Over the past two decades, China-Africa relations has been rapidly growing as a unique field of international cooperation. The cooperation has taken root in the form of a range of platforms such as high-level consultative forums, diverse forms of Chinese investments in Africa, technical cooperation agreements, cultural and academic exchange programs, etc. The Forum on China- Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is among the various mechanisms for fostering mutual benefits. As such, FOCAC has increasingly become part of a larger China-Africa cooperation discourse and, to some extent, practice.
The upcoming FOCAC Summit due to take place for the first time on African soil in Johannesburg in December 2015 could not have come at a more opportune moment for various reasons. The continent is making important strides in defining its development priorities, following the adoption of Agenda 2063, the roadmap for continental development. Currently, preparations are underway to craft the Agenda’s First Ten Year Implementation Plan and Measurement Framework. In addition, the Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been adopted globally with vital ramifications for Africa. Agenda 2063 and the SDGs have converged mainly in terms of goals related to social and economic development, climate change and environmental sustainability, as well as peaceful and inclusive societies and responsive institutions. The respective milestones and targets of the two development agendas are expected to be domesticated at national levels. There is now an increasing recognition that global partnership is an important dimension which provides the necessary means to realize the transformation of the continent.
In this regard, the overarching consideration is how FOCAC, as a vital mechanism of China- Africa strategic partnership, can significantly add value to pertinent attempts of furthering Africa’s development and transformation. Accordingly, the Summit in Johannesburg is expected to adopt an Action Plan as well as outline specific measures to entrench the emerging China-Africa partnership addressing key areas such as industrialization, agricultural modernization, public health, people-to-people cultural exchanges, and peace and security.
One of Africa’s aspirations is to become a prosperous industrialized continent by 2063. This could be realized, among others, if the outsourcing of light industries from emerging economies to Africa is conjoined with the added vibrancy of domestic industrialists. Apparently, what China grows out of (be it due to technological upgrading or increase in labor costs) Africa will grow into. In addition to encouraging firms to relocate to Africa inter alia through the provision of financial incentives, China could also offer skills trainings to young Africans and strengthen the capacity of African institutions to consolidate the continent’s industrialization endeavors.
Another component of the Agenda 2063 is to put in place world class infrastructure crisscrossing Africa. Particularly, this is to be achieved by connecting the 54 countries with an integrated high-speed train network. This is an expensive but crucial project to create a more unified Africa, which also cuts costs of freight transport and promotes manufacturing industrialization. To this end, China, which has a comparable mega long-distance train track building project in our current times notably the Silk Road, could come in by providing long- term loans to such projects, technology sharing and building the capacity of African countries to plan, engineer and build train systems by themselves.
The vigor of African economies is dependent on the performance of the agriculture sector. As such, modernizing this sector contributes to industrialization, among others, by providing the surplus to finance industrialization and by making cheap foods available for the labor force. Africa’s attempt to have its own green revolution has largely remained unsuccessful; productivity still remains very low and the sector is at the mercy of nature. In this respect, African states could take lessons from China’s green revolution, particularly breeding for high yielding crops and building of small-scale irrigation infrastructure. This is all the more important given the threats climate change poses to Africa’s agriculture. A lot could also be learnt from China on how to encourage smallholder farmers take up these technologies and start producing for the market.
The health sector in Africa is overburdened by preventable diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS. Epidemics like cholera, and more serious ones like Ebola, occasionally levy their heavy toll. Compared to curative clinical procedures, Africa’s health challenges do not entail cutting-edge expensive knowledge, and more could be done through simpler awareness raising and public health education. China could assist this effort by supporting the revamping of the
health education of African countries and the provision of scholarships to health professionals. Capacity building in the health system and supplying effective but affordable medical equipment and chemicals could also contribute their share.
In addition, the upcoming FOCAC Summit could be geared towards the enhancement of people-to-people cultural exchanges. Such exchanges are essential in promoting mutual understanding and multicultural interaction between the peoples of China and Africa. To this effect, the ongoing offer of scholarships to thousands of Africans should be complemented by periodic academic exchange programs in which Chinese students can attend colleges in Africa. The people-to-people cultural exchanges can also focus on the promotion of mutual intelligibility by establishing language learning centers both in China and in selected African countries. This can be furthered through various ways such as translation of selected African literary works into Chinese and vice versa; preparation of bilingual/multilingual dictionaries (as exemplified by recent publications such as the Chinese-Shona Dictionary in Zimbabwe); and organizing events and films that showcase culture and livelihood in Africa and China. In addition, both China and Africa should jointly explore various ways of maximizing the potential gains from tourism.
Moreover, the sixth FOCAC Summit is expected to focus on African peace and security issues. Like many others in the world, African states are battling terrorism. Some of the major hotspots in the continent are Somalia, Nigeria and the Sahel. Other forms of intrastate conflicts continue to pose serious threats to human wellbeing in various parts of Africa. China, as one of the major global powers and a pivotal ally of Africa, can play a constructive role in tackling these challenges. In this regard, one particular area of China-Africa cooperation is strengthening the AU’s Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) through financial and technical support. Particularly, China can contribute its own fair share in consolidating the AU’s effort to enhance its Rapid Deployment Capability. Furthermore, the emergence of new conflicts and relapse into violence underlie the need to emphasize on conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction and development. To this end, China could play a crucial role in strengthening APSA’s institutional capability.
What is attempted above is to encapsulate the major themes the expected Action Plan could include, with due consideration of China’s capabilities and limitations. The above-outlined
broad strokes should not in any way contribute to the illusion that Africa’s socio-economic development and peace and security could be promoted primarily by external actors. African state officials, elites, civil society and citizenry should take the lead with the support of external actors, including China. It is also expected that China would balance the implementation of bilateral agreements it concluded with individual African states with the development priorities set at the continental level.
Dawit Yohannes, Fana Gebresenbet, Yonas Tariku
Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University