EU-Africa dialogue: the starting of the CIDRA project

On November 1 officially started the 3-years Erasmus+ Project (Policy Debate Network) called CIDRA – Creating a joint Infrastructure for Dialogue, Research and Advocacy between Europe and Africa that includes thirteen Universities (six from Europe and seven from Africa), led by Roma Tre, aiming at establishing a research and advocacy infrastructure beween the two continents.

EU-Africa relationships are strategic for both regions, in many respects. Asymmetric but complementary demographic dynamics and migration management, access to primary resources, enhancing resilience to global shocks, reducing inequalities, reducing the social and economic impact of external and internal conflicts, and many other issues are not only common (although at different degrees) to both continents, but might be better addressed through a jointly designed effort.

Political leaders, governmental and regional institutions, private companies, NGOs seem to be all aware that greater cooperation between the European and African continents is strategic for both. The follow-up of solemn declarations is usually restricted to one-way international cooperation in the realms of health and financial assistance, mainly targeted to struggle against poverty and hunger, and to the exploitation of the huge potential of African natural resources by private enterprises. Sometimes, it extends also to a few transports and energy infrastructure.

At best, EU-Africa cooperation is left to un-coordinated policies, mainly aggregating EU national efforts and interests into (often) bilateral partnerships. Sometimes, research and advocacy efforts have focused on the Mediterranean or Euro-Mediterranean cooperation that, although relevant, is only a small part of the general relationship between Europe and Africa. Despite several attempts at multilateral dialogue, what is still missing is a genuine bottom-up infrastructure for scholarly research and policy advice for both the EU and Africa.

The ambition of the CIDRA project is to establish a dialogue and implement common activities that can: a) provide a new approach to information and education of and on the EU and Africa through teaching modules organized by EU Universities in their counterparts in Africa and by African Universities in their European counterparts; b) set up a permanent center for trans-regional academic research, dialogue, and advocacy; c) enquire into the impact, opportunities, and critical features of a massive investment project in Africa that involves both African and European stakeholders (public – local, national, and regional – institutions, major private firms, NGOs).

Building an open, inclusive, and growing network of scholarly research and advocacy would help single out the (evolving) most pressing priorities related to the relationship between the two continents and suggest approaches to managing their most relevant interdependencies. The project will use a systemic approach, focusing on the several and diverse concepts of development for future generation related to human, infrastructure, financial, and environmental capital. Through interdisciplinary academic research, the network will provide high-quality and cross-field data on the interdependence within and between Africa and Europe, thus allowing to provide robust policy advice to local, national, regional institutions, private stakeholders, and NGOs.

Building the above-mentioned network on robust academic research work would help strengthening regional paths to greater integration and resilience of both Europe and Africa; and would provide a push towards redesigning the global economic and political architecture, based on more equitable, symmetric, and multilateral relationships among the main areas of the world.