President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone chairs the Security Council meeting on international peace, pushing for Africa's rightful representation at the UN. In an exclusive interview with Africa Renewal, the Sierra Leonean President maintains that the Security Council’s current configuration is outdated and does not adequately serve Africa’s interests. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 9 2024 (IPS)

At most international forums, including the annual UN General Assembly high-level debate, Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio consistently highlights the injustices of the global system, particularly Africa’s absence in the permanent category and underrepresentation in the non-permanent category of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

President Bio is the coordinator of the African Union Committee of Ten Heads of State and Government on UNSC Reform, known as C-10, a platform he uses to amplify his UNSC reform advocacy.

This year, he has been particularly vocal, as Sierra Leone currently holds a non-permanent seat on the Security Council and presides over the Council for the month of August.

For example, in his statement in the Security Council chambers on 12 August, President Bio emphasized the outdated nature of the current UNSC structure. “The current structure of the Security Council reflects an outdated world order, an era that fails to recognize Africa’s growing importance and contributions,” he remarked.

In a subsequent interview with Africa Renewal, the president pointed out that the continent is home to 1.3 billion people and 54 of the 193 UN member states—a significant part of the global community.

“We cannot just be a territory for proxy wars. We know what our problems are, and we should have a say in how to solve them,” he asserted, adding that more than 60 percent of the issues discussed in the Security Council pertain to Africa.

It is unjust for Africa to be sidelined in the 21st century, he argued, declaring: “I call on all African leaders and on all those who stand for justice and democracy around the world to fight this unfairness.”

As the UN prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2025, President Bio asserted that the celebration would only be meaningful if the current configuration of the Council is reformed, reflecting the frustration of many African leaders who feel the continent’s concerns are often overlooked.

Africa’s demands

Africa is demanding at least two permanent seats in the UN Security Council and two additional non-permanent seats, bringing the total number of non-permanent seats to five.

Additionally, Africa advocates for the abolition of the veto power. However, if the veto is retained, President Bio insisted that it must be extended to all new permanent members as a matter of justice.

The President broke down the potential support for Africa’s push for greater representation on the Security Council into two categories: support from within the continent and support from major global powers.

While support from within the continent comes naturally, he acknowledged the challenges posed by the P-5, (the five permanent members of the Security Council), who wield enormous power in the Council. “The main issue we have is the P-5. They are manning the gate. They have to let us in.”

Despite these challenges, he was encouraged that “They [P-5] have recognized the fact that Africa has been treated unfairly.”

He stressed: “There is a new spirit; the world has changed, and leaders have come and gone. What I’m trying to do is convince my colleagues in Africa and the world at large that the injustice done to Africa cannot be accepted.”

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, supports Africa’s demands for UNSC reforms. “We cannot accept that the world’s preeminent peace and security body lacks a permanent voice for a continent of well over a billion people — a young and rapidly growing population — making up 28 percent of the membership of the United Nations,” Guterres said at the 12 August meeting.

He added, “Nor can we accept that Africa’s views are undervalued on questions of peace and security, both on the continent and around the world.”

To ensure the Council’s full credibility and legitimacy, he emphasized the importance of “heeding the longstanding calls from the UN General Assembly, various geographic groups — from the Arab Group to the Benelux, Nordic, and CARICOM countries — and some permanent members of this Council itself, to correct this injustice.”

I call on all African leaders and on all those who stand for justice and democracy around the world to fight this unfairness.

Lessons from Sierra Leone’s civil war

Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war (1991-2002) may have shaped President Bio’s views on conflict resolution and international diplomacy.

“After all the fighting, after all the destruction, we resolved our problems at the negotiating table,” he reflected, emphasizing the importance of dialogue and consensus-building.

Drawing from Sierra Leone’s experience, he envisioned Africa playing an important role in global peace and security. “We have learned quite a lot—partnership, multilateralism, dialogue, and the need to build consensus.

“What we are bringing to the table within the UN Security Council is how we can be a bridge, how we can support multilateralism as a way for peace and security around the world.”

Women’s empowerment

Beyond global governance, Sierra Leone has adopted progressive gender policies under President Bio’s leadership. For example, the country passed a law mandating, among other provisions, that at least 30 percent of positions in both the private and public sectors, including in the cabinet, be held by women—a huge step toward gender equality.

Earlier this year, Sierra Leone also enacted a law banning child marriage.

“It would be wrong for us to talk about development if you keep more than half of your population in the kitchen or do not empower them enough to be part of the force that is going to change the nation,” he declared.

Empowering women, he stressed, begins with education. This focus on education is part of a broader strategy to transform Sierra Leone’s human capital, which President Bio considers the nation’s most valuable resource.

He said: “When you talk about Sierra Leone, you think of diamonds, gold, and other natural resources. I have said to my nation, yes, these are precious minerals, but the most important resources we have in this country are the people.”

Climate change

As a leader of one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, President Bio highlighted Sierra Leone’s challenges in handling increasingly severe weather patterns. “When it rains, it rains so heavily that it overwhelms the infrastructure. We’ve seen cars floating, we’ve seen houses swept away,” he noted, drawing parallels with similar disasters in more developed nations.

In response, Sierra Leone has launched a nationwide climate action campaign focusing on reforestation, improving drainage systems, and educating the public on the importance of the environment.

“Combating climate change requires collective action, both locally and globally,” he emphasized.

On the issue of capital flight from Africa, President Bio underscored his deep sense of pride in African identity and potential. He urged Africans to acquire knowledge and skills from the West and to bring back those lessons to build their societies back in Africa.

“Home is home. Nobody’s going to fix that home. We [Africans] have to fix that home,” he insisted.

Source: Africa Renewal

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

ECOWAS. Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria, July 7, 2024.

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 6 2024 (IPS)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was founded in 1975 to promote economic integration in the region. Forty-nine years later, the regional bloc boasts significant successes in integration, peace and security and good governance, but also faces some challenges.

ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, participated in a high-level event at the UN headquarters in New York in June 2024, focusing on regional unity, peace and security in West Africa.

In an interview with Kingsley Ighobor following the event, Ambassador Musah, speaking on behalf of ECOWAS, highlighted the organization’s achievements and challenges, as well as ongoing efforts to strengthen integration. These are excerpts from the interview.

Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security

ECOWAS was founded on 28 May 1975. What are its achievements so far?

The achievements of ECOWAS over the last 49 years can be encapsulated in one key point: we have transitioned from creating an organization to building a community.

ECOWAS was created at the very height of the Cold War. The only possible area for people to come together and find common ground was economic integration, not political or ideological.

The protocol on the free movement of persons, goods and services (1976) permits citizens the right of abode in any member state and has been an ECOWAS calling card over the years. It is a major achievement that people in West Africa do not have to think about a visa when they cross borders within the region.

There was a lot of turmoil in Africa post-Cold War; without ECOWAS the whole region could have been engulfed in fratricidal wars. If you remember, a war started in Liberia towards the end of 1989 and continued throughout the 1990s, spreading to Sierra Leone and affecting Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.

There is a lot the region can be proud of—the fact that ECOWAS is now a trademark, a pioneer in regional integration on the continent.

A: ECOWAS intervened through its multilateral armed forces, the Economic Community of West African States Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), which stabilized the situation and eventually provided a soft landing for the United Nations peacekeepers who came in subsequently.

On economic integration?

On economic integration, we can talk about many achievements. It is not just about the free movement of persons; it is also about creating a common market for the region. It is about helping countries develop infrastructure—energy, internet connectivity, and building road networks across the region.

This is ongoing. However, learning from the sad events of the 1990s characterized by civil wars and implosion of States, ECOWAS had no choice but to pivot to security matters and good governance.

Today, the values of democracy and human rights are very much embedded in West African culture, and ECOWAS is part and parcel of that process. West Africa is the only region in Africa that does not have an open, high-intensity conflict, despite the activities of Violent Extremist Groups.

There is a lot the region can be proud of—the fact that ECOWAS is now a trademark, a pioneer in regional integration on the continent. It provided a lot of the basis for the African Union’s frameworks.

ECOWAS morphed from an economic bloc into both an economic and political union. Is this correct?

Yes, it is.

Some ECOWAS members have indicated their intention to pull out of the group. Are there efforts to ensure they remain?

ECOWAS is a community. We have solidarity. We may have challenges or differences, but pulling out is not the answer. The countries intending to pull out talk about their Pan-African ambitions and other things, but the basis of Pan-Africanism is integration. Given that disintegration will not promote Pan-Africanism, we are doing everything we can to have them remain in the fold.

However, it is important to note that a country cannot just decide one day to withdraw from ECOWAS. There are procedures to follow, in accordance with Article 91 of the ECOWAS Treaty.

Several diplomatic engagements are going on behind the scenes to reunite the ECOWAS bloc.

What gives you hope these efforts will succeed?

What gives us hope is that ECOWAS held its extraordinary summit in February 2024 and lifted the severe sanctions against Niger, and we further encouraged them to return to the Community. We hope they understand that the advantages of being together far outweigh the disadvantages.

Talking about advantages, what further incentives do you provide these countries to encourage them to maintain their membership?

I spoke earlier about ECOWAS’ free movement of people, goods and services. About 10 million citizens of these countries are spread across the region. As we speak, 4.5 million Burkinabe citizens live in Côte d’Ivoire alone. If they withdraw from ECOWAS, the status of their citizens will change dramatically. They will have to regularize their stay, and those who cannot regularize will need to return to their countries.

We talk about trade liberalization. Intra-African trade is just about 15 percent. Within the ECOWAS region, exports from these three countries to other parts of West Africa do not go beyond 17 percent. What ECOWAS gets from them is meat products, vegetables and so on. Whereas they get energy and many manufactured goods from the other countries with virtually no tariffs attached.

The values of democracy and human rights are very much embedded in West African culture, and ECOWAS is part and parcel of that process.

Do not forget the three countries are landlocked. They will need outlets to the sea, which is being provided today under very favourable conditions within the framework of regional integration. If they pull out, they will have to find alternative outlets or pay higher freight charges and tariffs. It will take a lot of time and resources to do that.

We are also about community solidarity, which is something people take for granted. In fact, the three countries together consume more than 52 percent of the ECOWAS strategic food reserves, which is about 15,000 tonnes of food. Landlocked countries or those ravaged by cyclical droughts need such support.

Finally, the most effective way of combating violent extremism is by sharing intelligence and cross-border military cooperation. If they separate from us, how do they effectively fight violent extremists? We need them back in the family and I hope they rescind their decision.

Could their withdrawal have reputational consequences for ECOWAS?

A withdrawal will neither be good for them nor for ECOWAS because in international diplomacy today, strength lies in numbers. If we remain 15 member states, our influence in international diplomacy is greater. If they leave, ECOWAS will be weakened. This is something we must consider.

Remember that ECOWAS is an organization of solidarity. If you are seeking positions in international organizations like the UN and others, ECOWAS comes together and backs a candidate. For the sake of solidarity, we will back those who are within the community.

So diplomatically speaking, security-wise, politically, it is bad for both sides. But on balance, it is very much not in their favour.

Source: Africa Renewal, a United Nations digital magazine that covers Africa’s economic, social and political developments—plus the challenges the continent faces and the solutions to these by Africans themselves, including with the support of the United Nations and international community.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio delivers the keynote address at the inaugural African regional conference on Autonomous Weapons Systems.
 
Ambassador Lansana Gberie of Sierra Leone warns of a new arms race that could divert important resources away from peacebuilding and sustainable development.

By Kingsley Ighobor
GENEVA, Jun 4 2024 (IPS)

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on countries to conclude by 2026 negotiations on a legally binding instrument to prohibit Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS).

In response, Sierra Leone in April 2024 hosted a conference of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member states to discuss challenges associated with AWS.

In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, Sierra Leone’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Dr. Lansana Gberie, the chief organizer of the conference, on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone, discusses the outcomes and the ramifications of AWS proliferation for Africa.

Here are excerpts:

Dr. Lansana Gberie, Sierra Leone’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and the chief organizer of the conference on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone.

Autonomous weapons are new, very potent weapons designed to select, target, and engage without any meaningful human intervention. The difference with conventional weapons is simple: the human factor.

Remember, the two atomic bombs that devastated Japanese cities during WWII were dropped by human beings who carefully selected the targets. They caused enormous carnage, but accountability could be easily assigned for their use.

Autonomous weapons make decisions to kill or destroy targets without a human being participating in the process. Accountability, and therefore reckoning, for such a grave decision becomes difficult.

Q: What are your views regarding the urgency expressed by the UN Secretary-General for international action on AWS?

That is a call that we fully support. As you know, Mr. Guterres made the call in a joint statement with Ms. Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on October 5, 2023. He referred to lethal AWS as morally repugnant and politically unacceptable, calling for their prohibition under international law.

Q: Why should global attention be directed towards the proliferation of AWS?

There are ethical, legal, and practical reasons why the world must focus on this issue now. Machines and algorithms should not make life and death decisions, and this is what autonomous weapons are designed to do. This is ethically appalling.

There is also a fundamental legal aspect: if machines are to make life and death decisions in warfare, who can be held accountable for potential war crimes, extrajudicial killings, and unlawful use of weaponry?

Autonomous weapons systems present tremendous global security risks: they raise the risk of unintended escalation and flash wars, and they lower the threshold for waging war. They are easy to proliferate and could easily be used as weapons of mass destruction for targeted killings, by both state and non-state actors.

Q: What factors contribute to the rising popularity of AWS as military assets?

They are very convenient. Military powers are often risk-averse—they do not want to take large casualties themselves but would like to inflict them on their enemies. This is what AWS will do for them. They leave the actual target decisions to machines. That, too, is convenient.

Accountability for decisions that they set in place becomes difficult in a legal sense. Human beings must remain accountable for the conduct of wars, including targeting decisions. Autonomous weapons systems increase the risk of civilian casualties on a massive scale.

Q: How does the spread of AWS affect Africa?

We are a vulnerable region. Larger military powers are investing in technologies that reduce human control. These dynamics benefit weapons manufacturers and draw important resources away from peacebuilding and sustainable development. The use of AWS could increase the capacity of highly militarized countries to inflict violence with impunity.

By calling for a new international legally binding agreement on AWS, ECOWAS member states hope to prevent the escalation of military dominance by the most militarized countries.

