Suite à la visite de 48 heures au Togo d’Alain Joyandet, Secrétaire d’Etat français à la coopération et à la francophonie, la France a doublé son aide au développement au Togo. Celle-ci est passée à 5 millions d’Euro sur la base d’une aide budgétaire exceptionnelle de 2,5 millions d’Euro qui s’inscrit dans le cadre du « Partenariat mondial pour la sécurité alimentaire ».
United Nations
Is ACP economic sovereignty just « virtual reality »?
The OECD-led proposal for a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) has run into difficulties because of disagreements among some of the key negotiating parties. The author of this article, who is responsible for special programmes at the Vienna-based United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), offers a sharp critique of the proposals (in their present form) from a developing country perspective.
IIème Conférence mondiale des intellectuels d’Afrique et de la Diaspora (CIAD II)
Les relations entre l’Afrique et l’Amérique latine et les Caraïbes ont été souvent « platoniques » si l’on se réfère aux échanges des biens et services entre les deux continents. La solidarité tant souhaitée ne peut que reposer sur une organisation solide et fondée sur des organisations travaillant en réseaux avec pour objectif premier : la transparence, la performance et la solidarité.
OMC : Solidarité par défaut ou accalmie trompeuse
Après les échecs éprouvants de l’OMC à Seattle et à Cancun[1], la stratégie du « no surprise » de Pascal Lamy semble avoir payé. Adopté en novembre 2001 à Doha au Qatar lors de la 4e conférence ministérielle de l’Organisation mondiale pour le Commerce (OMC), le programme de Doha, qui comporte 21 dossiers visant à éliminer les obstacles au commerce.
After G8 Gleneagles Summit : The Rhetoric of Commitments for Africa
The G 8 Gleneagles Summit (7-8 July 2005 in Scotland) was preceded by an unprecedented worldwide hope that leaders of the G 8 rich countries will deliver more than hope. Expectations from the international civil society and from African populations were just too high. Cancellation of the reported $ US 218,4 millions of the total debt stocks of sub-Saharan African countries did not occur even if according to the 2005 Development index, poverty reduction is not just about flows of mone
Africans speak out ahead of G8, calling for « trade not aid »
The world media has been obsessively focused on the upcoming G8 conference at Gleneagles. But despite the lack of reporting of African opinion on the issue of poverty, Africans are helping themselves, as Deborah Gabriel reports.
Should European taxpayers support Togo’s parody of election?
It is amazing to see the emerging frontiers of Democracy in Africa. Togo experienced the first “Coup d’Etat” in 1963 with the enigmatic murdering of the first elected President of Togo Sylvanus Olympio in the garden of the American Embassy. After 38 years of dictatorship led by the late Eyadéma Gnassingbé who officially died on February 5th 2005, Togo is now experiencing the leadership of Faure Gnassingbé, one of the sons. The presidential election on the 24 of April 2005 was heavily contested by a coalition of six political parties headed by a common candidate, Bob Emmanuel Akitani. The son of the first President of Togo, Gilchrist Olympio was prevented from running a constitution revisited many times to accommodate the army and those in power.
COMMISSION FOR AFRICA : Produce now, Pay later : Towards a real Marshall Plan for Africa
While attending the launching of the report of the Commission for Africa (CfA) titled “our common interest” in the impressive building of the British Museum in London on the 11th March 2005, I felt that something historical is taking place here with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in the driving seats. One should be clear. The report is on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). North Africa is not eligible.
Un plan Marshall à crédit pour l’Afrique
A la différence de l’aide conditionnelle du plan Marshall américain pour l’Europe de l’après-guerre 39-45, il est de plus en plus question pour certains pays riches de proposer un plan Marshall à crédit pour l’Afrique. La surenchère en matière d’offres de financement après le Tsunami asiatique a peu de chance de se renouveler. Malgré la réticence des Etats-Unis, du Japon, voire de l’Allemagne, Tony Blair souhaite relever ce défi lors de sa présidence tournante du G8 et de l’Union européenne. La croissance économique est donc nécessaire, mais elle doit pouvoir être partagée pour permettre de limiter, de manière pérenne, les défaillances des marchés au même titre que les défaillances des Etats économiquement faibles.
Global Value Chains and Production Networks : Promoting Capability formation in South Africa
This paper is an attempt to “operationalize” suggested UNIDO policy instruments to benchmark countries’ competitive industrial performance, taking South Africa as an example. It draws from the experience of the African Productive Capacity Initiative adopted by the African Ministers of Industry. The Initiative would become the national pillars of the respective sub-regional and national programmes in Africa on productive capacity and should help to identify the comparative advantages of regions, countries, products in Africa, using the global and local value chains approach as well as South-South Cooperation. Competition, innovation and productivity growth should take into consideration objectives such as the reduction of poverty contained in the Millennium Development Goals and social cohesion.
The poor’s fragmented network : Setting up a decentralised cohesion fund
The fragmentation of communication infrastructures in Africa – for example the railways – has left the continent with a largely incomplete network of interconnections. This makes it virtually impossible to achieve the objective of space integration. Fragmented networks were implemented as means to control trade and ensure the export of raw materials leading to today’s extraverted economy. This intangible communication infrastructure needs to be properly interlinked, especially in rural areas, but has never really received adequate funding.
