African Diplomacy Observer

Ambassador John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, will carry out an African tour that will bring him to Côte d’Ivoire as from the 10th of November 2007. During this step, the US official will seize this opportunity to learn from the Ivorian peace process evolution. He will meet with the Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, the Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, and with some leaders of the opposition such as Henri Konan Bedié, leader of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire and Alassane Ouattara, leader of the Movement of Republicans.

After the Ivorian step, Ambassador Negroponte, accompanied by a delegation made of several officials of the State Department, including Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, is due to visit several other African countries, including Nigeria and Mali.

Source: Notre Voie

According to the White House, US President is due to welcome Presidents of Liberia and the DRC respectively on October 18 and 26, 2007. With the President of Liberia, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, President Bush will address "her nation’s accomplishments nearly two years after Liberia’s historic democratic election". They will also discuss cooperation in the areas of education, reconstruction, trade and investment, security sector reform and debt relief. The US President will finally seize this opportunity to reiterate his country commitment to social, economic, and democratic progress in Liberia.

With th DRC President, Joseph Kabila, President Bush will discuss the successes of the newly elected Kabila Government after last year elections and the remaining challenges to secure Congo. They will also discuss ways to further increase bilateral cooperation on security sector reform and economic reconstruction in Eastern Congo.

Source: White House Office of the Press Secretary’s Releases on the US President Meetings with the Liberia and DRC Presidents.

An extraordinary Summit of the Committee of Heads of State and Government charged with the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) will be held on 21 March 2007 in Algiers (Algeria). During this meeting will be examined the state of implementation of the NEPAD since its launching in 2001, its prospects in order to strengthen and ensure a coherent realization of its objectives; will be also reviewed relationships and partnerships with the G8, China, India, Japan, Latin America and the European Union. The Summit are supposed to make recommandations that will be submitted to the African Union (AU) at its next Summit in Accra (Ghana).

The NEPAD has been conceived as a vision and strategic framework for Africa’s Renewal to address the current challenges facing the African continent: poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation. This Partnership therefore envisions to eradicate poverty, to place African countries (individually and collectively) on the path of sustainable growth and development, to halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process and enhance its full and beneficial integration into the global economy, to accelerate the empowerment of women.

Source: NEPAD; XINHUA

The African Union (AU) Commission will lauch in the context of the Africa Day celebrations on 25 May  2007 a continent diplomatic passport that will be strictly issued to African Heads of State and Government, Ministers, Ambassadors and leaders of African institutions. According to the Chairperson of the AU Comission, Alpha Oumar Konare, this document will symbolize African solidarity and will enable these personalities to travel across the continent without any visa.

This inititative, as symbolic as it is, and althought viewed as a first step towards accelerating the free movement of persons, goods and services on the continent, is however exemplifying a reality, that of an integration undertaken from the top without similar efforts to get African populations involved. In that respect, freedom of movement in some sub-regions, still remains a challenge for Africa integration.

Source: Southern African News Features

The ultimate objective of the African Union (AU) is the political and economic integration of the continent leading to the creation of the "United States of Africa". That objective and ideal was reiterated at the occasion of the recent African Union Summit held on 22-30 January 2007. In that respect, the organization decided to devote the forthcoming Ordinary Session (it will be the 9th Session) of the Assembly schedule in Accra (Ghana) in July 2007, to the theme: "Grand Debate on the Union Government".

To that end, Member States, the Commission of the AU and the Regional Economic Communities has been requested to undertake national, regional and continental consultations on the future of the Union. One may hope that the AU, as well as member States, will take this opportunity to get African populations involved more closely in the life of the Union and in the debate on its future. So far, different sub-regional and regional initiatives undertook throughout Africa and aimed at strenghtening political and economic integration have failed in involving African populations and national stakeholders (private sector, organizations of civil society, academia, etc.).

This gap is notable while observing the policy of representation of the AU toward Africa; a policy that has been caracterized by little efforts to bring the Union, its objectives and ideals closer to the populations; on the contrary, efforts were made, with reasons, towards political and diplomatic representation in key diplomatic hub (Geneva, New-York, etc.). In addition, the African Union also decided a couple of year ago to get involved Africans from the diapora; but very little has been done vis-à-vis populations on the continent, the primary target, in principle, of any economic integration initiative.

In that respect, great efforts must be undertaken in ordre to vulgarize the objectives and ideals of the AU as well as the organization itself: how it functions, what are its initiatives, its achievements, etc. In this vein, efforts undertaken by the Division of Communication and Information (DCI-AU) aiming at creating more awareness and enlightening the world in general and the youths in particular on the history of the AU and the activities of the AU Commission should be sustained and strengthened with a particular focus on African populations.