Q: How might African countries prevent the spread of these weapons?

Following the UN Secretary-General’s call, there is now strong international support from over 115 states for starting negotiations on a treaty. The ECOWAS conference, held in Freetown on 17-18 April 2024 and hosted by President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, was a response to a UN General Assembly resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems adopted on December 22, 2023. This resolution supports the Secretary-General’s call.

The communiqué issued at the end of the conference affirmed the region’s collective support for negotiations of a legally binding instrument to prohibit autonomous weapons without meaningful human control.

Q: How do events like the conference in Freetown contribute to the potential for an AWS treaty?

Significantly. the Freetown ECOWAS conference followed other regional conferences around the world focused on raising awareness of the problem and forging a common regional approach in support of a legally binding agreement on AWS. Costa Rica held one, and so did the Philippines. There was one in the Caribbean, held in Trinidad and Tobago.

Remember that not every ECOWAS member state is party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) or has participated in the global discussions around AWS. The Freetown conference brought these countries into that conversation.

Q: Why is Sierra Leone a leader in the advocacy efforts for a treaty on AWS?

As you know, Sierra Leone is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. We are also a member of the African Union Peace and Security Council.

President Bio said at the opening of the conference in Freetown that Sierra Leone is deeply committed to safeguarding peace and security in our region. We understand the destabilizing effects of military conflicts that can last for generations. We have become a champion on global arms control and disarmament issues.

The President began his career as a military officer and was among the first batch of peacekeepers sent to Liberia amidst that country’s civil war in the early 1990s. He understands that if we ignore the issue of autonomous weapons in our backyard, we do so at our own peril.

Q: What are the main challenges and complexities involved in negotiating a legally binding instrument to regulate AWS, considering the diverse perspectives and interests of different countries?

All international treaties, particularly on arms, tend to be complex; and negotiations leading to them can be prolonged and difficult. We often hear that a treaty would be ineffective if the countries using AWS do not sign up to them. But with international law, accountability can be determined, whether states are parties or not.

That carries an important moral and practical weight. A majority of countries support a treaty on AWS. Let’s not forget that. But there are powerful countries and interests opposed to such negotiations even starting. That should not discourage the majority. We must all strive to avoid an arms race in this respect.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

A member of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team brushes sand off a mortar shell during a demonstration held by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Mogadishu, Somalia. Credit: UN PHOTO Tobin Jones

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 2024 (IPS)

The United Nations Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI) supports the promotion of the rule of law, security, and peace in conflict-affected countries.

In an interview with Kingsley Ighobor of Africa Renewal, Alexandre Zouev discusses OROLSI’s initiatives in Africa, rule of law on the continent, recent coups and their ramifications, and youth’s role in fostering peace and development.

The following are excerpts:

What’s the Office of the Rule of Law and Security Institutions about?

We deal mostly in five major areas, which are: the Police Division, Justice and Corrections Service, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Section, Security Sector Reforms, and Mine Action Service.

Alexandre Zouev

How would you assess the current state of the rule of law in Africa?

As you know, lately, we’ve witnessed some global geopolitical tensions that don’t help the rule of law. Over the last one to two years, the rule of law eroded globally, in many, if not the majority of countries. Latest data indicate that up to 6 billion people globally live in a country where the rule of law is weakened. We are concerned about this trend.

Talking about Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, the rule of law deteriorated in more than 20 countries. However, I must note that about 14 African countries managed to strengthen their rule of law over the last 12 months, including Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire.

Do you ascribe the deterioration of the rule of law in African countries to geopolitical challenges?

Of course, global challenges to peace and security have implications for the rule of law. In terms of organizing elections or managing the judiciary or penitentiary, many African countries still depend on external technical assistance.

In many of these situations, there are also internal drivers such as a lack of access to justice, the absence of adequately trained law enforcement and an independent judiciary. So, it’s a combination of regional and global instability and internal factors.

There appears to be a resurgence of military coups, especially in West Africa.

You are right. We have witnessed the military taking power, especially in the greater Sahel Region. It doesn’t help the rule of law if, instead of a civilian justice system, you have military forces playing a role in political and judicial systems.

How are you helping these countries address these challenges?

As I said earlier, Africa is our major focus, especially sub-Saharan Africa. And it’s due to different reasons: some gaps in the rule of law in some countries and because of certain development challenges. Generally, poverty is very much linked to criminality and ill-functioning judiciary systems. Budget deficits and lack of effective fiscal management will prevent any state from allocating adequate resources to the rule of law sector. In an ideal situation, the rule of law should be very well-resourced but not every state can afford it.

Do you also work with, for example, civil society organizations in countries?

We invest efforts in working with civil society organizations. In our view, women and youths are very important agents of peace. We have many strategic frameworks with the African Union (AU). The AU and the EU are two major regional organizations partnering with UN Peacekeeping, including my office.

At the sub-regional level, we have different degrees of engagement. For example, we partner with the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel(UNOWAS), Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), Southern Africa Development Commission (SADC), and other subregional organizations.

Téné Maïmouna Zoungrana, winner of the 2022 Trailblazer Award for Women Justice and Corrections Officers, trains prison officers on managing incidents in prisons. They rehearse intervention techniques to control inmates in case of an incident. Credit: MINUSCA/Herve Cyriaque Serefio

How important are security sector reforms (SSR) to the rule of law?

It’s a small but very important part of my office because SSR deals with sometimes sensitive military and security issues with important political implications. And not all governments want to be scrutinized.

To support SSR requires reliable statistics. For example, how much is being spent on the military, civil defense, secret services? When states request, we can help bring to them best practices and ways in which to build the capacity of their security sector. You do this kind of work with full respect to independent decision-making by host countries, their sovereignty, confidentiality of processes, and non-disclosure of information to third parties.

Do you support countries where there are no peace operations?

Absolutely. OROLSI has a system-wide service provider mandate. We are increasingly focusing on prevention, which is much more cost effective. One of the main tools we developed for that is the institutional development advisory programme. We piloted this programme in the Sahel region. We deploy institutional development advisors to help national governments and the UN system address the main challenges facing the rule of law and security institutions.

So, the IDAs are not transactional or mission-driven like assistance. We rely on the resident capacity within the UN system. We work with other UN partners, especially United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)— OHCHR because, in many cases, the rule of law requires the promotion of a culture of human rights. So, IDAs help integrate inter-agency collaboration. It has so far proven very successful.

Many countries confront violent extremist groups such as Boko Haram. What role do you play in helping tackle this problem?

Peacekeeping was not established in the UN system for counter-terrorism operations. Therefore, we collaborate closely with the Office of Counterterrorism (OCT), and the Counterterrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), which was established by the Security Council.

Almost all UN agencies and departments are involved in the prevention of violent extremism. And we are no exception. Our comparative advantage lies in building the capacity of host states to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism through strengthened rule of law and security institutions and programmes to assist affected populations including through community policing and DDR.

If you look at some terrorist organizations such as ISIS, it’s not only about men and women fighting with arms; they have their families, sometimes even children, who are indoctrinated. Some left their countries, and to reintegrate them is not easy.

Do you see positive outcomes from your work in Africa?

Generally, we are getting a lot of resources from the assessed budgets of the United Nations and extra-budgetary contributions of our donors, but it’s not sufficient.

Investment in any kind of reform or capacity building in the rule of law sector is a multi-year exercise; you cannot do it overnight, in one week, or one month. We are going in the right direction, but maybe not with the speed that I would like.

Bangui, Central African Republic, 20 July 2023: The Appeals Chamber of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) delivered its judgement in the so-called “Paoua” case, on 20 July 2023 in Bangui. Credit: MINUSCA / Francis Yabendji-Yoga

Do the closures of peacekeeping missions in Africa, such as in Mali, complicate your work?

What complicates our work is not the closure or liquidation of missions; it’s how it happened in a hostile environment and under unrealistically short timelines. evacuating, liquidating, phasing out and drawing down missions can be challenging. However, we successfully closed our missions in Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Mozambique.

Countries like Mali and Sudan are, maybe, more challenging environments. To close our mission in Mali, which was one of the largest missions with about 13,000 personnel, thousands of vehicles, and armored carriers, the government gave the Security Council only six months. It was almost mission impossible, but we managed to do it.

What role do you think young Africans can play in fostering peace and development of the continent?

As you know, the Secretary-General has an Envoy on Youth. I believe in investment in our future, which young people represent. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Africa, Asia, or Europe, it’s important to involve young people—for the sake of not only my generation but also that of my children and grandchildren.

When young people are educated, they become important agents of change. I am not necessarily talking about political or legal education. Sometimes, it may be engagement in sports or cultural events.

Can you envision an Africa without war?

Dr. Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream.” I, too, have a dream that one day we will shut down this shop [his office]. If there are no wars and no conflicts, there will be no need for peacekeeping.

Looking into certain developments in sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb in the north of Africa, you saw what happened in Libya over the last few years; you see what’s going on in Sudan; in Somalia, we still have the confrontation between al Shabaab and the Somali government.

Realistically, we cannot stop these conflicts overnight. So long as they exist, we should invest more in certain types of peacekeeping operations, perhaps AU-led. I believe that African problems can be solved by Africans.

We need partnerships with regional organizations such as the EU and the AU, and other sub-regional organizations in Africa. The private sector should play a special role, including African business leaders. Some of them already invest in peacebuilding and sustainable economic systems.

We need to get the best out of all of us.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

Africa Renewal is a United Nations digital magazine that covers Africa’s economic, social and political developments, and the challenges the continent faces and solutions to these by Africans themselves, including with the support of the United Nations and international community.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Ibrahim Mayaki, the Africa Union Special Envoy for Food Systems, previously served as the CEO of the AU Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD). Ahead of the UN Food System Stocktaking Moment scheduled to take place in Rome on 24 - 26 July 2023, Africa Renewal's Kingsley Ighobor interviewed Dr. Mayaki. They discussed various issues regarding the state of Africa's food systems and the opportunities and challenges involved in feeding a rapidly growing population. Credit Africa Renewal, United Nations.
 
Below are excerpts from their insightful conversation:

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 20 2023 (IPS)

Q: As the African Union Special Envoy for Food Systems, what is the scope of your mandate and what should Africans expect from you?

The role of special envoys of the AU is primarily to tackle a critical issue for which the AU needs support. A special envoy does not seek to replace or take over the responsibilities of the AU or the AU Commission (AUC). Instead, their role is to support and enhance their work by bringing additional value.

This is the first time the AU is designating a Special Envoy specifically dedicated to food systems. Previously, notable individuals such as Rwanda’s Donald Kaberuka served as Special Envoy for Financing and Michel Sidibé from Mali as Special Envoy for the African Medicines Agency.

Ibrahim Mayaki, Africa Union Special Envoy for Food Systems

Firstly, we could enter a post-Ukraine war era that will be characterised by a crisis in food systems.

Leaders must not only establish the food systems but should also ensure their effectiveness in achieving desired outcomes

The market has witnessed an unfavourable evolution, and African countries are suffering the consequences of that war. We have observed shortages of vital resources such as fertilisers, seeds, wheat, etc. The crisis and our response to it have revealed a lack of co-ordinated efforts.

Hence, the first reason for appointing a Special Envoy is to ensure preparedness for such a crisis, even as we anticipate more crises in the future.

The second reason relates to the many initiatives addressing food systems issues in Africa. We have some complexity in terms of initiatives, and this complexity necessitates better management and coherence.

Without proper co-ordination, Member States and their stakeholders may struggle to comprehend the direction we are heading in. Therefore, the appointment aims to foster preparedness and enhance coherence among these initiatives.

The third reason, closely linked to the previous two, pertains to resource mobilisation. Specifically, it refers to the need to mobilise domestic resources to address the challenges faced in food systems.

We also have the resources of multilateral development banks and other institutions that can support Africa’s endeavours in transforming its food systems.

Q: Apart from the Ukraine crisis, what other factors are jeopardising Africa’s food systems?

I will start by unpacking the concept of food systems. Previously, and still now, we talked about agriculture, agricultural production, rural economy, diversification, agricultural productivity, food security and insecurity.

We are talking about food systems now because it embraces the entire spectrum, in an integrated manner, of processes, from the farmer to the consumer, and, in-between, the numerous actors and sectors.

Kingsley Ighobor

Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of providing consumers with essential information and addressing the impacts of climate change, particularly in regions like Africa that suffer greatly despite being net zero emitters.

If we look at Africa today, it’s true that we have reduced extreme poverty in the past 20 to 25 years, but at the same time there is an increase in malnutrition.

Our food import bill is still very high, beyond $60 billion a year. The small-scale farmers who produce 80 per cent of the food we eat also suffer from malnutrition and food insecurity, which is abnormal.

We have utilised frameworks such as CAADP [the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme] and the Malabo Declaration to address agricultural development. The Malabo Declaration is considered a precursor to food systems because it opened agriculture to other sectors.

It is a kind of CAADP phase two, and it has been well implemented with over 40 countries adopting national agricultural investment plans. The African Development Bank has started to develop compacts at the national levels to enable countries have frameworks that will attract financing.

So, we have the frameworks, but we need two radical things to occur.

The first one is to have a whole-of-government approach toward food systems transformation and not leave it to the agriculture or the environment ministries.

Secondly, we need to invest more in food systems to reduce food insecurity. I said at the Ibrahim Governance Weekend [held from 28-30 April, 2023] that food insecurity is not a question of production; it’s a question of poverty. At the end of the day the main aim is to tackle poverty.

FACT BOX
Africa’s food import bill is beyond $60 billion a year.
Africa will have approximately 2.5 billion people by 2050

We need a moonshot for Africa’s land restoration movement

The COP26 Africa needs

Now is the time to sprint if we want to end hunger, achieve other SDGs. Regarding CAADP, we see that many countries are still not meeting their commitment to invest 10 per cent of national budgets in agriculture and rural development?

You are right. Only around 10 to 12 countries out of the 50-plus have managed to reach the target of investing 10 per cent of their national budgets in agriculture.

However, some countries claim to meet the 10 percent threshold, but their expenditures include items that are not directly linked to food systems or the transformation of agriculture through a sound integrated plan.

When you have a head of state who prioritises agricultural transformation and provides the drive that leads to results and impact, that transformation happens. So, the issue of leadership is critical.

