In the twenty-first century full of change, the world demands a guiding principle to foster a new form of development to accompany diplomacy and defend as well as overcome society’s fractures. Reconciliation can show citizens of the world the way.
This critical statement was made by the CEO of French Development Agency, Remy Rioux on a recently held talk here in Addis on his book entitled Reconciliation at United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) .
In this piece The Ethiopian Herald tries to afford esteemed readers a window into the gist of the book to share esteemed readers on how the Paris people have been trying to troubleshoot the world problems through actively employing their exerted efforts of think-thanks, material and finance support and deploying armed forces for conflict zones.
As the world is in the state of globalization and interdependency leaning closeness, the saying of Remy has great meaning and relevance for internal and external influences as well geopolitics of the country.
Regarding the situational circumstance of the world politics, he indicated that our world is increasingly interdependent, politically and economically. New powers and transnational actors have emerged and asserted themselves, challenging multilateralism. Behaviors and technology have been revolutionized by the digital era, and artificial intelligence as well as synthetic biology is growing fields. This volatile world, in which we now live, is vulnerable to new challenges and threats. This include climate change as well as the depletion of natural resources and biodiversity, deadly pandemics, social fragmentation, insecurity, trafficking of all kinds, and uncontrolled migration.
“ As these are tough and violent times, we must rise to the challenge of delivering the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) and provide a response that is strong and generous , respectful and collective to combat division, we need a concept that can match its power and impact,” he said.
He stated that using reconciliation as a guiding principle should allow finally the world to transcend the north-south fracture between so-called developed and developing countries, and find a way of talking clearly about inequalities and transitions. Where there is conflict, reconciliation brings analysis and debate followed by action. It frees the world people from a binary vision of history. It goes beyond compromises, happy mediums and zero-sum games. It breathes life into a new dynamic.
About the significance impact of reconciliation for the global diplomacy, he remarked that reconciliation replaces unequal power relations, domination, and imperialism with new relationships that do not involve imposing one side’s will, where the contribution of the minority or the other is valued and the strengthens of the voiceless are revealed.
Reconciliation is not a dubious component of an influence strategy. This approach involves being truly engaged and prepared to carry part of the burden with a view to creating a new reality. The world society need to assess the extent of the fractures that dealing with war vs. peace, economic development vs. the preservation of the planet, forced vs. voluntary migrations, rising inequalities vs social link.
Concerning French historical fault line on Africa territories, he pointed out as “ our relationship with global south, including, Africa, continues to be partly shaped by bitterness and the unsaid, however, much we might believe that the French empire is a distant chapter of France’s people historical figure that is relevant to our parents and grand-parents but no longer of concern to us as individuals.
In his regard, President Macron said once that he wanted to oversee a return of Africa heritage to Africa. On the relationship between France and Africa, he keynoted that development policy has not yet done enough to break its ties with colonization.
About the extreme high rate of poverty throughout the world, he mentioned that poverty level remains alarmingly high. In spite of the great progress made over the past 30 years, 800 million people around the world still live below the absolute poverty line. Corruption, criminal activity, and the tax evasion that are many of the large multinationals engage in compound this failure of redistribution. These damage social link and too often prevent those living in countries blessed with ample natural resources from obtaining their share of the income generated from their exploitation. In these group countries, 1.5 billion people continue to live with less than two dollars a day.
“Our societies are increasingly divided; rich against poor, rentiers versus employees, salaried workers with strong legal protection and those in precarious situations, skilled and unskilled workers, and meanwhile women and young people face discrimination. This raises the question of how to best support the least affluent individuals, reduce inequality, strengthen social link and bring reconciliation to our societies,” he highlighted.
Added he noted as “We now need a guiding theory and to find new maxims to guide our joint action, without ever sight of our humanity and that of others. I am convinced that the notion and principle of reconciliation has a major contribution to make here. Reconciliation is just another way of saying sustainable development goals, but may be in a simpler, more dynamic fashion. It is like a new modus operandi for collective action, founded on respect for the other, shared understandings of facts. Overcoming oppositions and lasting change on people lived reality.”
He further illustrated that Reconciliation is a process, an innovation. The world
society never looks back and
must always concern with long term. It is the answer to the rapid and universal
realization that the society are all living in an endangered world in common,
where our only option is to help each other. It offers hope within the world
society and through international cooperation, the society at large will find
strengthen and practices that must be shared to face the threat presented by
climate change, species extinction, conflict driven by injustice, pandemics,
extreme poverty, forced migrations, and the inequalities resulting from
economic and financial globalization.
“A new approach is needed, both in France and in our partner countries. A new partnership dimension will be created to better involve civil society, young people, businesses and Diasporas. This means working at grassroots level, having an ambitious evaluation strategy to track the results obtained in a transparent fashion, and extensive restructuring with French Development Agency at its center.” He stated.
To sum up, he said that faced with the many challenges of an interdependent world, citizens have come to see the urgent need for development policies. The world society must meet their expectations and encourage the desire for reconciliations that contribute to sustainable development, the building of shared solutions and greater justice.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday January 5/2020
BY MEHARI BEYENE
