The African Union and the path to an African Renaissance

ABSTRACT

The current development initiative by the African Union (AU) has been declared ‘the New African Renaissance.’ This paper traces the origin and meaning of African Renaissance and argues that the AU has yet to frame its development model within this concept. The challenges obstructing the Union from achieving its goals are lack of financial resources, weak capacity, and lack of political will. As a result, it continues to be externally dependent for development ideas and frameworks. Thus, I argue that for the Union to translate its aspiration for the African Renaissance into a reality, it is critical to break the culture of dependency. This would be possible through a homegrown approach to development that: (1) Creates and implements institutional capacity, fostering synergy between the Union and member states’ citizens. (2) Provides a mechanism that encourages a real commitment of African leaders to generate resources to fund the Union’s programme internally.

KEYWORDS:

• African Union
• African Renaissance
• institutional arrangement
• homegrown development
• development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Agenda 2063 is a 50-year socioeconomic development strategic framework that builds on previous initiatives including the Lagos Plan of Action, Abuja Plan, and the NEPAD.

2 Nkrumah championed African Unity that later became OAU. His views continued to shape the current principles of the AU.

3 As of July 2018, the AU executives led by Paul Kagame are championing an institutional reform that includes the creation of technical body – African Union Development Agency to advance the 2063 agenda.

4 For further reading see also Ravenhill (1986).

5 The African Renaissance Institute was established in South Africa in 2003. https://www.unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/Colleges/Graduate-Studies/Schools,-Institutes-&-Research-Chairs/School-of-Transdisciplinary-Research-Institutes-(STRI)/Institute-for-African-Renaissance-Studies-(IARS).

6 This is a set of goals by the International Finance Corporation. See the link below for more details – https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/fa322d004aef189da8b4fa888d4159f8/SM12_IFCIssueBrief_IFCDevelopmentGoals.pdf?MOD=AJPERES citation needs to be formatted.

7 https://au.int/en/organs/aprm citation needs to be formatted.

8 APRM is a framework for implementation of NEPAD.

9 Sapa, ‘NEPAD losing momentum: Mbeki’, 12 December 2008.

10 For a detailed analysis of AU financial challenges, Miyandazi, L. 2016. http://ecdpm.org/talking-points/african-union-financial-independence/ (accessed July 30th, 2018).

11 https://www.giz.de/en/mediacenter/40878.html citation needs to be formatted.

12 By December 2016, only 25 out of 54 member states had paid their assessment for the financial year 2016 in full. Fourteen member states paid more than half their contribution, and 15 had not made any payment Kagame (2017).

13 This is an outcome of the 27th African Union summit in Kigali http://mgafrica.com/article/2016-07-26-a-new-financing-model-for-the-african-union-will-it-work-for-the-continent full citation needed.

14 Neofunctionalism is the process of regional integration with reference to how three causal factors – economic interdependence between nations, organisational capacity to resolve conflicts and supranational market rules interact. Babarinde (1998) also used neofunctionalism in his analysis of the African Economic Commission.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patricia Agupusi

Patricia Agupusi is a political economy scholar, writes on African Political economy, state capacity, and inequality. Among her recent publications are Homegrown Development in Africa: Illusion or Reality? (Routledge 2015), Agupusi, P. (2019). The effect of parents' education appreciation on intergenerational inequality. International Journal of Educational Development, 66, 214-222.