Technically, we know what needs to be done—agricultural techniques, access to market and finance, and increasing yields—but we need the political solution and determination to move forward.

Sometimes you have leadership but lack the necessary systems. Leaders must not only establish the systems but also ensure their effectiveness in achieving desired outcomes.

Q: How do you anticipate the AfCFTA’s [African Continental Free Trade Area] potential to strengthen Africa’s food systems, considering the complexities and the need for an integrated approach?

The AfCFTA aims to resolve the issues of tariff and non-tariff barriers and to facilitate the flows of goods and services. These require working on normative issues such as rules and regulations.

But it’s not the AfCFTA by itself that will facilitate production. The success of the AfCFTA in enhancing our food systems transformation is contingent upon the availability of robust infrastructure such as roads, railways, and storage facilities.

So, the AfCFTA is an important instrument, but it must be complemented by sound policies and well-developed infrastructure.

Food insecurity is not a question of production; it’s a question of poverty. At the end of the day the main aim is to tackle poverty

Can that be done?

Again, I emphasize the importance of effective national leadership in addressing our prevailing challenges, as many of them necessitate solutions at the national level. While regional solutions are crucial, national governments need to embrace and implement these regional solutions.

Furthermore, it is vital to ensure coherence among all our initiatives. We should not adopt disparate approaches from various institutions, as this would create a landscape of competing initiatives. Instead, we must assert our strategic frameworks and urge our partners to align with these frameworks.

These frameworks include CAADP, the Malabo Declaration, and the African Common Position on Food Systems, which was developed through inclusive national dialogues involving over 50 countries.

Q: How does the Africa Common Position on Food Systems inform your preparation and participation in the upcoming UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment?

At the UN Food Systems and Stocktaking exercise, each region of the world will present a position. Africa’s position will revolve around three key issues.

The first one is financing food systems transformation. It should be a priority for our partners that our capacity to mobilise domestic resources is not undermined.

The second is climate, which will need to be looked at in a very realistic manner. Despite commitments made at the various COPS, many of them remain unfulfilled. If these commitments cannot be respected, we must explore alternative approaches to climate finance.

The third is about our small-scale farmers. The farmers are a part of a private sector we are talking about. The private sector is not only agribusiness; it also includes small-scale farmers who have the capacity and knowledge to transform our food systems. They need to be supported, as it is done in the US and Europe.

At the stocktaking exercise, what will also be looked at is how far we have gone in implementing the conclusions of the 2021 Food Systems Summit and what lessons each region can learn from the others.

Q: With Africa’s projected population reaching approximately 2.5 billion by 2050, coupled with the existing challenge of over 250 million malnourished Africans, is there a sense of heightened concern among policymakers and stakeholders?

This question is extremely pertinent because Africa’s population is set to double by 2050. The most critical concern is the challenge of feeding over 1 billion additional people. Failure to address this issue with the necessary capacity and solutions will not only strain our existing governance systems but also heighten social fragility.

Given our demographic situation, the risk of encountering numerous political crises becomes imminent.

Urgency is paramount, necessitating an alarmist approach and accelerating the implementation of solutions, especially considering that a significant portion of the projected population growth already exists today.

This acceleration must be achieved through the appropriate policies and political determination.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Palm Trees line the beach along the coast of Comoros.

By Kingsley Ighobor
MORONI, Comoros, Apr 13 2023 (IPS)

In February 2023, the Union of Comoros ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Later that month, the country’s President Azali Assoumani took over as Chairperson of the African Union.

In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, the UN Resident Coordinator in Comoros François Batalingaya explains the UN support for the country during the ratification process and highlights investment opportunities in the country.

These are excerpts from the interview:

Q: Comoros recently ratified the AfCFTA. What kind of support did the UN provide the national authorities in ensuring a successful ratification process?

A: As you know, President Azali Assoumani was one of the first African leaders to sign the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in Kigali in 2018. So, Comoros was always there with a high-level political will.

Two fishermen set out for the days catch off the coast of Comoros in the Indian Ocean.

However, there were some concerns about a potential loss of customs revenue, which represents between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of the total government revenue. Not all the Members of Parliament or senior government officials were convinced that the AfCFTA is a good idea.

Comoros’ main trading partners are in (Asia) and the Middle East, not the African mainland. For example, India and Pakistan. As well as China and Brazil. We import most of our chicken from Brazil.

Q: Now, what did the UN do?

A: First, the UN organized local and national consultations. Under the leadership of the Regional Economic Commission, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), there were workshops on the three islands [that make up Comoros] to discuss the AfCFTA’s opportunities.

We had the consultation workshop in the capital Moroni, attended by President Assoumani, the Speaker of Parliament Moustadroine Abdou, governors, cabinet ministers, MPs, the private sector and others.

Kingsley Ighobor. Africa Renewal

Third, high-level advocacy was my role as the UN Resident Coordinator: to encourage the political leadership to ratify the agreement.

Comoros has significant untapped potential or business opportunities. For example, the tourism industry could be further developed. Looking at the tourism industry in the region, Comoros is the only country whose tourism industry is still not well developed. Neighbouring Seychelles and Madagascar receive between 400,000 and 500,000 tourists per year.

Q: How did you allay fears about loss of customs revenues?

A: When you look at what Comoros imports and where it gets customs revenues from, these are not goods that will be affected much by the AfCFTA. Most imported products are from Middle Eastern countries, India and China. But basic foodstuffs come from Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, and other African mainland countries. Importation of these foodstuffs will not significantly affect customs revenue.

Francois Xavier Batalingaya. UN Resident Coordinator in Comoros

Q: What are some made-in-Comoros products the country could potentially export to the larger African market?

A: These are essential oils like ylang-ylang of which Comoros is the number one producer in the world; we have spices that are beloved in places like India; we have vanilla and cloves.

We need to create value chains around these products and export to countries like Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and others. Comoros needs to access these markets.

Q: Now that the Agreement is ratified, what next?

A: As I said, Comoros is heavily dependent on imports. Therefore, the AfCFTA must be an engine of economic growth, sustainable development and, importantly, poverty reduction.

We need to mobilize the private sector to take full advantage of new trading opportunities on the continent. We need to support the industrialisation of Comoros—facilitate trade and promote foreign direct investment.

For example, with funding from the European Union, the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) are implementing a project to support production, industrialisation and free trade in Comoros. That’s a good initiative.

Another initiative is the digitalisation of the customs process, and that’s with the support of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The AfCFTA is an instrument for strengthening social inclusion; therefore, we must ensure that women and youth are involved in these discussions and can take full advantage of trading opportunities in Africa.

Q: An issue much talked about is a lack of awareness among some African traders regarding how they can benefit from AfCFTA. What is the situation with the private sector in Comoros?

A: What we have done is talk to the leaders of the private sector. We need to continue to engage them and at a lower level. The sensitization has to continue. Having ratified the Agreement, we need to raise awareness so they know how they could benefit from it.

Q: What other key development activities is the UN undertaking in Comoros that are impacting the lives of ordinary citizens?

A: Well, let me tell you this: in July 2021, the UN (21 UN agencies, funds and programmes) and the government signed a new generation Cooperation Framework, a five-year initiative—from 2022 to 2026—divided into four pillars: the planet, prosperity, people and peace.

On the planet, we want to strengthen resilience to climate change, natural disasters and other humanitarian crises. Of course, with sustainable integration and management of marine ecosystems. At the AU Summit, the Head of State said it is a priority for Africa, and it would be a priority for us over the next five years.

The other pillar is prosperity. Basically, we need to create a competitive and inclusive economy and partner with the private sector using a sustainable development approach that focuses on sectors with high potential, such as the blue and the digital economy.

Then we need to invest in people. We need to make better use of opportunities and foster inclusive and equitable, gender-sensitive development, providing high-quality nutrition, education and social protection, and the protection of the survivors of sexual and gender violence.

The last pillar is peace. Social cohesion is a priority for us. Human rights, gender equality and democracy are important. That’s why the elections next year are critical. We need to have public institutions that are more inclusive, efficient and accountable to the citizens.

We are committed to accompanying the government to achieve emerging market status and the SDGs.

These are essential oils like ylang-ylang of which Comoros is the number one producer in the world; we have spices that are beloved in places like India; we have vanilla and cloves. We need to create value chains around these products and export to countries like Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and others. Comoros needs to access these markets

Q: Comoros is an island state, meaning there could be climate change challenges. What are these challenges?

A: A good example is Cyclone Kenneth that hit Comoros four years ago and destroyed schools and hospitals. We are still feeling the impact. In addition to the cyclones, rising waters are also a major concern.

We have a water access problem. We have an active volcano called Karthala, which could erupt any time. That’s why we are always in preparedness and disaster management mode.

Q: There are also great opportunities, I guess. What do you tell anyone intending to explore investment opportunities in Comoros?

A: Comoros has significant untapped potential or business opportunities. For example, the tourism industry could be further developed. Looking at the tourism industry in the region, Comoros is the only country whose tourism industry is still not well developed. Neighbouring Seychelles and Madagascar receive between 400,000 and 500,000 tourists per year.

Comoros, before the pandemic, received only about 45,000 tourists per year, mostly Comorians from the diaspora. If I were to invest in Comoros, I would invest in hotels. We need quality hotels.

Comoros now chairs the AU, and it needs quality infrastructure for high-level conferences.Comoros is a welcoming society. I hope other people can come and enjoy that welcoming culture. And the weather is great. So, please, come over!

Q: What are young Comorians doing in terms of innovation?

A: Young Comorians like to join their brother and sisters in especially Marseille, France. The youth are attracted to migration. The good thing is that the girls in Comoros are going to school at a higher rate than the boys, which is not the same in the African mainland. That’s quite encouraging. Girls are attracted to disciplines such as law and administration and less to vocational training. So, we need to get them interested in vocational training too.

Q: What is being done to address this imbalance?

A: Youth employment is a priority for the government and for us as the UN. We are working with the International Labour Organization to invest in youth employment. Every single one of us [UN entities] has a youth mandate. Again, I will not forget the women.

Finally, let me say that Comoros is one of the countries that needs support, particularly investments.

The GDP per capita in Comoros is approximately $1,500. About 20 per cent of Comorians live in extreme poverty. We have more to do to achieve the SDGs. The country needs the UN and foreign direct investors. Let’s work together to support them.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Environment reporting is expenseiv; it needs a lot of traveling and risk-taking. Journalists reporting at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, last year. Credit: Africa Renewal

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 16 2023 (IPS)

At the end of a five-minute newscast from a makeshift studio in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the venue of COP27, Cotonou-based journalist Ghyslaine Florida Zossoungbo was able to provide real-time information to her compatriots back home in the Republic of Benin.

Zossoungbo reports for Benin ODD Television, an online platform dedicated to promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in her country.

On this day, she had found a small corner in one of the pavilions at COP27 sat on a high stool behind a laptop while a camera perched on a tripod a few feet away.

At the conference, Zossoungbo and other journalists, even those from big established media institutions such as CNN or bloggers clutching an iPhone but with a large social media following, ran briskly after celebrities and world leaders or just about anyone who had anything significant to say about climate change.

And at the end of each day, they immediately churned out climate change content to audiences globally.

Kingsley Ighobor

“We are the only media institution that regularly reports on the climate crisis because we are focused on SDGs,” Zossoungbo says. “Other media concentrate on politics and other issues.”

She adds: “People can see that there is something happening to the weather because of the floods and drought, but they don’t yet understand what it is in its full context. So we keep talking and talking about it.”

In Cameroon, explains Killian Chimton Ngala, a journalist with multiple accreditations, “Climate change doesn’t often make the front pages of newspapers or lead in television or radio news.”

Reporting context

Ngala’s experience is that “Climate reporting often lacks context. When journalists report on flooding, for example, they don’t necessarily link it to climate change. They usually focus on the event and the impact.”

Without a perspective, climate change reporting becomes a complex concept for many, particularly the grassroots population.

Ngala provides an example of such reporting: “Not long ago, fighting broke out in communities in Cameroon’s far North Region, between Choa-Arab cattle herders and Mousgoum farmers, over dwindling water resources.

Many people died in the conflict, and a top government official decided to visit the area.

“Do you know how journalists reported the story?” Ngala asks rhetorically. “They all reported that the minister had admonished the communities and asked them to be peaceful.

“Yet, when you look at it, why were the communities fighting? It’s because the village stream was drying up, and community dwellers and cattle herders had to fight for the limited water, a consequence of changing weather patterns.

“If you ask many people in Africa why their lake is drying up or why they are experiencing frequent droughts, some will not even know, let alone advocate for solutions.

“Take the drying up of Lake Chad, which is forcing herders in northern Nigeria and Cameroon to migrate down south. The farmers in the south believe the herders are coming to take over their lands. The resulting fight has claimed many lives,” he laments.

Why then is the media not robustly telling the climate story as it should be?

Need for training

Ngala blames it on lack of resources and training.

“Environment reporting is expensive; it needs a lot of traveling and risk-taking. It does not come cheap. Many media organisations in Africa find it unaffordable. For instance, they cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars to sponsor reporters to cover COP27,” says Ngala.

There are very few trained environment reporters in newsrooms, he says. As a result, climate change reporting does not yet receive the attention it deserves.

“Media managers would rather send reporters to cover politics, which drive sales, than to report on issues related to the environment, unless it is a major disaster. They would rather send reporters to cover our President’s trip to Addis Ababa than to COP27,” she says.

External sponsors

Ngala was one of several African journalists sponsored to cover COP27 by climate-focused organisations particularly in Europe and North America.

For example, the Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) fellowship programme, an Earth Journalism Network (EJN) project managed by Internews and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, brought Ngala and five other African journalists to Sharm El Sheikh to cover COP27.

They were among 20 journalists (out of over 500 who applied) from low and middle-income countries sponsored under the fellowship.

The fellowship package comes with training on “quality reporting on developments at COP27,” according to an EJN announcement, adding that Africa accounts for 2-3 per cent of global emissions but bears the brunt of the climate crisis. Therefore, African journalists must continue to report on the impact of the crisis and hold governments accountable.

“It was a rigorous application process,” says Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh of the Liberia-based Power FM and Television, also a fellow.

“But for the fellowship, I would not be here [COP27]. I applied for the fellowship because coming here for two weeks would have cost thousands of dollars, which my organization may not afford.”

