The EU has a longstanding tradition of engaging in democracy promotion, using a wide range of strategies and instruments to support processes of democratic consolidation, including in difficult contexts. While some successes have been achieved, the task of building genuine democratic systems that go beyond formal structures and help to deliver development has proven very challenging - for both local democracy promoters and international partners. The need for “deepening democracy” has become a rallying cry in the last years. Growing attention is paid to the role of both the “political society’” (i.e. parliaments, political parties) ...
The African Union Commission’s Mission to the European Union (EU) hosted a conference in Brussels on 24 May on the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the Africa-EU Political Dialogue. Ambassador Emile Ognimba, Director of the Political Affairs Department of the African Union (AU) Commission, Klaus Rudischhauser, Director General of the European Commission’s (EC) Africa, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) Directorate within DEVCO and Roger Moore, Director of the European External Action Service’s (EEAS) Directorate for East and Central Africa were the keynote discussants. The Africa-EU Platform for Dialogue on Governance and Human Rights was ...
(Version française ci-dessous) When it was signed in 2000, the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States and the European Union was widely viewed as offering an ambitious and innovative agenda that would enhance political dialogue, encourage the participation of non-state actors and result in a more effective development cooperation framework. It therefore went beyond the narrow trade and aid focus that was the hallmark of earlier ACP-EU treaties, right from the first post-independence framework agreed in Yaoundé in 1963 through the four successive Lomé conventions implemented between 1975 and ...
This has been an intensive week for civil society organisations and local authorities from the North and the South: the 2nd Assises of Decentralised Cooperation for development meeting was held in Brussels and the closing sessions of the Structured Dialogue (SD) took place on top of it. The Assises of Decentralised Cooperation for development meeting consisted of five round tables dealing with issues related to the role of local and regional authorities in food security, achieving inclusive growth, promoting sustainable development and strengthening multi-level governance. A fifth roundtable aimed at linking this event with the ...
The newest issue of ECDPM’s Europafrica bulletin introduces the nine new senior appointees in charge of sub-Saharan Africa, six of whom worked in almost identical positions for the EC’s DG Development before they joined the European External Action Service. As part of EEAS’ Africa entity, whose final designation has not yet been decided, they will be responsible for strategic planning of EU relations with Africa, programming and the financial allocation. This new institutional setup will have implications for the EU policy towards Africa, amongst many pressing questions are how the EEAS will approach EPAs and ...
The Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) was originally billed as the panacea for policy incoherence, but the ambitious project is now being criticized by African and European stakeholders for lacking strategic focus and for its aspirational character. An ECDPM article analyses the role of the Nordic EU member states in EU-Africa relations and their attitudes towards the JAES and the authors find that the Nordics’ engagement with the JAES illustrate the varying degrees of commitment to this multilateral framework of EU Member States in general: they are making use of the broad JAES framework by engaging ...
This Afrobarometer working paper offers a first comprehensive account of popular voting intentions in Africa’s new electoral democracies. With reference to comparative aggregate and survey data from 16 countries, it shows that competitive elections in Africa are more than mere ethnic censuses or simple economic referenda. Instead, Africans engage in both ethnic and economic voting. Not surprisingly, people who belong to the ethnic group in power intend to support the ruling party, in contrast to those who feel a sense of discrimination against their cultural group. But, to an even greater extent, would-be voters in ...
The study offers an independent contribution to the European Union’s (EU) internal discussions on its future mechanisms for the complementary use of grants and loans (blending). It reviews the existing EU blending mechanisms, comparing their different governance arrangements, drawing lessons from each, and considers the pros and cons of possible future governance options for blending operations. To read the full paper, click here. The European Think-Tanks Group is made up of DIE, ECDPM, FRIDE and ODI.
At the heart of current policy thinking about Africa there is a significant knowledge gap concerning governance and development. This Institute of Development Studies Bulletin is concerned with what can be done about that, drawing on the initial experience of a new research venture, the Africa Power and Politics Programme (APPP). The APPP is committed to discovering forms of governance that work better for development than those prescribed by the current ‘good governance’ orthodoxy. It aims to do so chiefly by examining the range of post-colonial experience in sub-Saharan Africa focusing especially on under-appreciated patterns ...
When used carefully governance indicators provide a valuable source of information on governance conditions and trends. However, when used carelessly they can misinform and mislead. The purpose of this brief from The Policy Practice is to make sense of the different types of governance indicator and how they are used and misused. It warns against the commission of ‘seven deadly sins’ representing the most common pitfalls. The paper puts forward guidelines to ensure a more careful use and interpretation of governance indicators, and highlights the need for providers of indicators to be subject to greater ...
