ADDIS ABABA – Expert groups have advocated African’s to effectively align national, regional, and continental policies and strategies to foster their interests to address regional and global dynamics.
Think tankers made the above remarks on the first regional conference organized by the Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA) and Aljazeera Center for Studies (AJCS) aiming to address the challenges of fragility and capitalize on international competition in African common concerns under the theme: “Africa: Challenges of Fragility and Capitalizing on International Competition.”
In his welcoming remark yesterday, IFA Executive Director Jafar Bedru stated that improving the cooperation opportunities between Africa and the Arab world within a competitive landscape would be the solution to address the prevailing challenges in the face of shifting regional and global dynamics.
Emphasizing the recent global geo-economic and geopolitical dynamics shift, he stressed that these scenarios may further destabilize Africa’s already fragile economy and political landscape, leading to an extensive decrease in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
According to him, border crises, resource-based conflicts, governance issues, cross-border crime, violent extremism, structural violence, and insurgencies have contributed to internal crises and external insecurities posing significant threats to national and regional security.
“These challenges have led to the prevalence of weak institutions, which is a key factor in state fragility in Africa hindering effective development,” he added.
Furthermore, the growing competition and influence of global and regional powers directly impact the security dynamics of states across the continent and lead to proxy warfare and unnecessary interstate tensions, he noted.
Aljazeera Center for Studies Research Manager Ezzedine Abdelmoula (PhD) echoed that it is highly critical to strengthen the common denominators between the IFA and Aljazeera center for studies commonalities and partnership to march on a long journey to withstand the substantial regional pressing issues and networking capabilities prominently.
He reiterated institutional partnership and collaboration in Africa and common understanding to bring about implementable recommendations and insights to the decision makers.
He said, adding that: “We need to have a unified vision to reshape African narratives and African’s dynamism.”
Given the expertise and various think tanks in the continent, Ezzedine remarked that Africa is being tempting for international actor’s competition because of its immense natural and human resources to leverage in the form of regional and global engagements.
He said: “The internal competition in every direction of the continent in national and continental agendas and some unholy alliances that lead to conflict and proxy. Besides, piracy, authoritarianism, proxy wars worsen the volatility in the region.”
He said this conference would also shed light on the region’s vast opportunity and lessen the degrees of tensions in Africa and solidify via bilateral and multilateral and development.
BY ASHENAFI ANIMUT
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER 2024
