation and implementation of nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">31. We believe that the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is a unique opportunity for the international community to renew its high-level political commitment to supporting the overarching sustainable development framework encompassing inclusive economic growth and development, social progress and environment protection in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, including the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">32. We consider that sustainable development should be the main paradigm in environmental issues, as well as for economic and social strategies. We acknowledge the relevance and focus of the main themes for the Conference namely, Green Economy in the context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication (GESDPE) as well as Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development (IFSD).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">33. China, Russia, India and South Africa look forward to working with Brazil as the host of this important Conference in June, for a successful and practical outcome. Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa also pledge their support to working with India as it hosts the 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October 2012 and look forward to a positive outcome. We will continue our efforts for the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols, with special attention to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization, Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and the Resource Mobilization Strategy.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">34. We affirm that the concept of a 'green economy', still to be defined at Rio+20, must be understood in the larger framework of sustainable development and poverty eradication and is a means to achieve these fundamental and overriding priorities, not an end in itself. National authorities must be given the flexibility and policy space to make their own choices out of a broad menu of options and define their paths towards sustainable development based on the country's stage of development, national strategies, circumstances and priorities. We resist the introduction of trade and investment barriers in any form on the grounds of developing green economy.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">35. The Millennium Development Goals remain a fundamental milestone in the development agenda. To enable developing countries to obtain maximal results in attaining their Millennium Development Goals by the agreed time-line of 2015, we must ensure that growth in these countries is not affected. Any slowdown would have serious consequences for the world economy. Attainment of the MDGs is fundamental to ensuring inclusive, equitable and sustainable global growth and would require continued focus on these goals even beyond 2015, entailing enhanced financing support.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">36. We attach the highest importance to economic growth that supports development and stability in Africa, as many of these countries have not yet realized their full economic potential. We will take our cooperation forward to support their efforts to accelerate the diversification and modernization of their economies. This will be through infrastructure development, knowledge exchange and support for increased access to technology, enhanced capacity building, and investment in human capital, including within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">37. We express our commitment to the alleviation of the humanitarian crisis that still affects millions of people in the Horn of Africa and support international efforts to this end.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">38. Excessive volatility in commodity prices, particularly those for food and energy, poses additional risks for the recovery of the world economy. Improved regulation of the derivatives market for commodities is essential to avoid destabilizing impacts on food and energy supplies. We believe that increased energy production capacities and strengthened producer-consumer dialogue are important initiatives that would help in arresting such price volatility.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">39. Energy based on fossil fuels will continue to dominate the energy mix for the foreseeable future. We will expand sourcing of clean and renewable energy, and use of energy efficient and alternative technologies, to meet the increasing demand of our economies and our people, and respond to climate concerns as well. In this context, we emphasize that international cooperation in the development of safe nuclear energy for peaceful purposes should proceed under conditions of strict observance of relevant safety standards and requirements concerning design, construction and operation of nuclear power plants. We stress IAEA's essential role in the joint efforts of the international community towards enhancing nuclear safety standards with a view to increasing public confidence in nuclear energy as a clean, affordable, safe and secure source of energy, vital to meeting global energy demands.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">40. We have taken note of the substantive efforts made in taking intra-BRICS cooperation forward in a number of sectors so far. We are convinced that there is a storehouse of knowledge, know-how, capacities and best practices available in our countries that we can share and on which we can build meaningful cooperation for the benefit of our peoples. We have endorsed an Action Plan for the coming year with this objective.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">41. We appreciate the outcomes of the Second Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development at Chengdu, China in October 2011. We direct our Ministers to take this process forward with particular focus on the potential of cooperation amongst the BRICS to contribute effectively to global food security and nutrition through improved agriculture production and productivity, transparency in markets and reducing excessive volatility in commodity prices, thereby making a difference in the quality of lives of the people particularly in the developing world.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">42. Most of BRICS countries face a number of similar public health challenges, including universal access to health services, access to health technologies, including medicines, increasing costs and the growing burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. We direct that the BRICS Health Ministers meetings, of which the first was held in Beijing in July 2011, should henceforth be institutionalized in order to address these common challenges in the most cost-effective, equitable and sustainable manner.