Climate content

The symbiotic relationship between media content producers and content consumers is complex.

The perceived interest of the audience may influence content production even as the agenda-setting role of the media involves guiding audiences to focus on particular issues.

It leads to the point that African journalists have not yet effectively linked climate change issues to citizens’ socioeconomic well-being.

“That’s the point,” retorts Ngala. “Journalists report on the environment in isolation of other economic development sectors. You can see why, in many countries, the economic affairs ministries do not consider the climate crisis a part of their portfolio. It is often the preserve of underfunded environment ministries.”

“There is a lack of appreciation of the seriousness of the climate crisis,” explains Mwika Bennet Simbeye, acting Managing Editor of the Times of Zambia.

“Journalists tend to instinctively focus on day-to-day problems—all the political drama and bread and butter issues,” says Simbeye.

Agreeing that training and increased financing resources will boost climate reporting, Paul Omorogbe, the Chief Correspondent of the Tribune of Nigeria, is optimistic.

“I believe the situation is gradually changing. In Nigeria, climate crisis reporting is slowly but steadily gaining prominence in the media. We are getting there.”

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

The flag of the Republic of Angola (centre) flying at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Credit: Africa Renewal, United Nations

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, May 26 2022 (IPS)

Ambassador Maria de Jesus dos Reis Ferreira was appointed in February 2018 as the Permanent Representative of Angola to the UN, the first woman to hold the position.

Among other issues, she has focused on peace and security in Africa and has echoed her country’s strong support for universal vaccination of the global population.

In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, Ambassador Ferreira discusses women’s empowerment, free trade and what the continent can expect from the UN conference on climate (COP 27) that will be held in Egypt later this year.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: What has been your journey to this role as the Permanent Representative of Angola to the UN?

My journey has been a long one, I can take hours talking about it. I started in the army and years later I shifted to diplomacy, which has been quite an interesting and challenging journey.

I have worked as a diplomat since 1980. Before my current role, I worked as an Ambassador in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia with residence in Vienna, where I was the Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

I am the first woman to serve in this post since Angola became a UN Member State 46 years ago.

Q: Congratulations! What are your top three achievements so far?

Talking about achievements, with regards to peace and security, it is important to note that as part of Angola´s leadership of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) for the second time, our President João Lourenço, in his capacity as Chair, briefed the UN Security Council in June 2021 at a meeting dedicated to the situation in the Central Africa Republic. He called for an end to the arms embargo imposed on the country.

Ambassador Maria de Jesus dos Reis Ferreira

Also in 2021, Angola presented for the first time its National Voluntary Review at the High-Level Political Forum on the implementation of the 2030 Development Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Another great achievement was that the UN General Assembly, through a resolution in February 2021, granted Angola three additional years [until 2024] to prepare for a smooth transition from the Least Developed Country category to a Middle-Income Country. That was after intense negotiations.

I must mention that Angola is, for the second time, a member of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for the triennium 2022-2024. The Committee is tasked primarily with examining the programme budget of the United Nations.

Q: What are your priorities for 2022?

Our main priority for this year is to continue to focus on peace and security with particular emphasis on Africa, specifically our sub-region.

We will also continue to pay attention to programmes that foster humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups, including women and children, environmental protection and sustainable development.

Q: “The role of women in diplomacy is key to reforming the male-dominated nature of international relations,” Ambassador Ferreira

There are only a few African women Permanent Representatives to the UN in New York. What needs to be done to increase that number?

The role of women in diplomacy is key to reforming the male-dominated nature of international relations. Women’s participation in peace and security mechanisms is necessary to deviate from the patriarchal norm of men being decision-makers while women remain in the background.

However, each country has its own national strategy. It is not just a matter of increasing the number of women PRs in New York or in any other position, it is also that women merit it.

In Angola, slowly but surely, positive steps have been taken toward the inclusion of more women in all sectors, including diplomacy. Since President João Lourenço assumed office in 2017, there has been a steady increase in the number of women Heads of Missions. Currently, 14 women lead Diplomatic Missions and three are Permanent Representatives. I am in New York and one each in the UN office in Geneva and at UNESCO in Paris. There is still a gap in terms of gender balance because we have 40 men in the Missions, but we are moving in the right direction.

Q: Why is women’s empowerment important in Africa?

Empowering women in Africa will promote their sense of self-worth, ability to determine their own choices and their right to influence social change in society. Gender equality is achieved when men and women enjoy the same socio-economic rights and opportunities and have equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes.

Women account for about 50 per cent of Africa’s population, but they remain underrepresented in decision-making.

Latest statistics show that women occupy about 24 per cent of parliamentary seats in Africa, significantly close to the global average of 25 per cent. Unfortunately, the sub-regions of Southern Africa with 31 per cent and East Africa with 32.4 per cent largely account for women’s representation in parliament in Africa. The other three sub-regions are way behind.

Of course, the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action has a target of at least 30 per cent while the African Union Agenda 2063 sets a goal of 50 per cent women’s representation.

Q: “Climate change poses systemic risks to our economies, infrastructure investments, water and food systems, public health, agriculture, and livelihoods, which collectively threaten to undo Africa’s development gains,” Ambassador Ferreira

Angola has been at the forefront of the call for universal COVID-19 vaccination. What more needs to be done to achieve success in this area?

Angola, like many developing countries, has been calling for universal vaccination against COVID-19 so that no one is left behind.

In his speech at the at the UN General Assembly in September 2021, President Lourenço called for the waiving of Intellectual Property rights to make it possible for many countries to manufacture vaccines so that they become available to everyone.

Last February, at the High-Level Meeting on Universal Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, our President again urged the richest nations to donate $5 billion through COVAX for urgent purchase of about 600 million vaccines, and to supportthe implementation of national vaccination campaigns.

The pandemic has a global dimension and therefore requires a global response. Its impact has accentuated the interdependence among nations. For this reason, we continue to advocate for the waiver of IP rights to enhance production, distribution and equitable access.

I am happy that Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia have been selected to receive the technology required to produce mRNA vaccines on the continent, as part of WHO’s effort to replicate what are believed to be the most effective licensed shots against COVID-19.

The world must come together in this fight against COVID-19. Access to vaccines, tests and treatments for everyone who needs them is the only way out.

Q: We’re now in the second year of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). What are your views regarding how African women can benefit from free trade?

There is no doubt that women are key stakeholders in the development of the African economy. First and foremost, women constitute 70 per cent of informal traders, which is why the AfCFTA recognizes the importance of gender in intra-African trade.

But we must take further steps. For example, we must promote policies that close the gender gap. In considering the potential impact of AfCFTA on Africans, let’s consider the question of whether such an impact will help address gender inequality.

The good news is that, according to the World Bank, AfCFTA could potentially lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty and increase the incomes of 68 million others who live on less than $5.50 a day. And we have a combined market of 1.3 billion people from which women traders can benefit immensely.

In addition, the AfCFTA can boost women’s roles in jobs across different sectors, for example the agricultural sector.Expanded export markets present huge opportunities for women.

Remember also that increased industrialization and diversification can benefit women in manufacturing industries because it will make higher-skilled and better-paying jobs more available and accessible to them. Significantly, women entrepreneurs, including those in SMEs, will reap rewards from regional value chains.

Q: “A better deal for Africa will mean climate justice for a continent that accounts for only three per cent of cumulative global CO2 emissions but bears the brunt of its effects,” Ambassador Ferreira

Egypt will host COP27 later this year. What does Angola at large want to see come out of it?

First, I would like to congratulate Egypt for being the host of COP27.

Angola considers climate change to be one of the greatest challenges facing humanity due to its direct and indirect effects on the economic and social life of nations. Climate change poses systemic risks to our economies, infrastructure investments, water and food systems, public health, agriculture, and livelihoods, which collectively threaten to undo Africa’s development gains.

Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change impacts under all climate scenarios above 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Currently, Angola’s national energy matrix incorporates 62 per cent of non-polluting sources of energy, and we are aiming to reach 70 per cent in 2025. We have clearly defined our concrete contribution to a reduction of carbon in electricity production until 2025. We are also taking complementary actions in the sustainable management of forests, transport and agriculture.

A better deal for Africa will mean climate justice for a continent that accounts for only three per cent of cumulative global CO2 emissions but bears the brunt of its effects. Yet, less developed countries are under increasing pressure to adopt low-carbon development and transition their economies to net-zero by 2050.

In my view, COP27 presents a unique opportunity for Africa to lead the climate conversation and negotiate better climate deals for the continent.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Mathu Joyini, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, speaks at the 78th plenary meeting, on the voting and elections for non-permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly elected Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates to the Security Council for a two-year term starting on 1 January 2022. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
 
Meanwhile, the 66th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which begam March 14 is scheduled to conclude on March 25.

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 21 2022 (IPS)

Ambassador Mathu Joyini began her role as the Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations in January 2021, becoming the first South African woman to hold the position.

Representing the African States Group, she is the Chair of the Bureau for the 2022 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). She has championed causes related to Africa’s peace and security, human rights, women’s empowerment, among others.

In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, Amb. Joyini discusses her work and career path.

Excerpts from the interview:

What has been your journey to this role?

This place [United Nations] is a centre for global governance, and I think it provides an interesting space for any Permanent Representative to engage to promote their country’s interest, and to promote cooperation between their country and others.

My journey has been an interesting one. It started when I worked in social welfare. And I always go back there because it made me understand the needs of human beings at an individual level, at the community level, and so forth.

Social work grounded me in understanding human needs around poverty, hunger, health—you deal with all these issues in that space. Now, when I look at the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals], and what we’re trying to achieve, I pay my respects to the social workers out there.

Also, I spent a lot of time in the private sector, which helped me to understand how business and society intersect; how a business makes profits but to what extent are they making profits and at the same time helping build their communities and societies?

Again, when you get here you realize there is a focus on economic development that is sustainable and responsible. You get to deal with issues around financing, sustainable financing, financing for development, and the need for the private sector to get involved in development.

Of course, there is my journey within the Department of International Relations and Cooperation [South Africa’s foreign ministry], over 20 years in different positions at different levels, where I learned more about our country’s foreign policy and international relations.

I always say that democratic South Africa has been good with its foreign policy—its focus and its consistency over the years.

Kingsley Ighobor

I can give you some highlights. I will start with human rights. As you know, in 2021 we commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, which is a landmark anti-discrimination framework. South Africa was given the responsibility of preparing for that commemoration and facilitating the development of a political declaration.

We were given that role together with Portugal, and I have to commend Ambassador Francisco António Duarte Lopes of Portugal because we managed to put on the table a political declaration that was successfully adopted on the margins of the UN General Assembly High Level Week in September 2021.

Secondly, on peace and security, South Africa and the Peacebuilding Support Office of the United Nations hosted a webinar and initiated a dialogue on how to get the private sector to contribute to peacebuilding. I must tell you it was an interesting webinar.

We looked at how we can make resources available for peacebuilding. We believe that the private sector that benefits from a stable and peaceful society needs to contribute to peacebuilding. And it happens that the private sector is ready to make such contributions. So, we hope to put in place a strategy for private sector engagement.

Thirdly, there are issues that we will always care about. These are not just 2022 issues, but issues that will always be South Africa’s priorities because of our history. One such priority is our solidarity with the people of Palestine and the people of Western Sahara. We also have the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which aligns with the SDGs, and now includes the post-COVID-19 recovery agenda.

Fourthly, we are known for gender equality and women’s empowerment. In 2022 and 2023 South Africa will be the Chair of the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW). We are chairing on behalf of the Africa Group, and we want to make sure that we drive the implementation of agreed conclusions.

Talking about gender equality, you are one of only a handful female Permanent Representatives to the UN in New York. Why do you think that is so?

Governments have the primary responsibility for promoting gender equality; they need to always be reminded to walk the talk. That is not always necessarily the case. When women take leadership positions in public spaces, they’re likely to promote other women. I can say that in my case. But again, I represent my President who is strongly supportive of gender equality.

Gender equality is a huge priority here at the UN headquarters. Is that the case in Africa?

I think so. I know so. Many of the African Union’s instruments focus on gender equality, on women’s empowerment. In fact, the AU might be ahead of many other regional bodies in terms of thinking through issues related to gender equality. If you look at the number of AU protocols and instruments, you will find that gender equality is a priority for our leaders. But there’s a lot to do in terms of implementation.

This year’s CSW is hybrid — both in-person and virtual events. What should African women expect from it?

They should expect two baskets of outcomes. The first basket is the formal one, which is what CSW is there for. Every year, we look at how far we are implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and then come up with recommendations to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. This year it will be in the context of climate change.

So, the CSW looks at the lived experiences of women. You and I know that the effects of climate change affect women disproportionately. And so, in the agreed conclusions, Member States will make recommendations to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of climate change.

So African women should expect that their needs and their challenges are being addressed through agreed conclusions. We need to be aware that it’s not just how damaging the impact of climate change is to women, it’s also to what extent women are involved in mitigation and adaptation activities? Are they funded? Are they engaged?

The second basket is the CSW space, where civil society and the UN system, including the Member States, engage to address pertinent issues. It is fertile soil for learning from each other, for sharing experiences, and for creating knowledge.

So, our sisters and our mothers in Africa can expect to learn and exchange ideas; they will hear how Zimbabwean women, for example, are tackling their challenges, or what women in Pakistan and other parts of the world are doing.

How much impact will the virtual events have on the outcomes?

The women can learn not necessarily by coming here. The experience of the last CSW has shown that they learn very well on virtual platforms. In fact, most people will say that virtual platforms allow many women access.

Those who cannot afford to get on the plane to New York can log on and exchange experiences with others. So, we will have to be sensitive in creating those platforms: how you design topics, the learning spaces, and the exchanges that happen.

What are your views regarding how women can take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is probably Africa’s biggest project currently?

Absolutely, the AfCFTA is the biggest project. And it is a transformative one. Creating that market of 1.3 billion consumers, you can imagine what it will do for our manufacturing sector, for trading, for agriculture, and so forth. To the extent that the free trade agreement will transform the continent economically, women need to be part of it, if not at the center of it.

We often talk about the economic and financial inclusion of women. If you walk into any market right now in Africa, most informal traders would be women. We need to start thinking creatively about how to include them in a manner that advances their socioeconomic wellbeing.

