Highlight 6/2024 – The Evolution of EU’s Development Aid to Africa from a Governance Perspective (Part One)
Roselyn Doe, 1 February 2024
The European and African continents are historically connected. The European Union has always reserved a central role for Africa in its international relations. Development and cooperation between the European Union and Africa have been built on various partnerships and agreements. The European Union Strategic Partnership; a joint partnership with Africa was launched in 2007. As a strategic partner, the EU seeks to enhance cooperation with Africa to promote actions targeted to finding locally adapted solutions to challenges that are global in nature, but which often hit Africa hardest.
Over the years, there have been major transitions in the EU’s development cooperation program. The objectives, scope, and tools of the Union’s development cooperation policy were altered by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement in 2000 and its revisions.
Historically, different regions of Africa were subjugated and colonized by European powers, who also imposed their own forms of colonial control. The foundation of British colonialism was indirect rule, in which regional leaders represented the British Empire. France used direct authority to impose assimilationist colonial rule over Senegal, Mali, and the Ivory Coast when occupying the Western Coast of Africa. Through the « mission civilisatrice, » French culture, language, and education were imposed throughout France’s colonial reign. During its colonial reign, Portugal preferred to exploit the resources in Angola and Mozambique. During its colonial reign in Rwanda and Burundi, Belgium concentrated on privatizing mined raw minerals.
The variety of colonial patterns gave rise to several decolonization processes. As a result, from the 1960s to the 1980s, several states formed in Africa, including pro-Western or African-socialist regimes. However, over time, the majority of newly independent African republics became undemocratic, one-party systems, or military dictatorships. The process of decolonization did not change the peripheral political and economic position of African nations.
The EU began offering development assistance to its former colonies in Africa as European integration got underway. Thus, the colonial history of Europe served as the inspiration for Union’s development program. The EU refers to the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa as the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Countries (ACP), together with other island nations in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Due to their shared periphery position in the global system and colonial ties, these nations are grouped together.
The preservation of post-colonial relations served as a primary driving force behind EU development strategy for sub-Saharan African nations in its early years. France and other former colonial powers shaped much of the development agenda of the EU. As a result, West African francophone nations were the focus of regional EU development policy. The EU’s initial expansion and the entry of Denmark, Britain, and Ireland altered the development policy’s geographic focus. The development policy encompassed the majority of the decolonized African nations.
The evolution of EU development policy was marked by the adoption of the Lomé Convention. The Lomé Convention, which was influenced by the New International Economic Order of the 1970s, provided a unique model of development policy based on equality and partnership. North-South interactions are modelled after the repeated Lomé Conventions between the EU and the ACP nations. However, the EU’s development strategy changed as a result of the end of the Cold War and the globalization that followed. During this time, the influence of geopolitical or historical issues began to wane. Furthermore, the 1990s waves of democratization and liberalism had an increasing impact on EU development policy.
One of the objectives of the Africa-EU partnership in a governance perspective is to recognise and fully support Africa’s efforts and leadership to create conducive conditions for sustainable social and economic development and the effective implementation of partner-supported development programmes and to, in this context, underline the importance of strong African political commitment and responsibility in support of the objectives and priorities of the partnership.
One may ask if this partnership is serving its purpose, and subsequently leading to a sustainable development on the African Continent? Or is Europe’s approach fragmented, and could be considered detrimental to the effectiveness and harmony of the more comprehensive Joint Africa-EU Strategy.
For Part Two, continue to Highlight 7/2024.
Roselyn Doe, Highlight 6/2024 – The Evolution of EU’s Development Aid to Africa from a Governance Perspective (Part One), available at www.meig.ch
The views expressed in the MEIG Highlights are personal to the authors and neither reflect the positions of the MEIG Programme nor those of the University of Geneva.