Emerging Players in Africa

Europe has long been a privileged and dominant partner of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and Africa in particular, but with new global realities emerging economies are playing an ever greater role in Africa’s economic transformation. 

ECDPM is joining forces with partners in South Africa, China, India, Brazil and the United States to jointly carry out research, networking and targeted policy dialogue. This will be carried out in partnership with governmental, intergovernmental and civil-society actors to analyse Africa’s relations with emerging partners and their impact on economic transformation.

Emerging players such as China, India and Brazil are rising in importance through their bilateral relations and global reach.

Research and analysis on Africa’s relations with China and other emerging partners and on Europe-Africa relations have mushroomed in the past years. However, there has been little work to examine how Africa’s burgeoning ties with new partners is impacting relations with its traditional partners.

ECDPM research and engagement focuses upon:

• The increasingly important engagement of emerging economies in the African agricultural sector and the implications for the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP)
• The challenge for the EU is to reconcile its values and interests in its external action and find a more coherent approach to development cooperation. In the context of the economic crisis, the EU may be in danger of being ‘distracted’, and pursue policies and practices that are counter to the development needs of outside countries
• How and why trends in African development practice today stem from the experience of East Asian economies and lessons that can be learned