By Desire Assogbavi – 12th August 2014

I have spent 3 days last week in Washington DC to observe and engage the first Africa – USA Leaders’ Summit held from 4 – 6 August 2014 in Washington DC, where over 50 African countries representatives including 37 Heads of state had direct interactions with their American counterparts. Several civil society events were also organized prior and during the Summit. The summit was set around 3 major thematic: Investing in Africa’s Future, Peace & Regional Stability and Governing for the Next Generation. Here are a summary of the outcomes as well as some personal reflections….

Highlights

A total of 37 Billion mobilized as a commitment from public and private sector to enhance trade, investment, essential services and security across Africa. These include the following:

$14 billion to be invested in aviation, banking, infrastructure and clean, renewable energy development

$12 billion in new funding to the Power Africa Initiative, bringing the total funding for the program to $26 billion. Power Africa Initiative will electrify an estimated 60 million households and businesses, nearly tripling its original target

$7 billion to facilitate U.S.-Africa trade and investment under the Doing Business in Africa (DBIA) Campaign

$4 billion to promote maternal health, children’s health, and the delivery of vaccines and drugs. More support to nutrition and HIV: Pledged to work with 10 countries to help double the number of children with access to ARVs and assist the African Union efforts to create an African Centre for Disease Control.

Lowlights: Governance and Human Rights

With the presence of some of the most brutal and long serving African autocrats having troubling records on human rights and civil liberties, the Summit could have had in-depth discussions agree on strong and concrete actions on issues of governance, human rights and civic space as fundamental prerequisites for business success. President Obama drew the diplomatic line by not inviting Omar Bashir and Robert Mugabe to the Summit but, rolling out the red carpet for leaders like Obiang Nguema, Yahya Jammey or Blaise Compaore  – some of those being in power for 20-35 years – simply showed that business and security interests can easily surpass the need to uphold universal human and civil rights and accountable institutions.

Human Rights Scandals in Washington: During the Summit in Washington, a Congolese demonstrator has been  attacked and severely beaten by  President Joseph Kabila’s guards while him and other Congolese were peacefully demonstrating on the street when Kabila was passing.  The US asked DR Congo to waive immunity for the guards so they could face prosecution in the US, but the guards instead left the country  and were unlikely to face charges. State Department said they have also asked the delegation of Gambia to waive immunity for a guard after President Yahya Jammeh’s security detail similarly cracked down on protesters outside his hotel.

Specific Commitments and other issues

Peace and Security: The United States will build a new security governance initiative to help African countries of Kenya, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Ghana and Tunisia to build strong professional security forces to build their own security especially in response to terrorism and human trafficking.  It will invest $110 million per year for 3-5 years to help Africa Union’s efforts to strengthen its peacekeeping institutions – launching a new African peacekeeping rapid response partnership that will enable states to quickly deploy African peacekeepers in support of UN or AU Missions. This partnership will begin with 6 countries: Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The U.S. also pledged to provide additional equipment to African peacekeepers in Somalia and the Central African Republic

Illicit Capital Flow and Corruption: New partnership agreed upon to combat illicit finance. An experts group will develop an action plan to promote the transparency.

Promoting Next Generation African Leaders: Commitment for a partnership in supporting young entrepreneurs, including through Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative was made. Summit also announced new initiatives for promoting economic and leadership opportunities among the youth. Prior to the Summit, President Obama met with 500 young Africans leaders taking part in his Young Africa Leaders Initiatives (YALI) and has promised to double the number of participants from the coming year.

Just a Competition to China? President Obama called Africa “a good partner, an equal partner, and a partner for the long term”, was this initiative, just a hidden competition to China’s presence in Africa? China’s trade with Africa passed 200 Billion in 2013 with over 2000 Chinese firms present in 50 African countries and China said it would extend $1 trillion of loans to Africa by 2015, most of it via its own Export-Import Bank. In any case this competition is likely to be profitable for Africa if the continent manages it well.