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">43. We have taken note of the meeting of S&T Senior Officials in Dalian, China in September 2011, and, in particular, the growing capacities for research and development and innovation in our countries. We encourage this process both in priority areas of food, pharma, health and energy as well as basic research in the emerging inter-disciplinary fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials science, etc. We encourage flow of knowledge amongst our research institutions through joint projects, workshops and exchanges of young scientists.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">44. The challenges of rapid urbanization, faced by all developing societies including our own, are multi-dimensional in nature covering a diversity of inter-linked issues. We direct our respective authorities to coordinate efforts and learn from best practices and technologies available that can make a meaningful difference to our societies. We note with appreciation the first meeting of BRICS Friendship Cities held in Sanya in December 2011 and will take this process forward with an Urbanization and Urban Infrastructure Forum along with the Second BRICS Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Forum.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">45. Given our growing needs for renewable energy resources as well as on energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies, and our complementary strengths in these areas, we agree to exchange knowledge, know-how, technology and best practices in these areas.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">46. It gives us pleasure to release the first ever BRICS Report, coordinated by India, with its special focus on the synergies and complementarities in our economies. We welcome the outcomes of the cooperation among the National Statistical Institutions of BRICS and take note that the updated edition of the BRICS Statistical Publication, released today, serves as a useful reference on BRICS countries.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">47. We express our satisfaction at the convening of the III BRICS Business Forum and the II Financial Forum and acknowledge their role in stimulating trade relations among our countries. In this context, we welcome the setting up of BRICS Exchange Alliance, a joint initiative by related BRICS securities exchanges.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">48. We encourage expanding the channels of communication, exchanges and people-to-people contact amongst the BRICS, including in the areas of youth, education, culture, tourism and sports.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">49. Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa extend their warm appreciation and sincere gratitude to the Government and the people of India for hosting the Fourth BRICS Summit in New Delhi.</font></span></p> <font size="1"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">50. Brazil, Russia, India and China thank South Africa for its offer to host the Fifth BRICS Summit in 2013 and pledge their full support.</span><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br clear="all"></font></span></font><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><br></div>-- <br><br> </font></span></div><br> Emmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-1291036156833750732012-03-29T10:46:00.001+00:002012-03-29T10:46:46.946+00:00ECOWAS Has Been There; done that; Gotten the T-shirt for the Coups. It's getting to work!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Barely had the dust settled on
the elections in Guinea-Bissau when West Africans woke up not to world-wide
celebration of World Water Day, but a
search for incumbent Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure who had escaped from
the Presidential palace. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Although I believe, as
I averred in my last piece, that ECOWAS has a “mission”--and indeed
responsibility—to protect West African citizens from criminals, and attendant
cross-border crime, there is no gainsaying ECOWAS' latest diplomatic headache
includes finding and enforcing peace in coup-torn Mali; restoring (a semblance
of) democracy in lusophone Guinea-Bissau—and all against a backdrop of more
sanguine news that ECOWAS is deepening ties with China. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Even before Ghana's <i>Business&Financial Times</i> newspaper
started reminding us about an ECOWAS-China dalliance that would be manifested
through a forum, we knew this was not the first-ever meeting, and that there
had already been one held in 2008 in China when Dr.Chambas—the incumbent
secretary-general of the Brussels-based ACP Group—was ECOWAS Commission
president. </div>
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<br /></div>
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That meeting saw over 1000 participants from the sub-region, including 200
private-sector operators and 150 government officials. We can already speculate
from this that the interest by Africa for China to be more involved on the
continent and sub-region had been percolating in the minds of policy-makers. As
to whether this interest was accompanied by a plan is less clear, but what we
do know with this ECOWAS-China Forum is that there will indisputably be a clear
and present opportunity for China in the sub-region.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
This will manifest itself
through key projects of infrastructural development—examples include roads;
railways; housing; construction and transportation. Others include health care;
mining; agriculture; power; pharmaceuticals; and ICT. Ghana's vice-president John Mahama explained
that the forum will seek to maximise inflows of foreign direct investment from
China to ECOWAS countries, and attract long-term concessionary funds for
developing infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>Senegal says goodbye to Wade<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
As Senegal voters saw
Wade out, making way for newly-elected President Macky Sall, social networking
sites were understandably congratulating the Senegalese people, forgetting that
ECOWAS—as the player in the sub-region—had more than 100 election observers,
including an envoy in Obasanjo who all had contributed to the outcome. Macky
Sall himself congratulated the international and national observers 'for their
contribution to successful elections.' While it may be too soon to congratulate
