Africa and globalisation: Transforming from taker to shaper?
In recent years, a growing number of G20 nation states have used various forms of summit diplomacy to enhance engagement with the African continent through regular high-level meetings. These have been operationalised through initiatives such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, India-Africa Forum Summit, Africa-EU Summit, the Korea-Africa Forum, the Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, the United States-Africa Leaders Summit, and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Except for the summit with the EU, all of these initiatives are essentially putting together a single country with an entire continent. The partnerships span the parameters of both South-South and North-South cooperation, presenting opportunities for the African continent to diversify its international relations and cooperation.
African leaders welcomed the Attention at this G20 Summit and praised Germany for the “new partnerships”. In concrete terms though, what results from this effort are the announcements of funding of less than $ 500 million. Time has come for the continent to position itself as part of the solution rather than part of the problems to address. Instead of being too distracted by others‘ plans, it’s time to have a plan for how the continent deals with them, G20 included.