When we [South Africa] chairing the AU, our President [Cyril Ramaphosa] really became the champion of women’s financial and economic inclusion. Take procurement, for example. If I have two suppliers with equal capabilities, and one of them is a woman, I’m going to give the opportunity to the woman supplier.

So, we need to be deliberate within the free trade area in building capacity and creating opportunities for women. We need to put in place policies and programmes that support women-led small, medium and large enterprises.

I must mention the SheTrades that was initiated by the International Trade Centre and is helping connect African women entrepreneurs to the markets. Such programmes are helpful.

Finally, what message would you like to send to Africans, particularly women?

We are in a continent whose future is bright. Studies show that future economic growth will be in Africa. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the top six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world were in Africa. It is about how we organize ourselves to recover from the pandemic. And that is currently being coordinated so well by the continent.

If you look at the various initiatives that have been put in place by the continent to coordinate our recovery and our preparedness for future pandemics, you become hopeful.

We have all the frameworks, all the policies, all the opportunities. What we now require is to roll up our sleeves and do the work.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations, March 2022

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Factory workers producing garments for overseas clients, in Accra, Ghana. Credit: World Bank

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 19 2022 (IPS)

The official start of free trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in January 2021 moved a major continental aspiration closer to reality.

One year later, cross-border trade in goods and services may not exactly be in full swing as had been anticipated, but indications are that there is some progress—the cup is half-full, not half-empty.

A major hurdle is ongoing negotiations on the remaining crucial elements of the trade pact, particularly rules of origin.

However, in an interview with Africa Renewal last month, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, sketched an optimistic vision of 2022.

In sum, AfCFTA’s implementation will rev into higher gear, traders would be delighted, and the push toward accelerated industrialization of the continent should begin in earnest.

Concluding negotiations on rules of origin, which is basically to determine the “nationalities” of thousands of products to prevent dumping, will be key to success.

Already, negotiators have reached an impressive 87.8 per cent agreement on rules of origin. That includes more than 80 per cent of the about 8,000 products listed under the World Customs Organisation’s Harmonized System of rules of origin and tariffs. Such a high threshold of consensus guarantees that the vast majority of products can be traded.

“What is outstanding are automobiles, textiles, clothing and sugar. These account for about 12-15 per cent of what we call the tariff book. We want to conclude negotiations on these so that we can reach a 100 per cent rules of origin convergence,” Mene said.

Mene is convinced that traders in Africa deserve an enabling environment, including robust market information and other incentives to power their businesses.

The Futures Report 2021 launched last December in New York provides traders with valuable business information, making it one more item in the AfCFTA’s toolbox to catalyze intra-African trade.

Kingsley Ighobor

Noting rising inequalities, the report states that, “Africa is the only continent where the number of poor people increased, up from 392 million in 2000 to 438 million in 2017.”

Africa must “diversify into other commodities… beyond the current commodity cycle traps into different high technology-content industries,” comments Mene, in the foreword to the report. “Africa has 42 of 63 elements for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), including coltan, cobalt, copper, nickel and graphite, for which global demand will increase by 1,000% by the year 2050.”

UNDP Africa’s Regional Director, Ahunna Eziakonwa, is urging Africa to stop exporting raw materials, but to “industrialize its economies, produce goods rich in African content, and create decent jobs for generations to come.”

One year of free trading in Africa calls for celebration despite teething problems

AfCFTA: Traders to have opportunities to scale up and expand their markets in 2022

In addition to completing 100 per cent negotiations on rules of origin, Mene’s sunny optimism for free trade in Africa in 2022 will depend on other supporting pillars:

• The first is establishing a Trade Finance Facility to support SMEs, especially those managed by women and young people. The timing for bringing this initiative to fruition is less certain given the involvement of commercial banks.
• That conversation [with commercial banks] is going slower than I would have hoped because there are several technical issues that we have to iron out,” says Mene. “It may take a bit longer.”
• The second pillar is launching the African Trade Gateway, which is a one-stop digital platform with information on rules that apply to thousands of products, customs procedures, market information and trends, and payment transfers. Mene said: “The African Trade Gateway is within our control. We can roll that out relatively quickly.”
• The third pillar is an AfCFTA Adjustment Facility, which is expected to cushion the fiscal effects of tariff loss in countries. Mene was quick to point out that this facility is not intended to address budgetary shortfall; rather, “it will be to support specific value chains in specific productive sectors of the economy, for example, textiles and agro-processing.”

The AfCFTA Secretariat and Afreximbank have raised $1 billion for the Adjustment Facility, a good start, although the startup liquidity estimate is between $7 billion and $10 billion.

• The fourth pillar is rolling out the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a platform that facilitates cross-border payments in local African currencies and is expected to save African traders about $5 billion annually in currency convertibility. The PAPSS was officially launched on 13 January 2022 while a continent-wide rollout and awareness-raising campaign among traders is expected to be ramped up in the coming weeks.

“We have over 42 currencies in Africa. We want to reduce and eventually eliminate that cost [$5 billion] because it constrains our SMEs’ competitiveness and makes trade costly and inaccessible to many SMEs and young entrepreneurs,” explained Mene.

• The last pillar is ensuring that Africa’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are compatible with AfCFTA. Countries that establish SEZs subject such zones to special trade laws, such as tax breaks, to attract investments and boost employment.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), a champion of AfCFTA’s success and SEZs, reports that there are 237 SEZs—and counting— in 38 African countries.

In anticipation of increased activities in Africa’s free trade area, UNCTAD recommends appropriate policies to enable SEZs to adjust to both “new trade and investment environment in Africa” and “future changes in global value changes and investment patterns.”

Source: Africa Renewal, January 2022

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

The launch of PAPSS will save $5 billion yearly and boost intra-African trade. Credit: Africa Renewal, United Nations

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 2021 (IPS)

When Fidelis Adele, the CEO of Freetown-based Solid Graphics, a printing and communications company, needed to order some printing equipment from Nigeria in September, he paid an extra $165 on top of a $10,000 bank transfer to the seller. Yet it took three days for the money transferred in Sierra Leone to be credited to the beneficiary’s account in Nigeria.

“I paid $30 as transfer fee, $35 as SWIFT charges and another $100 bank charges,” Adele told Africa Renewal. SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a global network that processes international payments.

Adele did not attempt to use financial services companies such as Western Union or MoneyGram because the “exchange rate for those companies is just bad.”

The other option would have been to fly to Lagos, a three-hour journey, carrying the physical cash along. “I have done that a few times,” he said, “but it is not cost-effective unless it’s a huge amount, and it is risky.”

Traders across Africa experience similar ordeal paying for goods or services across borders. In the process they lose valuable time and money.

This cumbersome and time-consuming process “costs us [Africans] about $5 billion in [money transfer] charges each year,” according to Benedict Oramah, President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), who said, in an interview with Africa Renewal: “We are a poor continent. We shouldn’t waste money like that.”

Payment system launched

To address the situation, Afreximbank has partnered with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to launch the Pan-African Payments and Settlement Systems (PAPSS), a platform that facilitates instant cross-border payments in local currencies between countries.

Kingsley Ighobor

On using WAMZ for the pilot, Prof. Oramah says: “The six WAMZ countries have different currencies. One of the countries is Francophone and the others are Anglophone. You have a big economy like Nigeria and then you have smaller economies. So, anything that can go wrong in other parts of Africa would have gone wrong in the WAMZ, and we will have been able to address it during the piloting phase.”

The operational rollout of PAPSS was announced at the end of September, meaning that countries’ central banks, which will be the clearing agents, can now coordinate with Afreximbank, which is the main clearing agent and provider of settlement guarantees and overdraft facilities.

Afreximbank doled out $500 million to service West Africa and intends to provide a further $3 billion for an Africa-wide PAPSS operation.

Analysts expect African traders, especially those in West Africa, to begin to take advantage of the platform by the end of 2021.

Oramah, who is based in Cairo, Egypt, explains the hurdles faced by African traders in personal terms: “I want to transfer money to Nigeria from Egypt. It goes through a corresponding bank in a country outside of Africa before it arrives in Nigeria. I pay charges before the person in Nigeria gets it.

“And it takes time. Sometimes it takes weeks. So, we [Afreximbank] calculated how much that costs the continent—forget about the time—it costs Africans $5 billion yearly.

“Also, if I am in Egypt, and I want to watch my favourite Nollywood movies, I probably have to remit in US dollars. But the PAPSS changes that for you. All you need do is pay the Nigerian producer in Nigerian Naira.”

The CEO of PAPSS Mike Ogbalu says that during the piloting phase in West Africa, bank accounts in different countries were debited and credited within 10 seconds. He has assured of a robust technology that can handle large transactions.

How PAPSS works

Sending money using the PAPSS is a five-step process:

• The first step is when an individual issues a payment instruction to their local bank or payment service provider.
• Second, the bank or the payment service provider sends the instructions to PAPSS.
• Third, PAPSS validates the payment instruction.
• Fourth, upon successful validation, PAPSS will forward the instruction to the beneficiary’s bank or payment service provider.
• Lastly, the bank or payment service provide pays the transferred funds, in local currency, to the beneficiary.

In announcing the rollout of PAPSS, Afreximbank says that by “simplifying cross-border transactions and reducing the dependency on hard currencies for these transactions, PAPSS is set to boost intra-African trade significantly.”

Intra-African trade is currently at a meager 17 per cent.

The PAPSS is also expected to lead to increases in value addition to products, jobs creation and more earnings for traders.

Wamkele Mene, the Secretary-General of AfCFTA Secretariat, said PAPSS will lead to efficient cross-border trade transactions and put Africa on a new economic trajectory.

“There are 42 currencies in Africa. We want to make sure that a trader in Ghana can transfer Ghanaian cedi to a counterpart in Kenya who will receive Kenyan shillings,” Mene told Africa Renewal in an earlier interview.

Adele agrees that PAPSS will help his business. “If I can take the Leones to a bank here [in Sierra Leone] and pay for printing products in Nigeria, and the money is instantly deposited in the beneficiary’s account in Nigeria, that would be extraordinary,” he says.

Until briefed by Africa Renewal, Adele was not aware of the PAPSS, underscoring the communication challenge of raising intra-African traders’ awareness about the platform.

Oramah notes, however, that a campaign is underway to market and promote the PAPSS, hoping that by the end of the year African traders will be informed enough to use the system.

Source: Africa Renewal, which reports on, and examines, the many different aspects of the UN’s involvement in Africa, especially within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Accra-based coffee and cocoa trader Meron Dagnew at the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Credit: Africa Renewal

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14 2020 (IPS)

One day in February 2020, Accra-based coffee and cocoa trader Meron Dagnew visited the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to introduce herself, even before the Secretariat was fully operational.

“I couldn’t wait,” she told Africa Renewal in a recent interview “I need free trading in Africa to begin as quickly as possible; it will be so good for my business.”

The AfCFTA Secretariat officially opened in Accra on 17 August 2020, although, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, free trading will now begin on 1st January 2021 instead of the originally scheduled date of 1 July 2020.

Ms. Dagnew is eager to take advantage of reduced tariffs and a consolidated market — potential spinoffs from AfCFTA — to expand the operations of her company, BE Kollective that imports Ethiopian coffee to Ghana and exports Ghanaian cocoa to Ethiopia.

“I am hoping to not pay as much as 35 per cent tariffs on my goods; I am hoping that soon I can take my value-added cocoa and coffee to African countries without problems of rules of origin. I could then make more profit, expand my business and hire more people,” she says.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s largest coffee producers and Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, after Côte d’Ivoire. Ms. Dagnew is particularly attracted to West Africa’s market of 380 million people.

High tariffs and non-tariff barriers such as customs delays and administrative bottlenecks at border posts underscore the challenges facing African traders and at the same time accentuate a strong desire by traders for a free trade zone.

Kingsley Ighobor

Ms. Dagnew’s business slowed down in March 2020 just as the pandemic began to rage. As African economies start to slowly open while adjusting to the realities of the pandemic, Ms. Dagnew intends to restart trading soon.

Yet, she frets about other structural challenges to intra-African trade, such as the competition with big global brands that compete on an uneven playing field. For example, BE Kollective, according to Ms. Dagnew, competes with Nescafé, which is imported into Ghana by retailers.

“The problem is that importers of Nescafé from countries in Europe or Asia pay much less tariff than I pay because those countries have favourable trade agreements with African countries,” she stresses. “Therefore, the odds are currently stacked against us intra-African traders.”

Ms. Dagnew is also concerned that countries’ customs services lack adequate information about the AfCFTA.

“Not long ago, I went to the customs service in Ghana and told them I wouldn’t need to pay tariffs at some point because of AfCFTA. They didn’t understand what I was talking about,” she recalls. “There are many traders who have no idea what AfCFTA is all about.”

She recommends a massive information campaign to raise awareness of AfCFTA among customs services, traders and other key actors in countries participating in the free trade area.

Lack of infrastructure

A lack of adequate modern transport infrastructure also impedes traders’ desire to reap the full benefits of free trade, studies show. With the right transport infrastructure and high integration, manufacturers of consumer goods could earn up to $326 billion per year, according to McKinsey & Company, a US-based management consulting firm.

And according to the World Bank, it takes about three and a half weeks for a container of car parts to be cleared by Congolese customs. While East African countries Tanzania and Uganda have established a one-stop border post to slash time for cargo movement between them, new delays in the form of divergent standards for goods have quickly emerged, underscoring the mutating nature of non-tariff barriers.

African countries could rake in $20 billion yearly by simply tackling non-tariff barriers that slow the movement of goods, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the UN entity that deals with trade investment and development issues.

The African Union (AU)’s efforts at boosting infrastructure through its Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) are expected to yield the Lagos-Abidjan transport corridor, the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya power transmission line, the Lagos-Algiers highway and the Brazzaville-Kinshasa bridge, among others.

But experts encourage individual countries to invest in modern port, airport and rail line infrastructure.

Women traders

Widely spoken about in intra-African trade conversations are the challenges that women traders face.

Women constitute 70 per cent of Africa’s informal cross-border traders, and according to a 2019 study by UN Women titled Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in the Context of the AfCFTA, African women traders often confront corruption, insecurity and sexual harassment.

The AfCFTA agreement itself requires countries to protect the vulnerable, including women traders, and to address corruption.