the ECOWAS and AU elements, it is arguable that the success of the elections is
in no small part due to our sub-regional and continental actors. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>Sahel fatigue? Mali coup!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
I have no doubt that
even with the crisis in the Sahel, there might regrettably be a “Sahel crisis”
fatigue, and that the good news from Senegal might have been overshadowed by
it. Having written two pieces for this column on Mali and the crisis already, I
can fully understand why people might be apathetic to the whole apparent chaos
in the sub-region. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Truth be told, the
threat of hunger in the Sahel is real—as UN agencies would testify. No less
than the UNDP administrator Helen Clarke was involved in a live twitter
conversation some three weeks ago in which she engaged the twitter audience to
inform them what the UNDP and other UN agencies plan to do to help the hungry
in the Sahel. ECOWAS around the same time donated one million dollars towards
resolution of the crisis. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
While the Sahel crisis
has gone fairly under-reported by the West African media, it has ramified into
unpredictable outcomes, such as terrorism in Northern Mali, including the coup
in Mali proper, which genesis is tied to the Sahel crisis. Or at least, so the
mutinous soldier would let us believe, claiming their president ATT had done
little to stem the crisis in Northern Mali, so they were taking over to stop
the terrorism in that part of the country, which is, in fact, contributing to
the Sahel crisis. In short, it is a quagmire, which ECOWAS needs to really sink
its teeth into to ensure they have well and truly nipped in the bud.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>Guinea-Bissau comes of age?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Observers of the elections in Guinea-Bissau
may recall how the Western press—and indeed much of the African media—had been
describing this West African country as a “narco-state” in the run-up to its
elections. ECOWAS observers went in—as per the provisions of ECOWAS's
protocols, and elections have gone smoothly over-all. I believe one can tick this off as another
election gone down well, after Senegal. ECOWAS deployed 80 observers, led by
former President of Niger's Transitional Government Salou Djibo, for the
elections, which followed the death in January of President Malam Bacai Sanha
after a long illness<b><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In conclusion, it might be too early to speculate that
continental and sub-regional conflict management has come of age, given what
happened last year in 2011 in Cote d'ivoire and Libya, but I believe the signs
are very encouraging. ECOWAS and the AU cannot afford to be complacent in the wake
of eventual coups, given how a relatively stable country like Mali has found
itself in a state of flux and confusion. There's no gainsaying that vigilance
by Ecowas community citizens are indispensable, but even more so, in my view,
is vigilance of what ECOWAS and AU are doing to entrench democratic
dispensations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I write, ECOWAS is having an emergency summit in Cote
d'Ivoire to resolve the crisis—and I have no doubt they will eventually put
paid to the Mali question. When Western observers last week started tweeting
and facebooking that the AU had suspended Mali, my eyes glazed over. This is
nothing new; as the AU did so to Niger when it was involved in a coup in 2008.
It's so standard practice it should no longer be news to Africans. I joked last
week that on Mali, ECOWAS has been there; and done that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I look forward to the day when it gets the T-shirt – stating
it's a problem-solver on coups in the ECOWAS sub-region!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<em><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less
Ambassador” of the 42nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses
Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and
the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing
Regionalism" (</span></em><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #005fa9; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org/" target="_blank"><span class="Internetlink1"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">http://critiquing-regionalism.org</span></span></a>
). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge
on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog
features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many
others. You can reach him on <a href="mailto:"><span class="Internetlink1"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ekbensah@ekbensah.net</span></span></a> / Mobile:
+233-268.687.653.</span></em><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: "Calisto MT","serif";"> </span></div>
<br /></div>E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-32172014466862397892012-02-07T17:20:00.001+00:002012-02-07T17:20:23.172+00:00Watch out for CEN-SAD and the Arab Maghreb Union's revival in 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's a turn-up for the books:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">"<b><i>Strengthening the UMA is seen as a counter to the dominance of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – an organization encompassing six oil-rich Gulf Arab states – which has tried to exert its influence over north Africa in recent years</i></b>." -- from: </span><a href="http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/tunisia-seeks-revive-maghreb-union">http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/tunisia-seeks-revive-maghreb-union</a><br />
<br />
Whatever you may make of that claim, this is going to prove to be an interesting time post-Qaddafi, especially since Morocco will be hosting the Executive Council of Foreign Ministers of CEN-SAD in June in that country. (check: <a href="http://www.afriquejet.com/maroc-cen-sad-reunion-du-conseil-executif-en-juin-2012013032457.html">http://www.afriquejet.com/maroc-cen-sad-reunion-du-conseil-executif-en-juin-2012013032457.html</a>).<br />
<br />
It's good to know that the CEN-SAD HQ will remain in Tripoli -- as will the Sahelo-Saharian bank. I feel that big things are coming for dynamising North Africa.<br />
<br />
Watch this space!</div>E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-12607217883302558452012-02-06T17:57:00.000+00:002012-02-06T17:50:16.176+00:00On AL BA and Mobile blogging regionalismI am quite excited by the prospect of mobile blogging issues on regional integration.