AGOA and Intra-Africa Trade: The African Growth Opportunity Act launched 14 years ago gives duty-free incentives for African countries to open their market in order to boost their trade with the US. In Washington last week, African leaders praised AGOA and requested its renewal next year.   There was a general agreement for a long-term renewal of AGOA on due course but the Washington Summit was not set for that. But, while enjoying AGOA, African country must accelerate to move toward an Africa Free Trade Area to enable trades within African Countries. Despite a timid start, intra-African trade links are very weak. The bulk of the continent’s trade is with Europe and America: only 12% or less is with other African countries, according to research by Ecobank, a Togo-based bank. By comparison 60% of Europe’s trade is with its own continent. The same is true in Asia. In North America the figure is 40%. Some commentators argue that countries in Africa have nothing to trade with each other… I do not agree with that. The continent has so many to trade within while developing home grown industry,

Continued Dialogue: US-Africa Leaders agreed that the Summit will be a recurring event to ensure accountability to commitments and to sustain its momentum, with Obama pledging to encourage his successor to carry on this work.

African Union Peace and Security Council Retreat on the Review of the Livingston Formula

for Civil Society engagement with the Peace and Security Council of the AU

Maseru, 22 February 2014 

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Presentation by:

Mr. Désiré Assogbavi

Resident Representative of Oxfam International to the African Union 

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen;

First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho , Chair of the Peace and Security Council for the month of February 2014, and to the PSC for inviting me as a resource person to contribute into the debates of this retreat relating to the Council’s relation with civil society organizations.

We do have operational presence in 33 countries in Africa including the most conflict affected countries…. And we spend about 500 Million USD every year on humanitarian relieve and socio development projects in the continent.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen;

The African Union represents today one of the greatest assets for our continent. It has become an unavoidable instrument to lead on, to manage and resolve various problems that our continent and its people are facing.

The Peace and Security Council, is,  in our view, not only one of the most important organs within the architecture of the continental body but also one of the most effective, innovative and progressive organs in the whole system. Allowing us, citizens to directly engage with your gathering is really a progressive move.

The Audit Report of the African Union a few years ago stated:the AU through the PSC has brought visibility and credibility to Africa in the area of peace and security. It is now invariably that the PSC takes the lead in dealing with conflicts in Africa followed by the international community’’.

Today, the involvement of a diverse range of actors, including civil society and the private sector, is essential for effective action on continental priorities.

By its immersion within the society and its preservation of an identity that is distinct from States, civil society has vocation to contribute in peace building initiatives. You will agree with me that civil society has shown its capacity to organize the collection, the analysis and the evaluation of first hand information. This allows the identification of the sources of potential tensions as well as emerging conflicts.

The characteristics of security issues addressed by the African Union today are radically different from those of the previous decades. Today’s conflicts appear to be more complex than ever and their nature, are then obliging us to change the ways of resolving them.

“Traditional” conflicts were well understood by diplomats and specialists in political science, BUT, addressing new conflicts adequately requires much more on-the-ground  knowledge, new skills of social and cultural analysis, the active involvement of communities and their leaders, links to vulnerable groups etc, and new ways of working.  Civil society organizations, most of the times, have unique capacities in those areas.

 NGOs who are on the ground, doing humanitarian work, who are touching those societies, looking into the eyes of the people in danger, learning who they are and what is going on, who the factions are and what relations people have with their leaders– much of those things, never gets to the table of your Council.

Humanitarian NGOs and other categories of civil society often have first-hand information and strong comparative advantages in all these new needs.  Our aspiration is to be given the opportunity to share more and more often with you those information and analysis to inform your deliberations.

Switching in French!

Excellences, Mesdames et Messieurs ;

En Décembre 2008, j’ai eu l’honneur de m’adresser à votre Conseil à Livingston, lors de votre délibération qui a abouti à l’adoption de la Formule de Livingston.

