Reevaluating Africa’s Strategic Partnerships

in an effort to move forward its integration agenda and achieve its vision of “an integrated， prosperous and peaceful Africa， driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena，” the African Union （AU）， through its Commission， has entered into strategic partnerships with countries and regions of the outside world. These include the Africa-EU and Africa-South America partnerships（continent to continent partnerships）， and the Africa-China （FOCAC）， AfricaKorea， Africa-India and Africa-Turkey partnerships （continent to country partnerships）.

Africa has also entered into a strategic partnership with the Arab world， which dates back to 1977. The Africa-Arab partnership， which is Africas oldest partnership， is a solidarity-type partnership， which focuses more on political， cultural and social issues. The partnership is unique， in that it embraces nine countries that belong to both the AU and the Arab League.

In addition， the AU is a co-organizer of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development （TICAD）， initiated by the government of Japan in 1993 to promote a high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners. In this capacity， the AU undertakes negotiations with the government of Japan and other organizers on behalf of its member states.

All of Africas strategic partnerships are guided and monitored by periodic high-level joint policy organ meetings， such as joint summits， and ministerial and senior officials meetings， which are alternately hosted by Africa and the partners. The periodicity of meetings of the joint summits ranges from three to five years. At the end of each joint summit， a declaration and plan of action are adopted， summarizing the political commitments of the two sides and mapping out further direction of the partnership.

Africas strategic partnerships aim at mobilizing the necessary financial and technical support for the implementation of Africas regional and continental programs， including the recently adopted Agenda 2063 and its First 10-Year Implementation Plan. This， however， is by no means affecting engagements in bilateral relations between individual African countries and the AU strategic partners. Instead， the continental engagement with the partners would assist individual African countries to further build their bilateral relations and， attract and provide more investment and trade opportunities as well as other development programs.

Combating terrorism， drug trafficking， and piracy， and protection of cultural heritages， as well as cooperation on migration and diaspora issues are also among the various areas of con- cern that Africa brings to and discusses with the strategic partners， with the aim of finding joint solutions.

As the request from countries and organizations for strategic partnerships with Africa is continuously on the rise， due to the fact that Africa has become the most reliable and attractive destination for global investment， a review of the partnership process is required to assist in curbing the current practice， where partnerships are entered into on the basis of political decisions， and a more demand-driven type of approach will be encouraged， which will be based on the needs of Africa and the comparative advantages of the partners.

Based on the directives of the AU policy organs， the AU Commission in collaboration with the Sub-Committee on Multilateral Cooperation of the Permanent Representatives Committee of the AU is in the process of finalizing an evaluation of the various partnerships， in light of their relevance and effectiveness and value addition.

The evaluation， which had a deadline of mid-2016， also identified the specific areas of cooperation for each partnership， aligning them with the First 10-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063.