<br>
<br>Off-late, been tricky, what with an excess of meetings, but this is to emphatically state that regularity shall return. Posts will be sharper and more-to-the-point.
<br>
<br>Am excited by developments in Latin America and regional development banks. More soon!
<br>Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from VodafoneE K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32386713.post-89839655620257740032012-02-01T14:02:00.000+00:002012-02-01T14:05:07.381+00:00Time to Project AU Power in the AU's 10th Year!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
“<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 22pt;">Africa's rise and how it’s Time to Project AU Power!</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">By
E.K.Bensah Jr</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xvznJk4ftFM/TylEs8eMErI/AAAAAAAAAog/Y5F7_sWk49c/s1600/african_union_building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xvznJk4ftFM/TylEs8eMErI/AAAAAAAAAog/Y5F7_sWk49c/s320/african_union_building.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
If there were
ever a greatest exponent of serendipity, it must have been when I found myself
in the home of the African Union in March 2011. Unbeknownst to many, I met my
kindred spirit—Mr. Stuart Hastings of towardsunity.org—in person for the first
time. I had met him two years earlier online when I was searching through tomes
of material on comparative regional integration and trying to find out also
whether there were other souls concerned more with the comparative approach on
regionalism than simply the single-minded one where, say, the AU, EU or ECOWAS
is the main focus. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I would come
across Stuart’s site and immediately spark a conversation with him about how
the tectonic plates were shifting towards regional unions, and how we both
needed to play a part in that change. </div>
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<br /></div>
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His website,
then as now, was clear: to travel the world from his home town of Canada and
return to produce a book on how far regional unions, such as the EU, MERCOSUR;
African Union; and ASEAN can promote promote peace and humanity through
democratic dispensations they offer in their institutional structures, and how
it was important to re-think some of the current narratives driving hegemons in
those respective unions. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C4BkHIScQaU/TylEznnyORI/AAAAAAAAAoo/MKRzZlN2wCw/s1600/New-African-Union-building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C4BkHIScQaU/TylEznnyORI/AAAAAAAAAoo/MKRzZlN2wCw/s1600/New-African-Union-building.jpg" /></a></div>
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So it would be
that Stuart and I would meet on 19 March, 2011 at Lime Tree cafe, situated in
the rather plush Boston Day Spa on the lush and swanky Bole Road in Addis. I
will never forget that day for the people who were there—Stuart Hastings; and a
young official of the UN Economic Commission for Africa who might never confess
in public he is a Pan-Africanist—and for the fact that after I got back to my
hotel, I would catch the news on BBC and Al-Jazeera that a multi-state
coalition had began a <b>military intervention in Libya</b> to implement <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;">United</span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Nations</span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Security</span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Council</span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Resolution</span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> 1973</span></a>.</div>
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I had had a
stress-free visit to the AU building days earlier, and so it seemed a bit
surreal to see diplomats fluttering in and out after 19 March all over
television. It was even harder to believe that the-then almost-completed AU
building would play host to an apparent impotence of AU officials and
policy-makers it would soon host almost a year later. </div>
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It is easy to
speculate that it is probably these apparently-impotent AU policy-makers who
have just witnessed the inauguration of the new, 28-floor AU building at the
just-ended 18<sup>th</sup> session of the AU in the Ethiopian capital. After
the cacophony over the past few days of this Chinese gift to the Africans and
the numerous speculations that have abounded over possible quid-pro-quos that
might be associated with this expensive gift, it's time to get serious.</div>
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There's no
gainsaying that China will expect some favours from Africa for having built
this building that supposedly towers over the whole of Addis. To harp on it, in
my view, is as relevant as claiming that the Europeans and Western donors who
pay some sixty percent of many African countries’ budget would expect
these-same countries to be indebted to them. The argument is even a
non-starter. What I would hope we would talk about are two major things.</div>
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First – how it
symbolises a renaissance of South-South cooperation and second, how it is a
projection of the increasing power of the African Union.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Symbolism of the AU building</b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QMY4_ksPAlg/TylE8Z07MWI/AAAAAAAAAow/zJludUVAOs0/s1600/ecowas-au-europeanCommission.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QMY4_ksPAlg/TylE8Z07MWI/AAAAAAAAAow/zJludUVAOs0/s1600/ecowas-au-europeanCommission.jpg" /></a>Both experts
