International / Africa-South America summit in Abuja to enhance south-south dialogue

Amadou Ly

The first Africa-South America Summit begins in Abuja, Nigeria on 28th November. 12 South-American countries and 54 African countries are reported to have participated in the four day summit. 900 delegates and 66 Heads of States and Governments would grace the Summit.
The South American countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Professor Alpha Oumar Konare disclosed that the Summit would enable the two regions to increase their leverage and impact in the wider international arena and their respective abilities to deliver on promises of peace, security and development to their people.

Represented by Ambassador John Kayode Shinkaiye, the AU Commission Chairperson said, "The objective of the Summit in general is to strengthen cooperation between the nations and the peoples of the two regions and forge a stronger strategic partnership to enhance effective multilateralism on a south-south basis."

Sources at the meeting stated that the delegates considered the draft outcome documents, which will form the groundwork for the success of both the ministerial and summit meetings that will take place today and on Thursday respectively.

Formally established in 2004, the South American Community of Nations (SACN) has taken the lead in promoting dialogue with other developing regions, and last year it started this process by organizing the first South America-Arab League summit in Brasilia. Mechanisms are already in place to carry out follow-up strategies on an action plan developed by that forum.

Through the Abuja summit, the SACN is now advancing the process by expanding links with the African nations. Undoubtedly, the strengthening of cooperation between the SACN and the African Union (AU) on political, economic and developmental issues common to both continents has the potential to promote effective economic and political multilateralism. This partnership aims at mutually benefiting the citizens of both continents and, at the same time, to effectively address common political, social and economic challenges in the rapidly changing international political climate.

The antecedents of this major decision to hold a South America-Africa summit were the efforts undertaken to enhance South-South cooperation through joint events such as the First Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and the Diaspora which took place in Dakar, Senegal in October 2004 and the follow up Second Conference in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil during July this year.

In addition, leaders on both sides opened up a political dialogue through exchange visits and meetings at international forums over the past year. In their on-going discourse, both South America and Africa point to their historic and cultural links, with some countries – notably, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana and Suriname – emphasizing that people of African ancestry form a relatively large section of their respective populations.

Political links also were developed from the 1950s when some South American countries played important roles in providing support to the heroic struggles waged by African peoples and countries for political independence, human dignity and economic emancipation. In this respect, Guyana played a leading role in offering solidarity, as did many African countries which, in turn, gave strong solidarity to the Guyanese people in their own independence struggle.

The fight against poverty is indeed high on the agenda. One of the ways to carry out this fight is to advance trade and investment, utilizing the vast natural resource base of these two huge land masses. But both continents also have to wage a determined struggle against communicable diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, and cooperation in developing and sharing medical expertise, resources and experience will certainly work to each other’s advantage.

The development of infrastructure to aid economic progress is also a necessity. Building such infrastructure needs heavy financing, but many of the countries, especially those of Africa (and Guyana and Bolivia in South America) are already heavily indebted. As a result, they are either wary of accumulating more debts or are restricted by the World Bank and IMF from acquiring new non-grant financing for such projects.

With this in mind, the South American countries have already begun analyzing the possibility of setting up a development “Bank of the South” for financing their infrastructure projects. No doubt this idea, originally promoted by Venezuela, may surface at the Abuja summit with the African countries invited to join in this enterprise.

Also at the meeting which was not opened to the press were senior government officials and ambassadors from the two regions including Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Pedro Motta of the Community of South American Nations (CASA) and ambassadors of South American countries in Nigeria . At the end of the Summit , Heads of States and Governments are expected to emerge with three important practical documents tentatively tagged the 1st Africa-South America Summit, the Plan of Action and the Implementation Strategy.