EU Africa Research Articles

The Struggle Over Mobility Narratives: How Senegalese Activists use Alternative Information Campaigns to Contest EU Externalization

For nearly two decades the European Union and its member states have invested in migration awareness and information campaigns (MICs) in West Africa to prevent unwanted migration. While a growing body of migration scholarship has critically engaged with the larger-scale, European-funded MICs in Africa, local activist-led campaigns have received less attention. The article addresses this gap by focusing on campaigns organized by a local, activist-led organization in Dakar, Senegal. Building on ethnographic fieldwork, the article shows how activist-led MICs use counternarratives and action repertories entangled in and motivated by recent externalization interventions in Senegal and the EU–Africa borderlands. By situating these “ripple effects” of externalization locally and exploring their repercussions, the article illustrates how migrant experiences, border control, and violence become catalysts for collective action. The activist-led MICs in Senegal can be understood as activities that fundamentally challenge the political premises and outcomes of EU–Africa migration governance, including European-driven MICs. This perspective enriches our understanding of MICs in West Africa and the local ripple effects of externalization, underscoring local actors’ proactive role in trying to contest and reshape Eurocentric migration narratives and policies.

Polityka bezpieczeństwa żywnościowego Unii Europejskiej wobec Afryki w kontekście globalnego kryzysu żywnościowego z 2022 roku

EUROPEAN UNION FOOD SECURITY POLICY TOWARDS AFRICA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS OF 2022 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 triggered one of the most serious post-war food security crises in the world. The pillars of food security have been threatened in the countries dependent on agricultural imports from Russia and Ukraine, particularly those in Africa and Asia. The subject of the article is to show the external reaction of the EU to the food crisis towards Africa in the context of contemporary events caused by the war in Ukraine. The aim of the article is to find answers to the following questions: will the current food security crisis affect EU–Africa relations?

Actors and structures in international relations. The US, the EU, and West Africa: from indifference and development to promotion of security

ABSTRACT It is an old debate in social science, what is most influential, actors or structures? The paper resumes the discussion by concretely asking, how can the radical policy shift towards West Africa in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the US in September 11, 2001, be explained by applying an agency-structure approach? The article applies a theoretical framework combining neo-classical realist thinking with the reasoning found in historical institutionalism. Concepts like path dependency and critical juncture are helpful. The roles and priorities of the core foreign policy actors in the United States and in the European Union are discussed before the article identifies international and domestic structures that might constrain the role and influence of the relevant foreign policy decision-makers. It is concluded that neither international nor domestic structures represented strong obstacles to the foreign policy decision makers’ ambitions to implement radical policy changes towards West Africa.

A machine learning approach for country-level deployment of greenhouse gas removal technologies

The suitability of countries to deploy five greenhouse gas removal technologies was investigated using hierarchical clustering machine learning. These technologies include forestation, enhanced weathering, direct air carbon capture and storage, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and biochar. The use of this unsupervised machine learning model greatly minimises the likelihood of human bias in the assessment of GGR technology deployment potentials and instead takes a more holistic view based on the applied data. The modelling utilised inputs of bio-geophysical and techno-economic factors of 182 countries, with the model outputs highlighting the potential performance of these GGR methods. Countries such as USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Russia, Australia as well as those within the EU and Sub-Saharan Africa were identified as key areas suitable to deploy these GGR technologies. The level of certainty of the obtained deployment suitability categorisation ranged from 65 to 98 %. While the results show the need for regional collaboration between nations, they also highlight the necessity for nations to prioritise and integrate GGR technologies in their revised nationally determined contributions.

Identifying the Best Herbicides for Weed Control in Chicory (Cichorium intybus)

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a commercially cultivated root crop in many countries of the world. Weeds have a depressing effect on the growth and development of root chicory. There are currently no herbicides registered for use on chicory in the Russian Federation. The objective of this work was to identify potential herbicides for controlling a broad range of weed species under the soil and climatic conditions of the Russian Federation. For the field experiment, herbicides were selected according to: (1) previous studies in USA, EU and South Africa; (2) the spectrum of weeds controlled; and (3) the probability of crop damage. All the herbicides used were registered in Russia for the control of certain weeds in other crops. Crop biomass, damage, and weed control were assessed to identify suitable herbicides. The results suggested that the best weed control herbicides would be a Zeta, SC (100 g/L imazethapyr) and Paradox, SC (120 g/L imazamox). These herbicides controlled, on average, 80% or more of the dicotyledonous weeds such as lamb’s quarters (Chenopodium album), field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense), and sow thistles (Sonchus spp.). Since these herbicides do not reduce chicory biomass, they can be considered for registration or use on chicory.

Revisiting EU–Africa Relations in a Changing World , by Valeria Fargion and Mamoudou Gazibo eds.

