98 posts
EPAs: Europe’s last effort to divide Africa
With clear evidence of disintegration among the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries starting to emerge, it seems the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will not attain their intended objectives of enhancing trade, providing full market...
Namibia keeps EU guessing on EPA
The European Commission’s (EC) delegation in Namibia says it is “not confident” that the country would sign the full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union, amidst a looming deadline and a possible loss of up to N$3 billio...
A new decade for peace and security in Africa
Against the backdrop of the African Year of Peace and Security, 2010 will mark a turning point in Euro-African co-operation in this vital area for the continent’s future. Under the auspices of the African Union, Africa has come a long way in the se...
Kenya blames EU changes for stalled EPAs
The Kenyan government now says structural changes within the European Union (EU) are partly to blame for derailing negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) whose set completion date was July last year. Trade Minister Amos Kimunya said t...
African coalition urges EU to block new ivory sales
African nations on the 25th January urged European governments to resist calls for a new round of legal ivory sales and protect the world's elephant population. Representatives of the 17-country Coalition for the African Elephant came to Brussels see...
EU to invest 40 billion CFA F in Benin this year
The European Union (EU) will invest 41 billion CFA F in Benin in 2010, the organisation's head of delegation to the country, Mrs. Françiose Collet told the press here on Friday. The grant concerns only the 10th European Development Fund (FED), a pro...
Updating EPAs to meet today’s global challenges
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit hard, first by the food crisis, then more recently by the financial and economic crisis; and the continent is now facing the challenges of adapting to climate change. In this rapidly evolving context, African countries...
East Africa: EPA deal - impasse on services persists
Although the region has concluded a deal on market access to the European Union, there remain fundamental disagreements on trade in services. The EastAfrican has learnt that the matter will be left out of any deals signed this year as countries want...
Yam research in Africa receives support from European Union
Research on yam improvement in six African countries has received a boost with a donation of US$1 million from the European Union—African,Caribbean and Pacific Science and Technology Programme (EU-ACP),according to a statement from the Internationa...
EU: Trilateral relationship between UN-AU-EU in making
The European Union reaffirmed its strong engagement with the United Nations, particularly in Africa where a trilateral relationship between the UN, African Union (AU) and EU is already in the making to enhance regional cooperation. The statement came...
The ‘great feeling’ of helping third world countries
Some time ago, my university organized an international week. In the main hall, a short film was shown: African people were begging us for help. The film was made to promote an organization that helps students to go to third world countries and do
Why Italy is giving priority to Africa’s development
Italy is paying closer attention to Africa in the conviction that there is a different continent from the one traditionally depicted as a land of poverty, disease and conflict. Africa is a young continent with enormous potential in terms of human cap...
Briefing ‘Croissance démographique et implications pour le développement rural ACP’ en direct sur Internet
Vous pouvez suivre les débats sur « La croissance démographique et ses implications pour le développement rural ACP » le mercredi 27 janvier 2010 de 8h30 – 13h00 en cliquant sur : http://scic.ec.europa.eu/str/basic/ccab1d...
EU resumes development cooperation with Mauritania
Today the EU has normalised its relationships and fully resumed development cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Following the elections and the appointment of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz as president, the EU considers that a consensual s...
Council conclusions on Somalia Training Mission
The Council adopted the following conclusions: "The Council remained concerned about the situation in Somalia and its regional implications, recalling its 27 July Conclusions. It expressed its continued full support to the Transitional Federal Govern...
Zimbabwe: South Africa mediates on reform process
The reformers in Zimbabwe continue to persevere with their efforts to bring change and democracy to Zimbabwe. President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai signed up to a package of reforms in 2008. But, as I have blogged in November, elements...
Défis Sud n°91 - The Congo will be rural or will cease to be
The latest issue of Défis Sud, the newsletter published by SOS Faim, looks at the Congo - a country the size on a continent in the centre of Africa, with tremendous agricultural and rural potential. However, the rulers of the Democratic Republic of...
Updating Economic Partnership Agreements to Today’s Global Challenges
African and Pacific countries continue to negotiate the challenging Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union. These new agreements have the potential to help African countries accelerate their economic growth and develop more re...
