A critical assessment of Britain's Africa policy

Abstract

A critical assessment of Britain's Africa policy Comfort Ero1 A number of Africa-related initiatives have emerged in the four years since UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's New Labour government assumed power. Many of them are welcome, suggesting a dynamic and different approach compared to the ad hoc methods of the past. Formulation of an Africa policy is best understood in the context of the government's claim that it will reshape Britain's international agenda. Without overstating the position of Africa—it remains ‘in Whitehall mandarin terms somewhere below South Asia and Latin America’—this paper contends that the continent is symbolically important in the struggle to broaden Britain's global role. But there are serious concerns about whether the policy has been well thought out and what it means in terms of resource commitments. For a government that has staked its reputation on ‘delivery’, it is still too early to tell whether the pledges will be followed through or whether they will amount to another policy initiative that promised much but delivered little.