Revisiting EU–Africa Relations in a Changing World , by Valeria Fargion and Mamoudou Gazibo eds.

Tempering and enabling ambition: how equity is considered in domestic processes preparing NDCs

The considerations of how Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to global climate action under the Paris Agreement are ambitious and fair, or equitable, is expected to guide countries’ decisions with regards to the ambition and priorities of those contributions. This article investigates the equity aspect of the NDCs of four cases (Canada, the EU, Kenya, and South Africa) utilizing a combination of document analysis and expert interviews. It interrogates both the NDC documents themselves and, uniquely, the role of international and domestic equity considerations within the domestic policy processes that led to the formulation of the NDCs. For this, 30 participants and close observers of these processes were interviewed. We find countervailing effects of equity on ambition, with an enabling, or ambition-enhancing, effect resulting from international equity, in that these four Parties show willingness to do more if others do, too. In contrast, tempering effect appears to result from domestic equity concerns, for example with regards to real, perceived, or anticipated adverse distributional impacts of climate action across regions, sectors, and/or societal strata. Political cultures differ across the four case studies, as do the key actors that influence domestic policies and the preparations of NDCs. This paper also demonstrates that research on equity in NDCs can benefit from expanding its scope from the contents of NDC submissions to also examine the underlying decision-making processes, to generate insights that can contribute to future NDCs being both equitable and ambitious.

EU–Africa Strategic Corridors and critical raw materials: two-way approach to regional development and security of supply

ABSTRACT The paper has two interconnected bodies. The first one deals with mineral resource indicators and their role in drawing 11 EU–Africa Strategic Corridors, in a broader context of Africa–EU partnership. The second strives to understand how such Strategic Corridors are also mineral corridors, i.e. development promotors that use mineral resources as a catalyser to create and strengthen value chains and territorial organisation, boosting economic and societal development at regional scale. The results can help understand how Strategic Corridors can improve access to the present and future mines, mitigating the risk of supply disruptions of critical raw materials for the EU.

Investigation of a post-mandate agreement above suspicion: the July 2018 MoU on readmission between Belgium and Tunisia

ABSTRACT In July 2018, Belgium and Tunisia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at dealing with the expulsion of irregular migrants. The MoU would have been unnoticed had it not been stipulated after the Council granted the European Commission the exclusive mandate to negotiate a European Readmission Agreement (EURA) with Tunisia. This article examines the factors that have been conducive to the post-mandate conclusion of the bilateral MoU. Approaching informalization as a systemic and evolving process in European and international relations, this article makes four contributions. First, it questions the assumption that informal deals can be equated with a political act that is unimportant or legally non-binding. Second, the article argues that the July 2018 MoU is symptomatic of unprecedented deviations, at the EU level, that today consolidate the drive for informalization. Third, the analysis shows that the MoU has been, as it were, above suspicion, for its existence has been silently tolerated as a result of broader policy developments that normalize the use of informal instruments, especially in the EU–Africa context. Fourth, beyond the official rhetoric about flexibility and informalization, the case study reveals the limits of international cooperation on readmission.

Interview with Carol Pullen, Oro Agri

The company was started over twenty years ago by Erroll Pullen in South Africa. He started experimenting with orange oil and worked with Stellenbosch University to test it and after confirming that it had both fungicidal and insecticidal properties, which was unusual and therefore uniquely patentable, the company was started and its first product PREVAM was born. Another office was opened in the USA and then Europe, and it is now present in over 85 countries, with a physical presence in over 40. It has factories in the EU, US, Brazil and South Africa and supply globally. Four years ago the company was sold to a South African company Omnia Holdings who then sold it Rovensa Group, who are the current owners with one of the largest footprints in the biosolutions market, seeing the purchase of Oro Agri as an opportunity to broaden their portfolio and international footprint. With a vision of offering differentiated biocontrol solutions not only to the organic market, but especially to facilitate biological synergies with traditional crop protection products targeting more sustainable solutions, the OroBio-Pheno Science and Innovation Center, complete with indoor and outdoor phenotype system, is currently under construction and will provide development services to all the Oro Agri and ROVENSA group companies.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between the EU and Western Africa:

In the context of Cotonou and Post Cotonou Partnership Agreements stablished between the European Union and former colonies named by the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP), this paper investigates the possible risks over ACP of one of the Agreement main objectives: the Free Trade Areas or EPAs (Economic Partnership Agreements).With this purpose, the paper uses as a case study the analisis of Western African, focusing on the particular context of Senegal. The selected region presents some of the paradox that are communly seen in ACP countries: an outstanding wealth in natural resources, together with some of the lowest indicators of Human Development in the world. Thus, despite the region hosts up to 267 international companies exploiting the mining sector (International Transparency, 2013) and one of the world richest maritime areas, basic needs for its population are still a challenge. To adress such complex matter as an International Trade Agreement launched by the European Union with a wide block of countries of ACPs the paper presents a survey including both primary and secondary data collection in a mixted methodology which combines quantitative and qualitative data. In-depth interviews were carried out at two Directorates of the European Commission to responsibles for external relations with West Africa. In Senegal, officials of public institutions and civil society representatives were consulted. The research concludes that the EU policies promoted with ACP countries in EPAs framework show serious contradictions with the social, environmental and economic priorities of the mostly classified as Least Developed Countries in Western Africa region. Thus, for Senegal case, the policies would increase the risk of increasing dependency on food imports and food insecurity.

Соглашение об экономическом партнерстве (APE) между Западной Африкой и Европейским союзом: состояние проблемы и перспективы

The article discusses in detail the adoption of the economic partnership Agreement (APE) between West Africa and the EU, and its impact on the integration of countries in the West African region. The article reveals the main historical background, problems and prospects, which gives both the EU and West Africa the ratification of the economic partnership Agreement. As part of the research of this article, such methods as analysis and synthesis of scientific literature and data of the summits of the EU and Africa, induction and deduction, comparison and formalization applied. This study in the article allowed to consider in more detail the trade turnover between the EU and West Africa, the processes of export liberalization, the common external tariff, the problems faced by the EU and which prompted it to develop and sign the Agreement, as well as the prospects that the EU and West Africa will receive in the future as part of the integration of their economies. At the same time, no matter how unprofitable for the EU from a trade point of view, this partnership allows it to strengthen its position on the African continent and remain the leader of the world trade market.

Cooperative Projects to Share Good Practices towards More Effective Sustainable Mining—SUGERE: A Case Study

The supply of raw materials is a global challenge to be addressed; themes such as “sustainability”, “responsibility”, and “eco-compatibility” represent the cornerstones for proceeding towards a “wise” management of georesources. According to the United Nations’ SDGs, the economic development of countries must go hand in hand with the improvement of their environmental, health, and social sustainability. From this perspective, the exploitation of georesources needs to be handled with an interdisciplinary approach that tackles not only the technical, economic, and environmental issues, but also the social, legislative, and human health ones. In recent years, Europe has promoted several cooperative projects aimed at boosting sustainability in the extractive industry. To achieve and guarantee concrete and truly sustainable mining, it is necessary to build and strengthen educational and training skills. With these objectives in mind, the first results of the EU–Africa SUGERE Erasmus+ project are presented here. The objects of the project are the implementation of Bachelor, Master, and doctoral curricula in geology and mining engineering and the promotion of socioeconomic development thanks to the training of experts who are able to cooperate and work in an interdisciplinary manner for a sustainable approach to local mine exploitation.

Views on migration partnerships from the ground: Lessons from Nigeria

AbstractWhat is the current situation of migration partnerships and governance and how has it evolved? The perceived rise in migratory movement of African migrants towards Europe created legal and policy chain reactions in Europe focused on stemming irregular migration. These changes include the establishment and externalisation of an EU‐led migration governance in Africa and increased EU–African political engagement through migration dialogue and partnerships. This study investigates the state of play of EU–Africa migration partnerships to unpack lessons learned on transnational migration governance, using Nigeria as an example (The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.).

Navigating ontological (in)security in EU–Africa relations

ABSTRACT Six decades on and several attempts to re-set EU-Africa relations, it is appropriate to take stock of the relationship especially in light of changes in both continents since 2000. This article draws on the idea of ontological security to understand the nature of changes and continuities in the EU's engagement with Africa. It argues that EU-Africa relations that have relied on a coloniality of power have also been crucial to the EU's ontological security. However, increasing African agency and new external actors like China in Africa are challenging this security. While challenges to the EU's ontological security have been viewed as primarily internally constituted, external challenges within a specific context provides the opportunity to rethink what ontological security demands. Importantly, this article highlights why a partnership of equals is an urgent imperative for the future of EU-Africa relations, although it remains elusive.

Migration, development and EU free trade deals: the paradox of Economic Partnership Agreements as a push factor for migration

ABSTRACT The article problematizes the EU’s approach to trade, development and migration (TD&M) in the context of Africa–EU relations and the push for free trade deals under Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). According to EU policymakers there is harmony between trade policies, development goals and migration objectives. EU officials state that EPAs are a development friendly tool for job creation in Africa, and this in turn will address the “root causes of irregular migration” between the continents. There is a significant cause for concern, however, relating to the negative consequences of EPAs for jobs in the continent, particularly in labour intensive import-competing agricultural sectors. Free trade deals may therefore stimulate migration from Africa to Europe. This apparent paradox is underscored by recent fieldwork conducted in Ghana’s poultry sector which highlights business stakeholders’ deep concerns about EPAs stoking unemployment and migration.