North Africa a Transit Region for International Migration
Copyright (C) Hein de Haas (2007), The Myth of Invasion In the year 2009 the European continent saw a decrease of 17 percent in irregular border crossings from the Southern Mediterranean rim. This sharp drop of the immigration flow headin...
From Lilongwe to Copenhagen
So the news from the COP15 talks this morning is rather inevitable. The USA and a few other countries have cobbled together some sort of deal, and developing countries (and even – weedily – the European Union) are...
Progress in SA-EU negotiations
The deadlock in trade negotiations between the EU and South Africa that threatened to break the world's oldest customs union, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), is set to ease off, thanks to progress being made in ironing out differences betw...
Dive Lake Malawi
It was one of the most unusual work assignments I’ve ever been given: 3 days working in Lilongwe, Malawi. But it would be mad to fly to sub-Saharan Africa without enjoying a few days off too. Lake Malawi is supposed to be one of the best freshw...
American desires for Anglican Africa
The continuing controversy over the American Christian right’s connection to a new law in Uganda giving the death penalty to gays may not on its surface seem like a European issue. After all this is a America-Africa story right? But watch with amaz...
South Africa's corn, wheat and sorghum harvests predicted to grow
The South Africa Agribusiness Report Q110 continues on the themes touched upon in previous issues as the continent's top agricultural producer seeks to diversify the sector in terms of both primary production and value-added processing. The South Afr...
Kenya exports to EU face taxes
The European Union has for the first time indicated that the failure by the East African Community to sign a new trade agreement will lead to introduction of taxes on Kenyan exports to Europe. Kenya exports about 450,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetabl...
Advent thoughts: if it’s good enough for Africa…
Image from http://www.lightalantern.co.za/about-candle-lanterns.asp While searching the web for something this morning I was really surprised to find this thought-provoking article by Matthew Parris on the importance of faith in liberating Africa (es...
New ACP Secretary-General
Ghana’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, will be the new ACP Secretary-General of the ACP Secretariat as decided during the 90th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers on Tuesday 17th Novem...
Can football fever beat malaria in Africa?
The 'United Against Malaria' campaign hopes to use the excitement of preparations for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to help the continent win the fight against malaria, a preventable disease which kills a child every 30 seconds and nearly one mi...
Glenys Kinnock's Africa challenge
As the new minister for Africa, Glenys Kinnock faces security and development issues at the heart of UK foreign policy. The announcement by Downing Street that Glenys Kinnock has switched her post as Europe minister to take responsibility within the...
NGOs welcome EU’s vow not to push Africa into EPAs
Non-governmental organisations have expressed their satisfaction at the European Commission’s declaration that it would not put "undue pressure" on African and other countries to conclude the controversial trade deals called economic partnership ag...
Africa sets terms for granting EU full market access
Africa is asking its team of trade negotiators working on the Economic Partnership Agreement to focus on economic development before deciding on opening up markets to the European Union. Mr Erastus Mwencha, the deputy head of African Union Commission...
EU-Africa: Lusaka Declaration
Ministers and National Authorising Officers of ACP member States of COMESA, EAC, IGAD and IOC, their chief executives, and high level Officials of the European Commission held a two-day high level meeting in Zambia’s capital Lusaka on 14th to 15th...
E. S. African counties calls on EU to sign full trading agreement
Africa's largest trading bloc the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has urged the European Union to conclude an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) deal that will be accepted and covering all key areas that were important to the...
MEP Delegation visits Senegal
The signing of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) looks likely to occur in October. Although the negotiations between the European Union and ECOWAS are now less tense, the Senegalese private sector continues to emphasize the need for sticking po...
Africa: developing countries brace for tougher fishing regime
A little-known European Union regulation coming into force January next year could have a major impact on the health of fishing industries in developing countries, according to a new study. The EU is the single largest consumer of fish in the world,...
The Africa Experience
I’ve been back from my summer break for a week now. Batteries recharged (with renewable sun energy) for the new challenges ahead! But to start with, my agenda takes me far away from our continent, on a mission to promote a topic very dear to my...