African states with bilateral trade agreements with foreign countries or other regions such as the European Union will need to walk a tightrope in meeting prior commitments while implementing the AfCFTA.

In February 2020, for instance, East Africa’s economic giant Kenya began bilateral trade talks with the US, a move seemingly at odds with the country’s commitment to Africa’s free trade area.

Optimistic projections of the benefits of Africa’s free trade are, in theory, based on orthodox economic calculations — a linear demand and supply correlation that may not fully encompass externalities such as the availability of countries’ implementation capacity, requisite infrastructure, policy coherence and so on.

The World Economic Forum signals that AfCFTA’s full and effective implementation is what will lead to its transformative impacts, meaning that its touted benefits are by no means guaranteed.

The Secretary-General of AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, acknowledges the enormous tasks ahead. “We have to roll up our sleeves and work,” he told Africa Renewal in an earlier interview.

Yet there is much to celebrate regarding the free trade agreement. The pact consolidates a market of 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion. It would represent the world’s largest trading block by the number of participating countries if all AU member states were to ratify the agreement.

While some 30 countries have so far ratified the agreement, more countries are expected to join the bandwagon when free trading begins and its benefits become tangible.

Mr. Mene estimates that intra-African trade could increase from its current 18 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030.

It will boost earnings for traders, strengthen Africa’s competitiveness in the global marketplace, foster export diversification and enhance value addition to produce and transform natural resources.

Because of the AfCFTA, Africa’s manufacturing output is expected to double to $1 trillion, creating 14 million jobs by 2025, writes Landry Signé for Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

An industrializing continent will catalyze the agricultural sector. In the coming years, Mr. Signé anticipates, manufacturing will complement “agricultural production and agro-processing plants, which provide the food and energy to meet growing African and global demand.”

He adds that African youth engaged in computer software and apps development will seize the opportunity to produce “leapfrog” technologies to meet increasing domestic demand. In other words, good paying jobs will be created for the continent’s bulging youth population.

“Across all subsectors and countries, Africa’s industrial revolution appears imminent,” Mr. Signé declares, optimistically.

Meanwhile, African traders envisage the end of the COVID-19 pandemic or at least its receding soon. They hope the teething problems that arise will be tackled and that AfCFTA will be a shot in the arm for Africa’s development.

“It will be a dream come true for traders like me,” enthuses Ms. Dagnew.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

*The Africa Renewal information programme provides up-to-date information and analysis of the major economic and development challenges facing Africa today. It examines the many issues confronting the people of Africa, its leaders and its international partners: economic reform, debt, education, health, women’s advancement, conflict and civil strife, democratization, aid, investment, trade, regional integration, rural development and many other topics. It works with the media in Africa and beyond to promote the work of the United Nations, Africa and the international community to bring peace and development to Africa.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Excerpt:

Hanna Tetteh. Credit: Africa Renewal

By Kingsley Ighobor
Jul 3 2020 (IPS)

Hanna Tetteh is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union.

As head of the UN Office to the African Union (UNOAU), she spoke with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor on, among other issues, the current state of the UN-AU partnership and how women and young people can help resolve conflict.

Excerpts from the interview*:

How is the partnership between the United Nations and Africa Union going?

There are currently three partnerships between the UN and the AU: There’s the Partnership on Africa’s Integration and Development Agenda (PAIDA), one on Peace and Security, and another on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

A fourth partnership framework, on human rights, has been negotiated but not yet signed. The partnership that’s largely implemented by the UNOAU is the one on peace and security, and it plays to the strength of the AU because it has been more successful so far as a political organization than as an economic integration organization. We do common analyses and take common positions, and we have achieved progress.

What are some of the challenges or opportunities in the UN-AU partnership?

With every partnership, you’re not going to agree on every issue. But we have had more consensus than disagreements. We worked closely together, and with IGAD [Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa], to help resolve the second round of conflict in South Sudan. That resulted in the establishment of a new transitional government this year.

Last year, we worked together on the Central African Republic to negotiate a new peace agreement. We look forward to elections in that country later this year, assuming COVID-19 will allow. We support AMISOM [African Union Mission in Somalia].

The AU force is providing military support for the transition process. UNSOM [the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia] and AMISOM help with political engagement and logistics.

We have been challenged by the Libya process where the AU would like to be more proactive in resolving the conflict. Even then, we have made significant progress there following a peace summit in Berlin in January 2020.

Kingsley Ighobor

Countries in conflict already have infrastructure and resource challenges: inadequate healthcare facilities and low number of medical personnel, and so on. And then COVID-19 arrived on our doorsteps. In addition, most African countries, in conflict or not, have large informal economies wherein if people don’t work in a day, they can’t feed themselves.

So, lockdowns have put a strain on people’s lives, especially those in the informal sector. In countries with elections coming up, the pandemic is challenging because the virus is passed through human contact, which happens at campaign events. We have about 15 or so more elections to go this year, and appropriate healthcare protocols will be needed to protect people.

Could post-COVID-19 recovery be an opportunity for Africa to build back better?

Yes, but it will depend on the policy choices member states make, as well as the resources available to them. A few countries are middle income countries—higher middle-income or lower middle-income. Those countries have the resilience and the resources to undertake prevention, response and recovery measures.

But the LDCs [Least Developed Countries], whose economies are much more fragile, will need a lot of preparedness to develop appropriate policy responses that don’t require a huge outlay of resources. The international development community can help such countries build back better.

Is there a role for pan-African institutions such as the AU in building back better?

As I mentioned, the AU has been more of a political organization than an economic organization. But its development agency [African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD)] and other pan-African institutions such as the African Development Bank and, on the UN side, the Economic Commission for Africa, can help countries develop policy responses.

How is the Silencing the Guns 2020 campaign going?

‘Silencing the Guns 2020’ is the theme of the AU for this year, which is why it’s getting a lot of attention. But the Silencing the Guns campaign started in 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the AU [formerly, the Organisation of African Unity]. The idea was to accelerate efforts at ending conflicts through mediation.

In some cases, as with South Sudan, progress has been made. In others, as with the Sahel, we haven’t made the desired progress. We also see that conflict is spreading to other countries outside of Mali—Niger and Burkina Faso being the most vulnerable lately. I don’t think we can silence all the guns this year because of all the challenges, but it is a valid aspiration.

What more work can be done to silence the guns in Africa?

There needs to be an acceleration of mediation efforts. It is not easy to mediate in the way in which we are having this conversation [via video link]. When you want to bring political actors and communities together, you organize face-to-face discussions that enable people to come to agreements, and then you support them to implement such agreements. COVID-19 is challenging that kind of support and intervention.

Do you envision an Africa without war?

There is potential because the last two or three decades have witnessed considerable political progress and economic growth, and several conflicts have ended. But we need to look beyond simply ending conflicts to addressing the root causes of conflicts.

And the root causes of conflict lie in bad governance which creates inequalities and does not promote growth and development. It’s important that we realise that peace is not a state that once achieved, can be taken for granted.

Even countries that are relatively stable need conditions that help consolidate and enhance peace and stability—good governance, inclusiveness, strong institutions, the rule of law, etc.

Is Africa moving in the right direction, considering there are more democracies today than, say, 20 years ago?

The fact that we have more democracies today than previously is a good sign. But regular elections in and of themselves do not mean democracy. Democracy is about respect for human rights, good governance, responsive institutions that people can interact with, including a framework for the protection of stability through law and order, so people can go about their daily lives and achieve their dreams and their aspirations.

How is COVID-19 affecting refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons in Africa?

In some instances, the pandemic has worsened the situation. As cases increased in some countries, the response has been to deport irregular migrants. And in the refugee camps, especially in areas in conflict or coming out of conflict, it’s been difficult to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The IOM [International Organisation for Migration] has urged countries to respect the rights of refugees and to provide necessary facilities that safeguard them from the disease. The IOM also called for a halt to the deportation of irregular migrants at this time of COVID-19.

From a peace and security perspective, what are the challenges that may impede successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)?

The challenge for AfCFTA is not so much peace and security; it’s concluding negotiations for the rules of origin. It is also ensuring the agreement is implemented in a way that benefits economies. Because, remember, the AfCFTA is a very ambitious experiment to encourage trade among African nations. Some countries may lose customs revenues, and so those countries need to see the benefits of free trade.

What are your views on the role of women in peace and security in Africa?

Unfortunately, women are not included enough, and that needs to be addressed. Creating lasting peace and security in countries or communities in conflict involves negotiating a peace agreement and a process of reconciliation—that involves men and women. In situations where you are trying to rebuild communities, it requires the participation of the entirety of the community to make sure that the peace is consolidated.

The UN has supported the AU’s project of developing a cohort of female mediators—FemWise Africa—for deployment in countries to ensure more women and young people are brought into the processes of mediation and peacebuilding.

Do young people have a role to play in conflict prevention, possibly resolution?

Absolutely. You can’t build peace without encouraging young people to be part of the peacebuilding process. They are the ones recruited as irregular fighters. You have to think about disarmament, demobilization and reintegration into communities. You make sure they don’t have the incentive to be part of organizations that terrorize communities. You want them to be part of the productive economy.

What is your message to Africans in these trying times?

We are a very strong and resilient continent. We have been through difficult times before. We have more democracies now and we’ve also seen economic growth. We need to be engaged in rebuilding our countries and creating an inclusive platform for integration.

We are a continent of multiple ethnicities, and our diversity should be our strength. In the same way we condemn acts of discrimination in other parts of the world, we should not discriminate amongst ourselves on the basis of ethnicity. That’s an important aspect to promote our growth and development and to strengthen peace.

*This interview was originally published in Africa Renewal—a UN publication focusing on African news and analysis. www.un.org/africarenewal.

Excerpt:

Attendees at an FAO sub-regional training workshop on gender and livestock in Harare, Zimbabwe.

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 22 2019 (IPS)

Government staffer Souhayata Haidara enjoys talking about her life in a patriarchal society. Her career is a triumph of patience and perseverance, she tells Africa Renewal with a smile and a wink.

Ms. Haidara, currently the Special Adviser to Mali’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, says she was lucky not to be married off at age 14 like some of her peers. Her father resisted pressure from suitors and relatives and insisted that the teenager be allowed to complete high school before getting married.

“In our culture, people believe education is for boys and that the women must marry and stay at home,” she says.

Women’s economic empowerment is anchored by education, maintains Ms. Haidara, who earned a degree in environmental science in the US on a scholarship from the United States Agency for International Development.

“I couldn’t be where I am today without education. I earn an income. I educated my three children—a boy and two girls, now grown. I have a six-year-old granddaughter who is getting the best grades in class. That makes me very happy.”

But Brandilyn Yadeta, a 32-year-old Ethiopian, missed out on education. “I had a baby at 19 and the father traveled abroad without letting me know. Since then, I continue to struggle to take care of my child, which is my priority, above my education.” She is a small-scale trader.

If the father refuses to pay child support for his child, what options does a woman have? “What can I do?” Ms. Yadeta asks with frustration and regret.

Ms. Yadeta and others like her in Africa are unsung heroes—taking care of the family, a job mostly unrecognized by their society. Yet in monetary terms, women’s unpaid work accounts for between 10% and 39% of GDP, according to the UN Research Institute for Social Development, which provides policy analysis on development issues.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) states that women are disproportionately laden with the responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work. It highlights this issue to make the case for economic empowerment of women, which is now a front-burner topic in development literature.

Countries making reforms

A World Bank report titled Women, Business and the Law 2019: A Decade of Reform states that sub-Saharan Africa “had the most reforms promoting gender equality [of any region].” In fact, six of the top 10 reforming countries are there—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Zambia.

Despite a protracted political crisis, the DRC made the most improvement based in part on “reforms allowing women to register businesses, open bank accounts, sign contracts, get jobs and choose where to live in the same way as men,” states the report.

Mauritius introduced civil remedies for sexual harassment at work and prohibited discrimination in access to credit based on gender. Among the civil remedies, employers are prohibited from sexually harassing an employee or a job seeker while an employee must not sexually harass a fellow employee. Mauritius also mandated equal pay between men and women for work of equal value.

$95 billion

is the amount that sub-Saharan Africa loses yearly because of the gender gap in the labour market. São Tomé and Príncipe equalized mandatory retirement ages and the ages at which men and women can receive full pension benefits—a move that increased the country’s female labour force participation by 1.75%.

The World Bank’s report by no means suggests that all is well with women in these countries. The report merely highlights the positive incremental changes that these countries are making.

The DRC, for example, may have implemented some pro–women’s empowerment reforms, but women in that country still have no land or inheritance rights, according to the Global Fund for Women, a nonprofit.

Theodosia Muhulo Nshala, Executive Director of the Women’s Legal Aid Centre, a nonprofit in Tanzania, tells Africa Renewal that “men and women [in Tanzania] have equal rights to land ownership, thanks to the Village Land Act of 1999; however, customary laws exist that prevent women and girls from inheriting land from their husbands and fathers.”

While women’s participation in the labour force (mostly in the informal sector) is high in many sub-Saharan Africa countries—86% in Rwanda, 77% in Ethiopia and 70% in Tanzania—only in eight countries (Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe) do more than 50% of women own bank accounts, according to the Global Financial Inclusion Database, which regularly publishes country-level indicators of financial inclusion.

Not a zero-sum game

Economically empowering women is not a zero-sum game in which women win and men lose, notes Urban Institute, a policy think tank in Washington, D.C. Rather, Mckinsey Global Institute, a US-based management consulting firm, forecasts that, “A ‘best in region’ scenario in which all countries match the rate of improvement of the fastest-improving country in their region could add as much as $12 trillion, or 11 percent, in annual 2025 GDP.”

And UN Women, an entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment, states: “Investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth,”

On the flip side, since 2010 sub-Saharan African economies have lost about $95 billion yearly because of the gender gap in the labour market, says Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa (see interview on page 22). “So imagine if you unleash the power, talent and resolve of women.”

Empowerment is limited

Experts believe that women’s economic empowerment is the key to achieving the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a continental framework for socioeconomic transformation of the continent, and several goals in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

That includes Goal 1, ending poverty; Goal 2, achieving food security; Goal 3, ensuring good health; Goal 5, achieving gender equality; Goal 8, promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all; and Goal 10, reducing inequalities.

Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063 envisages an “Africa whose development is people driven, relying on the potential offered by people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.”

