Kategorie: Afrika

The EU’s Migration Partnership Framework: Time for a rethink

Photo: Refugee Camp in Eritrea

As European and African leaders gather in Abidjan, tensions over migration continue to simmer. Since 2015, the EU has developed a range of initiatives aimed at reducing migrant arrivals from Africa. The most controversial of these has been the Migration Partnership Framework (MPF). With its emphasis on keeping people out and sending them back, its bilateral and transactional approach to engagement with African partners, and its explicit use of positive and negative incentives, the MPF epitomises the most disturbing trends in EU migration policy.

Engaging African businesses is essential if African nations are to reach the SDGs

Photo: Path in Nature

Reducing food loss, strengthening food markets

On a recent trip to South East Africa I met all the key food and nutrition stakeholders in the public sector. I also met 3 managing directors of small and medium sized businesses. I was struck by how much more dynamic, driven and committed the entrepreneurs were compared to their public sector counterparts when it came to finding solutions to food and nutrition Problems.

Economic Development and Migration in Africa: Going beyond just ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’

Photo: Kusile_Power_Station,Witbank, south Africa

Policy makers, struggling to respond to migration within Africa and from Africa to Europe, have turned to economic development as a means to improve prospects in potential migrants’ home countries. The logic goes, if people have livelihoods in their home countries they are less likely to undertake the dangerous journey across Africa and the Mediterranean to Europe.

Promoting Sustainable Development in China-France Cooperation with Africa: A 2 Billion € joint investment fund

Photo: Solar Energy Panels

France and China have officially established a cooperation agreement on third-country investment in November 2016. Its flagship programme is a joint investment fund. This blog argues that one essential precondition for a successful cooperation is a good understanding of third country’s domestic needs and the identification of complementarities of Sino-French joint Investments in Africa. I take Morocco as an example to illustrate that France and China may have comparative advantages that can contribute to accelerating Morocco’s implementation of renewable energy, a national objective that requires substantial financial support.