The Hillary Doctrine
Hillary Clinton had quite the African odyssey. On the day she started her ambitious 11-day, seven country tour, husband Bill jetted off to Pyongyang and wrested two American journalists from Kim Jong-Il. Then, after dancing in Kenya, sitting down wit...
Africa: EPA - a Carrot for Africa
The Europeans are mounting pressure on African countries to sign the controversial Economic Partners...
“Open season for civilians” in Congo
Yesterday’s front page of the International Herald Tribune explores a new angle to the atrocities and violence in Congo – men raping men. What has been a horrible nightmare for women and girls in Congo for years is now becoming reality also f...
Uganda: stalemate hits European Union trade talks
The negotiations on the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the East African Community (EAC) a...
EU-Africa: the pointless struggle against the WTO
Rather than wasting all its energy on fighting the WTO and negotiations with the EU, Africa could be...
West African churches warn against EPAs
Economic Partnership Agreements. On Wednesday West African church leaders cautioned governments in t...
The East African Business Council and the private sector
The East African Business Council (EABC) and TradeCom Facility have made an agreement to strengthen ...
African leaders tackle continent's challenges
Security, piracy and international justice were top issues on the agenda at an African Union summit ...
EU and West Africa move forward on regional EPA
The European Union and West African countries have today agreed to conclude a regional agreement on ...
Regional cooperation in Africa
Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown was in Maputo, Mozambique, to speak about future prospects for political and economic development in Africa. (Read the speech here.) And he did so by talking about the need for greater development not at n...
EPAs: EU and Southern African countries sign interim deal
The European Union signed an interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) today with Botswana, Lesot...
African Aid - Economic reform is the real solution
The G8, the UK’s Commission on Africa and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals have collectively pledged to double the amount of aid sent to the poorest countries. The OECD has calculated international spending on aid before 2010 at $100 billion...
South Africa - Zuma's inauguration
New South African President Jacob Zuma is being sworn in today. He and the African National Congress (ANC) won convincingly in South Africa's fourth post-apartheid elections - with the queues of people waiting to vote reminiscent of those in 19...
EVS promotes 'Fair Politics'
On 25 April, the Evert Vermeer Stichting (EVS) celebrated its annual Africa day in The Hague with over 50 events staged by a wide variety of Dutch development organizations and their partners. Among the prominent guests was Paul Rusesabagina, who sav...
Somalia: questions & answers
Humanitarian aid agencies are expecting 2009 to be another tough year in Somalia as they continue to...
EU cooperation in Somalia
The European Commission will pledge at least 60 million euros to support Somalia's security institut...
EU advised to develop coherent policy on Africa
Europe has been urged to harmonise its policy framework with Africa even with the announcement that ...
Ecowas, EU Train non-state actors
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in collaboration with the European Union (EU)...
Chinese Investment in Africa
China has decided to increase its China-Africa Development Fund by $2 billion. This state-controlled equity fund has so far invested in 20 projects across Africa since it was established in June 2007. The current global recession, which has caused ma...
EU Aid for Trade activities in Africa
Africa is receiving the largest share of EU Aid for Trade funds - EUR2.73 billion in 2007. Support t...
Eastern - Southern Africa: EC trade project
The European Commission has today pledged EUR115million for an ambitious project to improve infrastr...
Floods in Namibia: EC Civil Protection Mechanism activated
The European Union Member States, through the Community Civil Protection Mechanism, have come to the...
Aid for Trade and EPAs: Commissioner Ashton in Zambia
EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton will visit the Zambian capital Lusaka from the 5th to 7th Apr...
Nigeria: EU to disburse two million Euros to CSOs
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non State Actors - under the umbrella of West African Civil S...
EU launches "Better Training for Safer Food in Africa"
In an effort to help developing countries improve their food safety systems for the benefit of their...
Africa may oversee European Elections
Reported in the EUobserver here. The African Parliament, and maybe even the African Union may monitor the fairness of elections to the European Parliament. In the article the main controversy seems to involve Zimbabwe and Russia, implying worries tha...
EC: humanitarian aid to 12 African countries
The European Commission will provide a total of €247 million in humanitarian aid to vulnerable peopl...
The EU's wrong policy on Somali pirates...
The European Union is better than sending EUNAVFOR after the Somali pirates - and Operation Atalanta should be scrapped for a more positive policy that solves why Somali fishermen take up piracy in the first place. The policy of the UN and EU to "get...
EU to boost Nigeria aid
The European Union plans to boost aid to Nigeria in the next five years with a large portion aimed a...
EPAs: negotiations between the EU and Central Africa
According to an NGO representative participating in the current discussions in Gabon, Central Africa...
Overview of EU-Southern Africa trade
South Africa is the biggest economic player in the region, and the EU is South Africa's most importa...
African countries advised to diversify economies
Zambian Vice President George Kunda told a meeting of ministers of Eastern and Southern African coun...
Civil Society: One year of Africa-EU Partnership
A year after the Africa- Europe Strategic Partnership Agreement was signed with great expectations, actors in development take stock.The Joint Strategy was launched in December 2007 during the Lisbon Summit of the Portuguese EU-Presidency. Its aim wa...
Saving Congo: Whither the EU?
Madeleine Albright once famously asked then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” Much the same could be dem...
Yet another ship
Kommersant reports that another ship was hijacked near Somalia (for ship #1, see this). The pirates commandeered Cec Future of Denmark this past weekend. Neither the NATO naval forces nor Russia’s frigate Neustrashimy had prevented hijackers...
Kinshasa, Congo Basin and Goma
Saturday - Kinshasa This is written driving through Kinshasa - on one of about 500 miles of paved roads in a country 3 or is it 5 times the size of France. The football stadium and the parliament we drive by were built by the Chinese in the 1970s...
Africa- EU Partnership: Science is part of the solution!
Hi, When you think about Africa, you might not think immediately about science… But when you reflect on the wide range of challenges Africa is facing, then you can easily see that science is essential. That was what I discussed yesterday with my co...
German experts call for a different development policy towards Africa
In a concise a href="http://www.bonner-aufruf.eu/" target="_blank"appeal/a (in German), senior experts of German development cooperation have called for a revision of German development policy towards Africa.br /br /They criticize the belief that the...
Kenya: From crisis to leadership
The following report shows how the new Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga has established himself as a distinctive voice in African politics - straight talking and clear. I am meeting him to survey changes in his own country since the crisis of six m...
Mediation or pressure?
The vote at the UN yesterday on Zimbabwe was not a North/South split - after all Burkino Faso voted for the resolution. But it did reveal, in the use of the veto by Russia and China, two different ways of thinking about the exercise of responsibility...
Zimbabwe must be left to the Africans
What is happening in Zimbabwe is horrific and unforgivable. The proposed sanctions resolution on Zimbabwe, rejected by the UN Security Council after vetoes by Russia and China on 11 July, is the latest example of a diplomatic and economic weapon t...
News and resources on the Africa-EU strategy
The website europafrica.org, hosted by the European Center for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), originally designed to channel the public consultation process on the EU-Africa Partnership Agreement, is now becoming a platform for news and resou...
Perspectives and Strategies of the European Union's Africa Policy after the Lisbon Summit
The June 2008 issue of ‘Foreign Policy in Dialogue’ a quarterly newsletter on German and European foreign policy published by the University of Trier looks at ‘Perspectives and Strategies of the European Union’s Africa Policy after the Lisbon...
Timothy Garton Ash: We don't need guns to help the people pitch Mugabe from his perch
Timothy Garton Ash: Mandela may be a better bet than the Almighty to remove a ruler who has turned his country into a hell on earth...
Global Perspectives focus on Japan-Africa Relations
The June issue of the magazine 'Global Perspectives' focuses on the recent Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).According to Ramesh Jaura (IPS), who reported from the conference, Japan's priorities in Africa are to boost econ...
Africa in 2048
On 17 June 2008, STT (Stichting Toekomstbeeld der Technologie/STT Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends) celebrated its 40th anniversary in The Hague. As a short introduction to his ongoing project on technology in Africa, project leader Jas...
