Faten Aggad
When former South African President Thabo Mbeki brought back the notion of an African Renaissance to the African political circles in the late 1990s, the continent was at a different place than it is today. It was still suffering from decades of civil wars, dictatorships, bad governance, and socio-economic hardship. Africa was the ‘hopeless continent’. These were the issues the forefathers of the ‘African Renaissance’ sought to tackle when they set out to launch a plethora of new initiatives aimed at promoting popular participation and good governance, peace and security, ensuring the economic take off of ...
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When I visited Tanzania in early 2009, small street shops were selling fabric with the face of Obama and the famous ‘Yes we Can’ election slogan printed on them. Few months later, I bought a box of Obama gum from a store in Burundi. The box of gum was a special edition produced by a Kenyan candy factory to celebrate the election of Obama into the White House. Africa was clearly proud of its (half) son and expectations that his election would yield a new era in US-Africa relations were very high. But the Obama-fever ...
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The new African Union Commission (AUC) College will assume office on Monday 15 October. The election of the Chairperson of the Commission raised hope that there is renewed interest in the organisation, especially from its 54 African member states. Never has an election of the continental leadership been this tightly contested leading observers to suggest that they are a turning point in the history of the Union: from now on ,meritocracy will take precedence over diplomacy and unwritten rules, such as regional quota for the allocation of posts, or that the chairmanship cannot be assumed ...
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“Revolutions need to come from inside but transitions can do with support from outside” – So, what is the EU offering?
In response to the Arab Spring the European Commission has proposed to create a new European Neighbourhood Instrument, based on the European Union’s reviewed approach to cooperation with its neighbours in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. This new approach was set out in an EU Communication from May 2011 entitled “A new response to a changing Neighbourhood”, and is based on the following principles: “More for more” (“less for less” to be used only in extreme scenarios); Differentiation amongst countries receiving support; and Better coordination between different EU actors (European External Action ...
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Is the EU’s new SPRING Programme so new? Commentary on the EU’s new package for North Africa
The European Union has been criticised for its slow response to the events that have unfolded in Tunisia and in Egypt in the first half of 2011. But it is catching up with the new SPRING programme - Support for Partnership, Reform and Inclusive Growth - which it adopted this week. The four pillars of the new package are: - A €350 million flagship initiative to support the political transition (the SPRING programme); - A Special Measure designed to support poorer areas in Tunisia to the value of €20 million; - Additional resources for higher ...
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Today, the EU finds itself in a delicate position as it reflects on its reaction to the uprisings in the Southern Mediterranean.[i] The EU has been widely criticised for supporting Arab governments for so long and for making a 180 degrees turn only once the peoples of Tunisia and Egypt have already secured the change. Granted! Country ownership of governance reforms is crucial but observers agree that the EU could have done more to support such reforms earlier. Now there are calls to place more emphasis on incentives for reforms. Is the idea of ‘incentive ...
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