5 ans après, il importe de relever les importants progrès enregistrés….

En effet, le Conseil a organisé un certain  nombre de débats publics au cours desquelles, les organisations de la société civile et plus précisément les citoyens africains, y compris ceux affectés par les conflits  ont  eu l’opportunité de vous parler  directement. Mon bureau a Addis Abéba utilise la moities de ses ressources pour soutenir les ONGs africaines à coopérer avec l’union Africaine. De la même manière, votre Conseil s’est montré très ouvert vis-à-vis des acteurs non étatiques pour organiser des actions conjointes des séances de briefing etc.

Cependant Excellences, l’interaction des OSC avec le Conseil est restée la plus part du temps très informelle, et beaucoup d’opportunités  ont été perdues du fait que, l’organe désigné pour faciliter cette interaction, l’ECOSOCC, n’as pas été à la hauteur de la tache au cours des 5 dernières années. En effet, aucune rencontre annuelle du Conseil avec les OSC n’a eu lieu depuis l’adoption du Livinstone Formula.

Au-delà de cette réalité,  les conditions posé par l’article 6 du statut de ECOSOCC, repris par la Formule de Livingston a empêché les ONG Africaines qui ont une expérience remarquable dans les domaines d’Action du Conseil d’être membre de l’ECOSOCC et donc de pouvoir effectivement jouer un rôle déterminant  dans la mise en œuvre de la formule.

Je rappelle que ces conditions comprennent, l’exigence pour les ONG en question d’avoir au moins 50% de leurs ressources provenant de leurs propre membres.   Il est tout à  fait justifié que les ONG Internationale ne soient pas membre de l’ECOSOCC, mais les ONG africaines dont la moities des ressources proviennes de leur membres, sont pour la plus part du temps des syndicats ou associations professionnels ou des organisations qui n’ont que très peu d’expérience et de moyens dans le domaine de la paix et de la securite.   Cette situation pourra changer dans l’avenir à mesure que notre continent bénéficie des fruits de la croissance, l’émergence des organisations caritatives et fondations africaines, mais nous devons attendre encore un peu.

Par ailleurs, les conditions actuelles posées par la formule de Livingston ne permettent qu’as très peu d’organisations, non-basées a Addis Abéba de travailler de façon régulière avec le Conseil.

A notre humble avis, le Conseil gagnerait beaucoup en puisant des expériences de terrain des ONG qui opèrent effectivement dans les zones affectées par les conflits.

Excellence mesdames et messieurs les Ambassadeurs,

Au vu de ce qui précède, j’ai l’honneur de soumettre à l’appréciation du Conseil, les propositions suivantes :

1/Que le Conseil responsabilise son Secrétariat, pour faciliter l’interaction avec les ONGs, — du moins pour une période intérimaire, le temps que les problèmes institutionnels de ECOSOCC soit régler.

Ceci renforcera d’ailleurs, le principe selon lequel, le Conseil demeure maitre de ses opérations.

2/Que le Conseil assouplisse les règles d’éligibilité à interagir avec lui, en considérant   au-delà de tout, les avantages comparatifs, l’expérience de terrain, la spécialité, la proximité d’avec les victimes  etc. Ceci reviendra à abandonner la référence  à l’article 6 du Statut de ECOSOCC comme critère à remplir  pour interagir avec vous.

3/ Que le Conseil ou ses membres organisent des réunions plus régulières avec les OSC, peut-être du type « formule Arria »

La formule Aria avait été inventée et employée par l’ONU pour tirer profit de la valeur ajoutée des OSC au travail du Conseil de Sécurité de l’ONU. De telles réunions ont été limitées d’abord aux hauts fonctionnaires des Etats et OI. L’initiative a été élargie par la suite pour inclure des groupes de la société civile particulièrement les ONG humanitaires et des droits de l’homme. Les réunions de La formule Arria se tiennent en dehors de la salle de session du Conseil de Sécurité. Ces réunions ne sont forcément pas présidées par le Président du Conseil, mais par n’importe quelle délégation qui en prend l’initiative. Aujourd’hui, les réunions du type formule Arria ont lieu pratiquement tous les mois, parfois plus d’une fois par mois mais aucune décision n’y est prisent.