Taking action

What can countries do to empower women economically?

In a blog for the World Bank, Cape Verde’s Minister of Finance, Planning and Public Administration Cristina Duarte and the World Bank’s Vice President for Infrastructure Makhtar Diop recently encouraged “support [for] young women during adolescence—a critical juncture in their lives.”

The Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents programme in Uganda, which “uses girl-only clubs to deliver vocational and ‘life skills’ training,” is a good example, according to Ms. Duarte and Mr. Diop.

The World Bank recommends, among other actions, the passage of laws that foster financial inclusion. Ms. Eziakonwa believes that countries must expunge laws that are obstacles in women’s way, including those that prohibit them from owning land.

South African journalist Lebo Matshego is urging women’s rights activists to use social media to lobby against those customs and traditions that infringe on the rights of women.

Vera Songwe, head of the Economic Commission for Africa, the first woman to lead the organization, says women, especially in rural areas, need access to the internet to be able to take advantage of new technologies.

The UN Secretary-General’s 2018 CSW report titled Challenges and Opportunities in Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Rural Women and girls advises countries to “design and implement fiscal policies that promote gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls by investing in essential infrastructure (ICT, sustainable energy, sustainable transport and safely managed water and sanitation).”

According to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former president of Liberia, affirmative action is the way to go. She says that “now is the time for preferential treatment of women,” such as quotas on jobs and access to credit.

UN Women supported a review of Kenyan public procurement in 2013, and Kenya now reserves a minimum of 30% of annual government spending for women. In 2017, through its Women’s Economic Empowerment programme,

UN Women reported successfully training 1,500 women vendors in Nairobi to participate and benefit from the government supply chain. This is one example of an action in line with Ms. Sirleaf’s suggestion.

The quality of jobs that women do also matters, writes Abigail Hunt, a researcher with the Overseas Development Institute, a UK-based think tank. “Empowerment is limited when women enter the labour market on unfavourable terms.

This includes women’s engagement in exploitative, dangerous or stigmatized work, with low pay and job insecurity.” In other words, women need access to high-paying, safe and secure jobs.

“The road to women’s economic empowerment is irreversible,” maintains Ms. Sirleaf. “It’s taking a while to get it, but it’s coming; no one can stop it.”

*Africa Renewal (ISSN 2517-9829) is published in English and French by the Strategic Communications Division of the United Nations Department of Global Communications. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or the publication’s

Excerpt:

Rescue operations of African migrants carried out in the Channel of Sicily, Italy. Credit: IOM / Malavolta

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 17 2018 (IPS)

In August 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May visited countries in Africa, sparking hope of increased foreign direct investments (FDI) in the continent.

Mr. Macron was in Nigeria, Ms. Merkel visited Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, and Ms. May made stops in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Apart from the question of FDI, these influential leaders were looking at how to stem the flow of African migrants traveling to Europe in search of jobs and better lives.

“I believe in a win-win game. Let’s help Africa to succeed. Let’s provide new hope for African youth in Africa,” President Macron said in Nigeria, explaining that it was in Europe’s interest to tackle migration from Africa at its roots.

New York Times writers Eduardo Porter and Karl Russell echoed the French president’s sentiments: “If rich countries want fewer immigrants, their best shot might be to help poor countries become rich, so that fewer people feel the urge to leave.”

Africans on the road
Every day hundreds of Africans, including women and children, strike out in search of real or imagined riches in Europe or America. About a million migrants from sub-Saharan Africa moved to Europe between 2010 and 2017, according to the Pew Research Center, a Washington, D.C.–based nonpartisan fact tank.

While Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia and South Africa are the top way stations for sub-Saharan migrants moving to Europe and the US, Pew lists South Sudan, Central African Republic, São Tomé and Príncipe, Eritrea and Namibia as having some of the fastest-growing international migrant populations living outside their country of birth.

Africans are on the move because of “conflict, persecution, environmental degradation and change, and a profound lack of human security and opportunity,” states the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in its World Migration Report 2018.

Migration corridors mostly used by Africans are Algeria to France, Burkina Faso to Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt to the United Arab Emirates, Morocco to Spain, and Somalia to Kenya.

Of the 258 million international migrants globally, 36 million live in Africa, with 19 million living in another African country and 17 million in Europe, North America and other regions, Ashraf El Nour, Director of IOM, New York, informed Africa Renewal.

When unregulated and unmanaged, migration can create “false and negative perceptions of migrants that feed into a narrative of xenophobia, intolerance and racism,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted at an event in New York last September.

“The narrative of migrants as a threat, as a source of fear, which has colored international media coverage on migration, is false,” said Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), a UN body that deals with trade, investment and development issues, in an interview with Africa Renewal.

Orderly migration
The Global Compact for Migration, the first-ever inter-governmentally negotiated agreement on international migration, which was adopted in Marrakesh last week, could counter negative perceptions of migrants, experts say.

The IOM states the compact will help achieve “safe, orderly and regular migration,” referring to it as an opportunity to “improve the governance on migration, to address the challenges associated with today’s migration, and to strengthen the contribution of migrants and migration to sustainable development.”

The compact consists of 23 objectives, among them mitigating the adverse drivers and structural factors that hinder people from building and maintaining sustainable livelihoods in their countries of origin; reducing the risks and vulnerabilities migrants face at different stages of migration by respecting, protecting and fulfilling their human rights and providing them with care and assistance; and creating conditions that enable all migrants to enrich societies through their human, economic and social capacities, and thus facilitating their contributions to sustainable development at the local, national, regional and global levels.

The compact also refers to enabling faster, safer and cheaper transfer of remittances and fostering the financial inclusion of migrants; ensuring that all migrants have proof of legal identity and adequate documentation; and providing migrants with access to basic services.

The Global Compact for Migration is not legally binding, but its provisions can be a powerful reference point for those formulating immigration policies as well as for human rights advocates in the face of mistreatment of migrants.

Negative attitudes or even violence against migrants typically stem from fears that they take jobs away from native-born citizens or that they engage in criminal activities, according to a study by the South Africa–based Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), a statutory research agency.

In the HSRC study, which focused on South Africans’ attitudes toward immigrants, 30% of the public blamed foreigners for “stealing jobs from hardworking South Africans,” while another 30% pointed to immigrants’ criminal activities.

But IOM South Africa countered that “immigration does not harm the long-term employment prospects or wages of native-born workers,” adding that “migrants are twice as likely to be entrepreneurs [as] South African nationals.” The South African government regularly condemns xenophobic attacks.

Economic perspective of migration
Mr. Kituyi said that most migration studies focus on “the plight of migrants, the crisis of international solidarity or humanitarian challenges.” He wished that more attention were paid to migration from the perspective of economic development.

Ms. Lúcia Kula, an Angolan migrant who is a researcher in the UK, concurred, adding that conversations about migration should shift to the migrants’ contributions to their new society.

“One of the main things they [immigrants] do in the economies they get into is create value. They enter niches where they are more competitive…and it can boost the local economy,” Mr. Kituyi elaborated.

Many migrants are talented professionals and offer expert services in their new countries. Iso Paelay, for example, left Liberia in the heat of the war in the 90s and resettled in Ghana, where he became a star presenter for TV3, a leading media house in the country. Apparently, Liberia’s loss was Ghana’s gain.

Mr. Kituyi points to a phenomenon of migrants going to other countries to engage in the ethnic food business. “They start creating routes to get food from their home country,” he said. Ethiopian restaurants in Nairobi, Kenya, including Abyssinia, Habesha and Yejoka Garden, serve Ethiopian dishes such as injera.

Abuja International Restaurant in Union, New Jersey, sells Nigerian food such as eba, amala and fufu and the popular beer Gulder. In New York, Africans and others throng “Little Senegal,” a single street in Harlem, to shop for anything African—foodstuffs, music CDs, hair products, religious items and finely tailored clothes.

While working hard, earning money and making contributions to their new countries, African migrants also “remit small monies back home to support their families,” explained Mr. Kituyi. “Eighty-five percent [of immigrants’ earnings] goes to the host country and 15% to the country of origin through remittances.”

“A good chunk of the money I make here [in the US] I spend here; I pay my bills and get things for myself. I remit some to upkeep my parents,” concurs Ms. Christy Emeagi, a lawyer who left Nigeria “because I wanted a better life for my unborn children.”

The inclusion in the Global Compact for Migration of ways to make remittances faster and safer will be sweet music to African migrants.

In 2017, remittance flows from migrants to sub-Saharan Africa were $38 billion, reports the World Bank. That is more than the $25 billion official development aid (ODA) to the region that year.

Currently, says Mr. Kituyi, “it is painful to see an overly high cost of transaction mostly going to international payment services like Western Union, PayPal and so on.”

Achieving the objectives of the Global Compact for Migration may take some time, experts believe. Nevertheless, the compact’s immediate impact is that safe, orderly and regular migration is currently at the forefront of global conversation. And that is a step in the right direction.

*Africa Renewal is published by the United Nations

Excerpt:

(From left) African Union chairperson and president of Rwanda Paul Kagame, president of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou and African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat at the launch of AfCFTA in Kigali in March 2018. Credit: Office of President Paul Kagame

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 15 2018 (IPS)

Following the unveiling of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018, Africa is about to become the world’s largest free trade area: 55 countries merging into a single market of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.

The shelves of Choithrams Supermarket in Freetown, Sierra Leone, boast a plethora of imported products, including toothpicks from China, toilet paper and milk from Holland, sugar from France, chocolates from Switzerland and matchboxes from Sweden.

Yet many of these products are produced much closer—in Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and other African countries with an industrial base.

So why do retailers source them halfway around the world? The answer: a patchwork of trade regulations and tariffs that make intra-African commerce costly, time wasting and cumbersome.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), signed by 44 African countries in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018, is meant to create a tariff-free continent that can grow local businesses, boost intra-African trade, rev up industrialization and create jobs.

The agreement creates a single continental market for goods and services as well as a customs union with free movement of capital and business travellers. Countries joining AfCFTA must commit to removing tariffs on at least 90% of the goods they produce.

If all 55 African countries join a free trade area, it will be the world’s largest by number of countries, covering more than 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

The ECA adds that intra-African trade is likely to increase by 52.3% by 2020 under the AfCFTA.

Five more countries signed the AfCFTA at the African Union (AU) summit in Mauritania in June, bringing the total number of countries committing to the agreement to 49 by July’s end. But a free trade area has to wait until at least 22 countries submit instruments of ratification.

By July 2018, only six countries—Chad, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Ghana, Kenya, Niger and Rwanda—had submitted ratification instruments, although many more countries are expected to do so before the end of the year.

Economists believe that tariff-free access to a huge and unified market will encourage manufacturers and service providers to leverage economies of scale; an increase in demand will instigate an increase in production, which in turn will lower unit costs.
Consumers will pay less for products and services as businesses expand operations and hire additional employees.

“We look to gain more industrial and value-added jobs in Africa because of intra-African trade,” said Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, a body that deals with trade, investment and development, in an interview with Africa Renewal.

“The types of exports that would gain most are those that are labour intensive, like manufacturing and agro-processing, rather than the capital-intensive fuels and minerals, which Africa tends to export,” concurred Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the ECA, in an interview with Africa Renewal, emphasizing that the youth will mostly benefit from such job creation.

In addition, African women, who account for 70% of informal cross-border trading, will benefit from simplified trading regimes and reduced import duties, which will provide much-needed help to small-scale traders.

If the agreement is successfully implemented, a free trade area could inch Africa toward its age-long economic integration ambition, possibly leading to the establishment of pan-African institutions such as the African Economic Community, African Monetary Union, African Customs Union and so on.

A piece of good news

Many traders and service providers are cautiously optimistic about AfCFTA’s potential benefits. “I am dreaming of the day I can travel across borders, from Accra to Lomé [in Togo] or Abidjan [in Côte d’Ivoire] and buy locally manufactured goods and bring them into Accra without all the hassles at the borders,” Iso Paelay, who manages The Place Entertainment Complex in Community 18 in Accra, Ghana, told Africa Renewal.

“Right now, I find it easier to import the materials we use in our business—toiletries, cooking utensils, food items—from China or somewhere in Europe than from South Africa, Nigeria or Morocco,” Paelay added.

African leaders and other development experts received a piece of good news at the AU summit in Mauritania in June when South Africa, Africa’s most industrialised economy, along with four other countries, became the latest to sign the AfCFTA.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and another huge economy, has been one of the holdouts, with the government saying it needs to have further consultations with indigenous manufacturers and trade unions. Nigerian unions have warned that free trade may open a floodgate for cheap imported goods that could atrophy Nigeria’s nascent industrial base.

The Nigeria Labour Congress, an umbrella workers’ union, described AfCFTA as a “radioactive neoliberal policy initiative” that could lead to “unbridled foreign interference never before witnessed in the history of the country.”

However, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo expressed the view that the agreement is “where our [economic] salvation lies.”

At a July symposium in Lagos organised in honour of the late Adebayo Adedeji, a onetime executive secretary of the ECA, Yakubu Gowon, another former Nigerian leader, also weighed in, saying, “I hope Nigeria joins.”

Speaking at the same event, Songwe urged Nigeria to get on board after consultations, and offered her organisation’s support.

Last April, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari signalled a protectionist stance on trade matters while defending his country’s refusal to sign the Economic Community of West African States-EU Economic Partnership Agreement. He said then, “Our industries cannot compete with the more efficient and highly technologically driven industries in Europe.”

In some countries, including Nigeria and South Africa, the government would like to have control over industrial policy, reports the Economist, a UK-based publication, adding, “They also worry about losing tariff revenues, because they find other taxes hard to collect.”

While experts believe that Africa’s big and industrialising economies will reap the most from a free trade area, the ECA counters that smaller countries also have a lot to gain because factories in the big countries will source inputs from smaller countries to add value to products.

The AfCFTA has also been designed to address many countries’ multiple and overlapping memberships in Regional Economic Communities (RECs), which complicate integration efforts. Kenya, for example, belongs to five RECs. The RECs will now help achieve the continental goal of a free trade area.

Many traders complain about RECs’ inability to execute infrastructure projects that would support trading across borders. Ibrahim Mayaki, head of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the project-implementing wing of the AU, says that many RECs do not have the capacity to implement big projects.

