COLUMN: Africa-Europe Relations on the Dinner Table

Africa-Europe Relations on the Dinner Table:

I wish that like most people I am able to say ‘thank God it is Friday’. I can’t because Saturdays and sometimes Sundays are as loaded for me as weekdays. But this particular Friday was different. My last appointment for the day was cancelled, leaving me unexpectedly with some two hours. I decided to go home, take a quick rest and prepare for our weekly family ritual: while I fix dinner, have Madam picked from work by our older son, together they’d pick the younger son from the train station - he comes in from the university nearly every weekend - and straight to the dinner table.

Because I had more time than anticipated, dinner was ready earlier than usual. I was then left with time to gather my thoughts together ahead of appearance on an African television News Station the next day, Saturday.  My brief is to analyze Belgian international development policy as it relates to Burundi, whose President, Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term plunged Burundi into a state of unrest not seen since the end of the country’s civil war 10 years earlier. Refugees are arriving in neighbouring Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the tens of thousands, raising the possibility that the deteriorating security situation could spill over borders. Belgium had planned a budget of €4m to support the elections in Burundi. A first tranche of €2m was already paid. Belgium International Development Minister Alexander De Croo believes that given these circumstances, the payment of the remaining €2m should be suspended. As I relaxed, a host of questions kept whirling round my head. Is the Belgian action justifiable? What does it change? How should the world confront the increasing embarrassment that African leaders continue to represent? What about the feeling that Europeans are behind some, maybe most of the wars in Africa for their economic interest? Is it true that they get more out of Africa than they put in? Any lessons to be drawn from the Belgian approach in international development engagement? And my thoughts went deeper… Good to hear that President Pierre Nkurunziza attended a mediation session in South Africa, hosted by Nelson Mandela and a deal has been reached whereby he’d step down immediately and a fresh election called, to be masterminded by the United Nations and African Union... My thought was interrupted by a voice calling out ‘Daddy, isn’t it too early to be snoring? And by the way, I don’t know what your dream is all about but the Mandela you are calling out has been dead for some years now’ I realized then that I crossed over from gathering my thoughts, into a deep slumber and then into the dream world. 

Having told my folks what my dream was all about, and having gotten over their teasing, dinner talk centered on the wider issue of Africa - Europe relations. It could be interesting to observe the sometimes radical views of youngsters and attempt to balance those against the more stoic positions of those of us with three decades between our ages. Add these to views filtered from social media comments or intellectual debates amongst African Diaspora, it then begins to nearly make sense. Thus in the ensuing dinner discussions around what the relationship between Africa and Europe has been, what it is and what it must be going forward, I am able to distill three strands of views.  

On one extreme, there are those who hold the radical view that the Official Development Assistance (ODA) or aids is no longer a favoured model of relationship and must be stopped forthwith. It is seen as a re-colonization tool. It has created a culture of dependency and actually enslaved Africans under the pretext of helping out. On the European side of the coin, there is the accusation of African leaders of gross corruption and diversion of ODA funds to private use. This view was captured by one of such persons as follows “the West must stop giving us handouts - it's not like we are poor but our leaders maintain our poverty - a massive age long practice by them all, with no exception!” On the other extreme, you have those who see no major issues with Africa-Europe relations and want to keep things as they are. Anyone that dare criticizes current arrangement is written off as anti-Africa. They are quick to point you to a few and far in-between impact of development assistance, like renovated schools, dispensaries, bole-holes et cetera. They argue that the absence of aids would have meant that beneficiaries would have suffered or even died with the poorest being most at risk.

Africa – Europe relations is a longstanding one formally sealed in Convention of Yaounde in 1963 binding the then European Economic Community and former colonies of some of its Member States. This was followed by the Lomé Convention of 1975 and the current Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) of 2000. The CPA will expire in February 2020. Incidentally all of the shades of opinions that pop up on dinner table conversations and conferences constitute major discussion points in an ongoing European Union initiated regional consultations towards a new partnership arrangements. Good that Europe has made an early start in the consultation process. Hopefully Africa will make a start too or if they have started, should make public any developed consultation papers and take the public along. Is that not what inclusive and good governance should be about? Africa must stop playing catch-up if they care about the human development of its citizens.

The debate on the shape of a post-2020 Africa – Europe relations is broad. There are a few divergent points but one point on which most people agree is that it can no longer be business as usual. ODA could not possibly be thrown away completely as some have suggested. Truth be told, a relationship based on aids is no longer sustainable and must give way to one based on a mix of trade and limited aids for genuine mutual benefits. There should be a renewed focus on the issues of balancing the partnership, reforming the current structure and improving self-reliance of African countries. A reoriented ODA that is heavier on indirect assistance and lighter on bilateral intervention is one that is gaining popularity in public opinion both in Africa and in Europe. This will mean a reduction in Government to Government intervention and increase in Government to Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) interventions. Proponents argue that such will ensure that the leakages shall be plugged as development assistance would achieve better impacts.

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