En raison de son caractère informel et de sa nature, ad hoc, le CPS pourra expérimenter cette formule, parallèlement aux rencontres formelles annuelles.  Le CPS pourra l’adapter à son contexte particulier afin d’avoir des interactions plus régulières avec les OSC.

Pour terminer mes propos, j’aimerai attirer votre attention sur 2 domaines importants dans le cadre de votre collaboration avec la société civile, des domaines qui méritent d’être considérés de façon spéciale :

• Il s’agit d’abord de la mise sur pied de mécanismes qui vous permette de prendre en compte les alertes precoces venant des acteurs non-étatiques, mais aussi et surtout de leurs traitement rapide en terme de décision politiques 
•  
• Il s’agit ensuite de l’implication plus systématique de la société civile dans l’organisation des  visites de terrain du Conseil.
• Je vous remercie de votre attention et je vous souhaite de bonnes discussions.

 

“silencing the guns: Pre-requisites for realising a conflict-free africa by the year 2020” 

Intervention of Desire Assogbavi, Head of Oxfam Liaison Office with the African Union at the Peace and Security Council of the AU – 24 April 2014 

 

Excellencies, Distinguish Guests

Allow me on behalf of Oxfam to thank the PSC and the Nigerian presidency, for the choice of this important topic and for inviting us to this public debate.

As we meet today, our continent is celebrated for its increasing economic growth of an average of 5% over the last 10 years.  However, it is also saddening that an important part of our continent is still enduring continued conflicts, insecurity and violence. Despite efforts towards conflict resolution in Africa over the last decade, new and old conflicts continue to delay our development…. Causes and actors are diverse. Their names are Al Shabaab, LRA, Boko haram, Janjaweed, anti-Balaka, Seleka…. But also some government actors, visible and invisible.

The sources of  conflicts in Africa are many. However, inequitable distribution of power and wealth, unfair and unaccountable governance added to illicit flow of arms, have fuelled majority of conflicts and armed violence in our continent, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and causing us the lost of 18 billion USD per year.  Therefore our actions must be equally multidimensional.

 To achieve the ambitious target of an Africa free of conflicts in 2020, a number of urgent issues need to be addressed… Because of time, I will only mention 3 of them:

1.Early and Courageous Response to early warnings – Existing frameworks such as the continental early warning system and the African Peer Review Mechanism have always detected potential conflicts ahead of time. However, in most of the cases, the warnings have been minimized or simply ignored… Who did not know a year ago that South Sudan was likely to burn? Was the Central Africa Republic conflict a surprise?  —- Our decision making bodies at the highest level must detach from the current polite diplomacy to take courageous actions…. when democratic principles and HR are being violated…. when important AU principles such as unconstitutional change of government are violated, when elections do not reflect the true will of citizens.

 

2. Addressing the challenges of illicit trade of Arms – most of the arms used in our conflicts are fabricated outside of our continent. A commentator noted recently that, bananas, tomatoes and bubble gum are more restricted in markets than the trade of AK-47. The AU should aim for a universal ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty,   and for its robust implementation, through regional cooperation. The ATT is expected to come into force in September this year.  So far 27 African nations have signed the Treaty but only Mali and Nigeria have ratifie We recommend that your Council call for a mass and immediate ratification of the ATT by all member states as a sign of good will.

3. Strengthen the role of the Panel of the Wise – Identifying eminent personalities, with necessary experience, intellectual and physical ability to engage in ‘good office’ and shuttle diplomacy.  The AU PoW should be established in a way that its members serve as a standby poll of Envoys for the AUC Chairperson and PSC whenever mediation is needed

I thank you!