For Mr. Mayaki, infrastructure development is crucial to intra-African trade. NEPAD’s Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) is an ambitious list of regional projects. Its 20 priority projects have been completed or are under construction, including the Algiers-Lagos trans-Saharan highway, the Lagos-Abidjan transport corridor, the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya power transmission line and the Brazzaville-Kinshasa bridge.

The AfCFTA could change Africa’s economic fortunes, but concerns remain that implementation could be the agreement’s weakest link.

Meanwhile African leaders and development experts see a free trade area as an inevitable reality. “We need to summon the required political will for the African Continental Free Trade Area to finally become a reality,” said AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, at the launch in Kigali.

*This article first appeared in Africa Renewal which is published by the United Nations.

Excerpt:

Liberians wave goodbye to departing Ukrainian peacekeepers. Credit: UN Photo/Gonzalez Farran

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 2018 (IPS)

On a bright, sunny day in January this year, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf turned over power to George Weah, a decorated soccer star, following peaceful and successful elections. This marked Liberia’s first democratic transfer of power in more than 70 years.

In his inaugural address, President Weah was quick to advise his compatriots to “not allow political loyalties to prevent us from collaborating in national interest.” He vowed to tackle inequality because “the absence of equality and unity led us down the path of destroying our own country.”

Weah was referring to the Liberian civil war from 1989 to 2003, which left the country in tatters politically and economically. The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was deployed in 2003 to help restore peace and security in the country.

After nearly 15 years in Liberia, the UN peacekeeping mission ended last March, having disarmed more than 100,000 combatants, secured about 21,000 weapons, enabled about one million refugees and displaced persons to return home and assisted in the holding of three peaceful presidential and legislative elections.

The UN’s secretary-general António Guterres in a statement issued in early April expressed his “respect to the memory of 202 peacekeepers who lost their lives” in Liberia.

“Peace is here to stay and our democracy is maturing. Now we need jobs,” Marwolo Kpadeh, head of the Liberian Youth Network, a leading youth organization, told Africa Renewal.

After the peaceful handover of power, Kpadeh is correct when he says that Liberia’s key challenge is now mostly economic. “Limited employment continues to undermine the welfare of Liberians in both urban and rural areas,” notes the World Bank.

UN’s engagement continues

While President Weah must deal with economic issues, the withdrawal of UNMIL peacekeepers will test the government’s readiness to perform public safety and security duties, writes FrontPageAfrica, a Liberian newspaper.

The UN has allayed concerns, promising to remain engaged even in the absence of a peacekeeping force.

The UN family will remain in the country “with a view to ensuring that the hard-won peace can be sustained and the country and its people will continue to progress and thrive,” Guterres added, in his statement.

The UN Country Team, including its agencies, funds and programmes, such as the UN Development Programme, UNICEF and the World Food Programme, will remain in the country.

A “strengthened Resident Coordinator” will lead the team and help the government achieve targets set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Amina Mohammed, the UN’s deputy-secretary-general, said in March.

Mohammed, who visited Liberia in late March as the final batch of peacekeepers prepared to leave, praised UNMIL for being “at the forefront of establishing the key foundations for peace in Liberia.”

The UN’s promise of continuing engagement should be welcome news to Liberians, who have been dealing with the ubiquitous peacekeepers over the past 14 years.

How it began

The Liberian civil war began in 1989 when Charles Taylor started a military campaign to overthrow President Samuel Doe.

By 2003, with more than 205,000 people killed, the UN Security Council authorized the establishment of a peacekeeping force consisting of up to 15,000 military personnel and over 1,000 police officers, among others.

UNMIL began operations in October 2003, when about 3,500 troops of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), who had arrived in Liberia a few months prior, were rehatted as UN peacekeepers. Guterres said that ECOMOG troops laid the foundation ahead of UN peacekeepers’ deployment.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by President Taylor and leaders of all warring factions and political parties on August 18, 2003 in Accra, Ghana, provided the political cover for UNMIL’s deployment throughout the country.

UNMIL’s first force commander, now-retired Lieutenant General Daniel Opande, described the situation of the country at the time of deployment: “Nothing functioned, the government had collapsed, no security arrangement, the entire country was in turmoil. People were moving from place to place, looking for safety or for food. It was very bad.”

“When I arrived in Liberia, a thick cloud of uncertainty and insecurity hung over the country,” corroborates Patrick Coker, who joined UNMIL as a senior public information officer in October 2003. “There was no electricity, no water, fighters carried weapons around, thousands of internally displaced persons, hopelessness, poverty, anguish—we were on edge.”

UNMIL and its partners, including an interim government headed by Gyude Bryant, attempted but failed to begin disarmament on December 7, 2003. General Opande attributed the botched attempt to UNMIL’s ill-preparedness. There was a misunderstanding over money to be paid the fighters, and when they began firing in the air, the process ended abruptly.

Successful disarmament

Fighters of the rebel faction Liberians United for Reconstruction and Democracy (LURD) tested UNMIL’s resolve on Christmas Day of 2003 when they prevented the peacekeepers from deploying in Tubmanburg, northwest of Monrovia. Two days later, General Opande led heavy reinforcements of troops and weapons back to Tubmanburg. This time the fighters capitulated, even danced—and, bizarrely, set fire to their checkpoint.

“The Liberian people are tired of war. We too are tired,” said LURD’s deputy chief of staff, “General” Oforie Diah.

The mission had learned a lesson and so, when disarmament restarted in April 2004 after a robust communications campaign to educate combatants on the process, there were no serious hitches.

Coker recalls that “dealing with the ex-combatants, who had been in the bushes for more than a decade, was no easy task.” At the slightest provocation, such as a delay in payment of disarmament allowance, they rioted and threatened to torpedo the peace process. During such moments, UNMIL and partners often relied on Liberian women to bring the former fighters under control.

“If there is a group in Liberia that I, Opande, can give the biggest congratulations for bringing peace, it is the women,” says Lieutenant General Opande.

After a successful disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration process and peaceful elections, the mission’s attention shifted to providing security for the country, helping to midwife a new army and police force and extending civil authority throughout the country. As well, UNMIL provided technical and logistical support to various government departments.

Renewed hope

Former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf inherited an economy ruined by war; however, she mobilized foreign and domestic resources to kick-start development, including in the energy and transportation sectors.

In 2010, Liberia secured nearly $5 billion in debt relief from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, African Development Bank and other creditors. That was 90% of the country’s total foreign debt and 15% of its GDP.

As the economy was taking off, the Ebola epidemic hit in late 2014 and caused a negative 1.6% growth rate by 2016. The World Bank now forecasts modest but sustained positive growth after a 2.6% rise last year.

Fourteen years of war, bad leadership and the Ebola epidemic might have derailed Liberia’s socioeconomic development, but Weah’s inauguration—as much as Sirleaf’s 12 years in power—appears to be rekindling hope in the country’s future.

President Weah needs to build on Sirleaf’s successes, writes Benjamin Spatz in the New York Times. “She brought Liberia back from the dead. Now it’s his turn to nurture the country’s fledgling institutions by taking on its coercive, corrupt political culture.”

In sum: “Liberia is an important example of what sustainable peace means in practise,” reflected Mohammed, speaking for the UN.

Kpadeh’s hope of a better country depends on sustained peace. “Development is never possible without peace,” he said. “We should all be proud of UNMIL’s achievement.”

*Africa Renewal is published by the UN’s Department of Public Information.
The link to the original article: https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2018-july-2018/mission-accomplished-15-years-peacekeeping-success-liberia

Excerpt:

South African youths protest outside the Cape Town Convention Centre against inequalities. Credit: AMO/ Esa Alexander

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 19 2018 (IPS)

From “Africa Reeling” to “Africa Rising,” there’s a new narrative for the African continent, now showing promising signs of sustainable growth under more stable governments.

McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, predicts that Africa’s combined GDP will be $2.6 trillion by 2020 and that “Africa’s consumer spending by 128 million households with discretionary income is expected to be around $1.4 trillion.”

Among the countries attracting investors are Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo.

But a new report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) finds that Africa’s new wealth is increasingly concentrated in a few hands. Disappointingly, 10 of the world’s 19 most unequal countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Economic inequality, sometimes referred to as income inequality, is the unequal distribution of a country’s wealth. In highly unequal societies, such as South Africa, most people live in poverty while a minority amasses enormous wealth.

South Africa, the continent’s most developed economy, is also the world’s most unequal. Botswana, Namibia and Zambia are also among the top 19.

While Ethiopia’s economy is growing at 8%, it is impossible to miss its impoverished citizens in the streets of its capital, pulling on donkeys to transport goods while the rich and famous drive around in luxury cars.

Inequality drivers

In Nigeria “the scale of inequality has reached extreme levels,” reports Oxfam, a UK-based charity, in a study published in May 2017. Five of Nigeria’s wealthiest people, including Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, have a combined wealth of $29.9 billion—more than the country’s entire 2017 budget. About 60% of Nigerians live on less than $1.25 a day, the threshold for absolute poverty.

“Everything [in South Africa is] was skewed racially—education, access to finance, and access to land,” maintains Haroon Bhorat, an economics professor at the University of Cape Town.

Several factors drive inequality in Africa, according to the group of economists who authored the UNDP report “Income Inequality Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa: Divergence, Determinants and Consequences”.

First, under Africa’s two-track economic structure, growth often occurs in sectors characterized by low absorption of unskilled labour, high earnings inequality and high capital share in total income.

The authors note that growth in those sectors may spur GDP headline growth but will also exacerbate inequality. It’s a rising tide that doesn’t lift all boats.

Second, infrastructure, human labour and land are highly concentrated in Eastern and Southern Africa. Third, authors of the report make reference to the “natural resource curse, an urban bias of public policy and ethnic and gender inequalities.” It appears, they note, that countries with abundant natural resources, such as Botswana and Zambia, are also some of the most unequal.

Inequality also results from regressive taxes [tax rate decreases when taxable income increases], unresponsive wage structures and inadequate investments in education, health and social protection for vulnerable and marginalized groups.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many African countries buckled under pressure from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and Western nations to implement structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), which led to cuts in subsidies for health, education, transportation and other sectors that help poor citizens.

Some historians and economists now say those cuts fostered inequality. “Under the influence of Western donors, austerity became African leaders’ default coping mechanism for periods of economic stress,” writes Nicholas William Stephenson Smith, a freelance researcher and historian.

Social unrest

For many countries SAPs widened the wealth gap rather than providing macroeconomic stability, argues Said Adejumobi, director of Southern Africa’s subregional office for the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Adejumobi adds that structural adjustment stalled mobility, frayed communities and sharpened divisions along socioeconomic lines. Currently “a tiny group of 4% captures a large chunk of the income and wealth in Africa’s changing tide of capitalist progress,” he says.

Inequality now threatens social cohesion on the continent. In recent months thousands of Ethiopians have been on the streets protesting harsh economic conditions, forcing factories, hospitals and public transportation to shut down operations.

Economic inequality is fueling conflicts in the Central African Republic, Libya, Nigeria and South Sudan, says Adejumobi. “The warped motive of Boko Haram insurgency may not relate to inequality but…ignorance and deprivation are two factors that may have made it possible for the terrorist group to recruit young people to kill and maim their fellow citizens.”

Expect deprived people to push back against inequality at some point, says renowned French economist Thomas Piketty, because the rich will always try to protect the status quo and resist efforts to achieve an egalitarian society.

Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” makes a moral argument against excessive wealth accumulation, describing it as unfair and unjust and something to be resisted.

Countries adopted the Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) to, among other targets, halve the number of people living in absolute poverty. Globally, after 15 years, some 50% of participating countries had met that target, 30% had made progress and 20%, mostly developing countries, had not made significant progress.

The Gambia and Ghana met the target, but Ethiopia was among the countries that did not.

The authors of Income Inequality Trends in sub-Saharan Africa argued that poverty reduction efforts do not necessarily bridge the inequality gap, which was a conceptual underpinning of the MDGs.

To achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an offshoot of the MDGs, experts hope countries will embrace a range of policies that tackle various forms of inequalities, not just poverty.

“Policies that help reduce poverty are not necessarily the same as those that help reduce income inequality,” writes Abdoulaye Dieye, director of UNDP’s regional bureau for Africa, in the preface to the report.

Closing the gap

Quality education may dent poverty but will not close the inequality gap unless accompanied by “progressive taxation [tax rate increases with increases in taxable amount] and well-targeted social protection,” Dieye further explains.

Also, countries need to focus on growth pattern rather than growth rate, because inequality falls when growth is in labour-intensive sectors, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and construction, and it rises when growth is in sectors high in capital and the use of skilled labour, such as mining, finance, insurance and real estate, according to the UNDP economists.

Currently most African countries allocate a significant share of their national budgets to recurrent overheads and/or debts, leaving little or nothing for other projects.

Corruption, mismanagement and illicit financial flows (IFFs) also deplete state coffers.

According to a 2015 report by a high-level African Union panel on IFFs headed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, Africa loses up to $50 billion annually to illicit financial flows. Mr. Mbeki urges countries to punish multinational companies that are over-invoicing, underpricing or funneling money to tax havens.

“Gender inequality is costing sub-Saharan Africa “on average $US95 billion a year, peaking at US$105 billion in 2014—or six percent of the region’s GDP—jeopardizing the continent’s efforts for inclusive human development and economic growth,” according to the UNDP publication Africa Human Development Report 2016: Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa.

The authors of the UNDP report highlight that in sub-Saharan Africa, household income disproportionately favours adult males and “gender discrimination is acute and endemic.”

The UNDP correlates gender equality with human development. Mauritius and Tunisia Mauritius have low levels of gender equality and high levels of human development. Conversely, Chad, Mali and Niger have high levels of gender inequality but low levels of human development.

Former vice president of the World Bank’s Africa division Obiageli Ezekwesili said last November that men are mostly to blame for Africa’s economic problems. “When many more women are at the decision-making level, there is less corruption. Nobody does any favour to women by involving them in governance.”

Ayodele Odusola, the lead author of the UNDP report, maintains that no single solution can address inequalities on the continent. “You have to take countries’ context into consideration,” he says, advising countries to adopt progressive taxation, invest in education and agriculture, increase direct taxation and institute efficient tax administration.

*Africa Renewal is published by the UN’s Department of Public Information.

Excerpt: