I. The Road so far
1. Process:
The mechanism for implementation of the Africa- EU Joint Strategy is the Partnership 8 Joint Expert Group (JEG) bringing together experts from the two Commissions and AU and EU Member States. A Commission-to-Commission Dialogue, notably through the six-monthly meetings of the JTF feeds into and drives this mechanism.
The African Expert Group 8 (AEG), de facto chaired by Tunisia has Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Egypt and Kenya (AMCOST Chair) as African country representatives. The only P8 AEG meeting held so far took place in Addis Ababa 5th Nov 2008 to prepare for the 1st JEG.
Meanwhile, the European experts Group (EEG) – which met the first time the 23rd of June 2008 – has met 6 times in all. It is chaired by France (IRD President, J.F. Girard). Regularly present are France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
The first P 8 JEG was held in Addis Ababa on 13-14 November 2008. It recommended to the Troika that the existing financial instruments should be exploited in an optimum manner in order to demonstrate the potential of this partnership. However JEG8 further requested the Troika to consider setting-up a common dedicated financial instrument for P8.
2.Content:
As a result of this mutual consultation and based on African well defined strategies (ARAPKE and CPA) and existing initiatives from both continents in the areas of information Society, Science and Space a Book of Lighthouse Projects was prepared. This book is a comprehensive document that contains well defined projects that have been identified as Africa’s priority.
While the two Commissions will concentrate on the implementation of the six Early Deliverables, all the Lighthouse projects are open for in-kind and financial contribution from all sources. Concurrently, a mapping exercise (ongoing on the EU side and incipient on the African side) will eventually identify, as comprehensively as possible, other activities under way and establish other priority gaps which might need to be addressed.
II. Where we are now (April 2009)
The six early deliverables
1. Information Society:
It is expected that Africa Connect (€ 12 million) and the African Internet Exchange System (€ 3 million) will be financed from the 10th EDF Intra ACP Indicative Programme but whether they can be part of the 2009 EDF Annual Action Plan (AAP)31 depends on ongoing arbitration and negotiation with the ACP Secretariat.
2. Science:
Things are somewhat clearer in the Science domain, where it is expected that the two Early Deliverables African Research Grants and Water and Food Security in Africa can be financed in 2009 , the first with € 15 million drawn from the 10th EDF Intra ACP Indicative Programme. It should be noted in this connection that the project management unit for the African research Grants is already being recruited with funds drawn from the 9th EDF AUC Capacity Building Programme and that a first pilot call for proposals for approx € 1 million could be issued in November of this year.
Read more in the draft joint roadmap
3. Space:
The African Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES and Africa) will reinforce Africa’s use of and contribution to remote sensing science, especially building operational services for sustainable development. The “GMES and Africa Action Plan”, thematic priorities, infrastructure needs and financial instruments will be submitted to the third EU-Africa Summit, foreseen early 2010 in Libya. Under Framework Programme 7-(DG Enterprise) approx. € 3 million were earmarked in the 2008 call for three projects aimed at supporting GMES and Africa. The action plan is being drafted based on a thorough consultation with the African community throughout 2009, led by pairs of African and European experts across different application areas.
As to the Implementation of the African Reference Frame (AFREF), the AUC and JRC are finalising a project proposal for an AUC Capacity Building Programme for using Geospatial data via a “Pan-African geo-information observatory in support to sustainable development”.
Implementation Status of the Remaining Lighthouse Projects
- The AUC is jointly with UNESCO implementing African Virtual Campus project which initial phase was partially funded by Spain. National virtual campuses are being established in 11 countries in West Africa. A progress implementation report will be submitted to the upcoming sectoral Ministerial meetings “CIT and science and technology”.
- The AU Commission is also making efforts to raise resources for the African Leadership ICT Program and Harnessing information & Knowledge for Youth Development projects.
- The AUC has submitted proposals under the 9th EDF € 35 million ACP Science and Technology Programme for 2 Lighthouse Projects: Building Africa’s Scientific and Institutional Capacity (BASIC) in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management and Harnessing Biotechnology for the Advancement of African Agriculture.
Read more in the draft joint roadmap
III. The Road Ahead
Early deliverables
1. Information Society:
The ACP Group will have to be persuaded to support Africa Connect (€ 12 million) and the African Internet Exchange System (€ 3 million) immediately if these two projects are to be approved in 2009.
2. Science:
€ 15 million for the African Research Grants have been incorporated into a € 20 million All-ACP Research for Sustainable Development Programme. A formal request fro this Programme must now be made by the ACP Committee of Ambassadors. It will then be possible to submit the ACP Research for Sustainable Development Programme to the EDF Committee for opinion in September 2009 so that a Commission Decision can be obtained in October and a Financing Agreement in November. A contribution agreement with the AUC might then hypothetically be signed in December 2009.
The Water and Food Security in Africa early deliverable is being incorporated into a broader FP 7 Africa Scientific Initiative and should go through the relevant comitology at about the same time. A call for Proposals for the implementation of this Programme would then be launched in 2010.
3. Space:
The initial version of the Action Plan, expected by the end of May 2009 will be subject to a wider inclusive consultation, both at African at European levels. The schedule for the several steps of the consultation of the Action Plan has been defined from June to end 2009. There is a need to ensure adequate financial support for conducting regional consultation. Under FP7-GMES, there are three projects worth approx. € 3million supporting GMES and Africa. Another call is expected in 2010 and will address in particular the advanced requirements stemming from the consultation under the Lisbon Process.
Process Issues
In Information Society, on the European side, Finland has volunteered to initiate a working group of EU Member States on the implementation of the P8 Information society component. The objective will be to pool resources regarding the 5 ICT lighthouse projects and more generally on the support to ARAPKE. This first meeting was held on 24 March 2009, prior to the Euro Africa- ICT Forum organised by the EC. Follow-up with the African side can be expected on 6-8 May at the IST-Africa 2009 Conference to be held in Kampala on 6-8 May 2009. This is a promising development for this Partnership component. The AUC formally requested EC assistance for the preparation of the January 2010 African Union Summit that will be focused on ICT for African Development. A number of EU MSs have been similarly contacted.
On Science, much more needs to be done with the mapping exercise so that Member States on both sides can identify those areas where they can engage both technically and financially. So far, the focus has been on the Book of Lighthouse Projects and the Commission-to-Commission early deliverables in particular. Equatorial Guinea has shown how the Book can help by availing a seed fund of USD3.6 million and hosting the African Observatory on Science, Technology and Innovation. However, much more is being done which does not always appear and much more must be done by Member States and Civil society (including the private sector) if the Africa-EU Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space Partnership is to reveal its true potential.
No JEG8 has been possible this time round whereas it is important that this Roadmap be fully owned by the P 8 JEG which is ultimately responsible for reporting to the Africa-EU Ministerial Troika. It is also fundamental that the JEGs include representatives from all 3 domains for the Partnership. It is equally important that interaction is not only planned with AMCOST (currently chaired by Kenya) on the African side, but also with the CIT (currently chaired by Nigeria) which manages ARAPKE implementation. Meanwhile, it is important to acknowledge that EU Member States such as Germany and Finland have expressed direct interest in some projects such as Forestry and climate change.
On Space, developments are satisfactory with Portugal leading on GMES and Africa on the European side with the two Commissions, the RECs, Member States and the European Space Agency and EUMETSAT involved. This is a good example.