Shaping European Union’s global health initiatives. What role for the European Parliament?

ABSTRACT This article proposes to assess the role and influence of the European Parliament (EP) in the shaping and implementation of one major instrument of European Union’s (EU’s) global health involvement, namely the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). Through the content analysis of the legislative procedure that led to the establishment and the renewal of this initiative, as well as the EU’s and independent reports that evaluate its implementation, this study examines how EP’s recommendations made at the initial stage of this initiative have been influential for its elaboration and execution. Using an analytical framework designed in the light of the contemporary academic debate on EP’s influence on EU’s foreign policy, this study shows that, despite several challenges, the EP has succeeded in shaping significantly this initiative and its implementation by playing several specific roles. Furthermore, it demonstrates that such influence has made this global health initiative more democratic, more inclusive and more compliant with norms that frame international development cooperation since 2000. Consequently, this article concludes that the EP represents a significant actor of global health governance whose role will be determinant for the elaboration of the future EU–Africa Global Health Partnership (EDCTP-3).

Unintentional neo-colonialism? Three generations of trade and development relationship between EU and West Africa

ABSTRACT This article argues that the limited economic transformation in West African countries is a function of the interaction between domestic elites’ quest for political survival and the EU’s international trade partnership with former colonies (Yaoundé Convention 1963–1975; Lomé Convention 1975–2000 and Cotonou Agreement 2000–present). The counterfactual argument, demonstrated clearly in a comparative study (of the Yaoundé era), is that in the absence of the EU’s trade partnership, ruling elites would have had to negotiate their survival by promoting economic change instead of colonial continuity. As not all West African countries joined the Yaoundé Conventions (1963–1975), a comparison of the affiliated and the non-affiliated countries was conducted from 1960 to 1975. Analysis of the differences between the countries in these three areas (economic crisis, political crisis with economic origins and diversification) reveals two trajectories in West Africa: neo-colonialism (for affiliated countries); and economic change (for unaffiliated countries).

On the Use of the eStation Developed in the GMES & Africa EU Project: Results from the User Survey

In 2007, at the 2nd Africa-EU Summit, the development and implementation of earth observation based services to support sustainable development in Africa was agreed. A joint Africa-EU strategy created a framework for cooperation to this end called GMES & Africa. This cooperation aims to produce products and services relevant to the needs of Africans and implemented by African institutions. It is based in particular on the European Copernicus program. The themes covered by the cooperation include natural resource management, marine and coastal areas, water resource management, climate variability and change, disaster risk reduction and food security. Building on its early involvement in the previous projects, the Joint Research Centre has developed an operational and distributable open-source data processing tool, called eStation. One year before the end of the first phase of the project, a full survey of eStation users was conducted. The objective of the survey was to get a full overview of the use, strength, weakness and way to improve the eStation in an operational context. This study presents the main results of the survey. It identifies who are the users, what their operational tasks are and how they communicate the information to decision makers. In addition, the use of the station is described, its strengths and weaknesses are identified as well as the technical and thematic difficulties encountered. The survey underlines the importance of maintaining a constant dialogue between users and developers in order to offer technical and thematic supports to improve the efficiency of the use of the tools. This can be done by organising training and workshops and is essential for the proper use of the tools and products.

Eating your greens: a global sustainability assessment

The importance of healthy diets is woven into the fabric of the Sustainable Development Goals, although there is no clear metric to define it. Employing a simulation model (MAGNET), this study examines the sustainability implications arising from the adoption of recommended daily nutrition requirements inspired by the ‘Lancet’ reference diet. To measure sustainability, changes in ‘virtual’ requirements and associated tier footprints for irrigation (blue) water, agricultural land and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are calculated. Assuming business-as-usual food consumption trends, between 2015 and 2050 blue water, agricultural land and emissions rise 34%, 9% and 44%, respectively, whilst corresponding increases in Sub-Saharan Africa are much higher. By 2050, the switch to the reference diet decreases agricultural land use by -8% and emissions by -9%. Global blue water and cropland requirements increase by 5%, whilst significant concomitant savings in permanent pastureland (-21%) are expected. By region, the diet switch drives rising blue water consumption in Oceania and the EU and agricultural land savings in Latin America and Oceania, accompanied by cropland increases in the EU and North Africa. The reference diet generates substantial reductions in GHG emissions, particularly in Latin America. Interestingly, Sub-Saharan Africa which abstains from the reference diet due to affordability considerations, benefits from a ‘rebound’ effect from falling meat and dairy prices. Finally, the diet shift could result in marginal per capita food expenditure rises arising from demand driven fish price, particularly in more vulnerable world regions. This estimate does not capture, however, second-round economic growth effects arising from increased labour productivity and reduced public health expenditures.