and amateurs on African integration, and Western journalists alike have been
speculating over what China is likely to expect from the building they have
donated to the African Union. What, for me, took the biscuit was no less than
the venerable BBC World Service’s very respected “News Hour” programme on
Sunday 29<sup>th</sup> January interviewing the East African correspondent Will
Ross, with an angle that was Sino-African centred in a way that suggested that
China wants our natural resources, knows Africa is rising and so wants to
capitalize 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 the
Chinese, they deliver that lunch faster and with few conditions. That may be
the beauty of the relationship, and I believe what African integration watchers
all over must be doing right now is to use this as an opportunity to explore
and enhance the Sino-African relationship.</div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">In 2010, UNCTAD launched the Economic Development
in Africa report. Entitled <i>“South-South Cooperation: Africa and the New
Forms of Development Partnerships</i>” it examined recent trends in the
economic relationships of Africa with other developing countries and the new
forms of partnership that are animating those relationships. </span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">The increasing role of large developing
countries in global trade, finance, investment and governance, coupled with
their rapid economic growth, has stimulated debate on the implications for
Africa´s development. </span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">The report urges African nations to
intensify efforts at developing better productive capacities to maximize their
gains from the emerging partnerships and the gradual global shift of economic
power to the East from the West. African countries, the report states “have to
produce goods with high income elasticities of demand and that present greater opportunities
for export market expansion”. </span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">The report comprises five chapters dealing
with the challenges and opportunities in South-South cooperation, Africa’s
trade with developing countries, southern official flows to Africa, southern
Foreign Direct Investment to Africa and making South-South Cooperation work for
Africa. </span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">The report concludes that Africa-South
Cooperation—whether it is Sino— or Indio—not only has the potential to enhance
Africa´s capacity to address its development challenges but the full
realization of the benefits requires gearing cooperation towards the
development of productive capacities across the region.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="color: windowtext;">Bottom line is that </span>Africa as a
continent does not yet have a unified strategy relating to Africa-South
cooperation and this is evidenced in part, for example, by the way in which the
2010 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-African
relationship—perhaps around infrastructure? — and create an effective strategy
round it in a way that will slowly and surely put paid to the West’s. </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;">Projection
of power in the AU’s 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary year!</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">Who has not seen pictures of the
Brussels-based European Commission on TV and thought “wow, that’s a huge
building!” And for those who have seen it in person, there’s no gainsaying it’s
a rather imposing building. This contrasts sharply with what Stuart Hasting
related to in one of our numerous discussions of his globe-trotting in Asia to
see the secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) in Nepal. </span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">First and most importantly, after having
been established in 1985, one would have thought that they might have upgraded
their building a little. Pictures online of the Secretariat are consistent with
the descriptions associated with Hasting’s sojourn anecdotes. This has prompted
much speculation among those of us committed to propagating the development of
regional unions and groupings – especially in the developing world— as good –
and the greatest exemplification of the very-necessary projection of power the
AU so needs to do. Given that this is coming in the tenth anniversary of the
African Union, this could not but be a better and fitting presage of Africa’s
putative rise!</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">In
2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42<sup>nd</sup>
Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the
role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel
owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif";"><a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org/">http://critiquing-regionalism.org</a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">). Established in 2004 as an initiative
to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration
initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration
initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on </span></i><a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net"><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif";">ekbensah@ekbensah.net</span></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calisto MT","serif";"></span></div>
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</div>E K Bensah Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14833512397359544828noreply@blogger.com0