What is the perception of the EU in EU-AU partnerships
On the occasion of the European Commission Directorate for International Partnership A (Sub-Saharan Africa)’s away day, June 2023, I was invited as the Guest Speaker.
In view of the Global Gateway launched in 2022 as a point of departure for a new alliance between the EU and Africa. I was tasked with sharing an opinion with the Directorate A on the following: How is the EU perceived in partnerships with Africa? and What are the key challenges the EU can expect in project implementation?
As I was allocated a total of 1 hour, starting with a 15 minute speech followed by a Q&A session, I thought it wise to begin with a story about myself and provide context as to why I was there that day. I shared a picture of myself in Cameroon, 1997 at the tender age of 5 alongside a profile feature by the Africa-Europe Foundation on International Women’s Day, March 2023. To this, I shared that I had lived in Africa for 15 years and now in Europe for 16 years. I highlighted the internal conflict that often surfaces when the follow up to questions about speaking on Europe-Africa partnerships is usually along the lines of ‘which continent are you speaking on behalf of’. To be clear, I consider both continents home. After battling with this internal turmoil and posing the question to someone I consider a mentor – Baroness Estelle Morris, she said ‘Elsa you are a bridge and for a bridge to work, you cannot let go of either side. So, you have to hold on to both and try to be fair.’ I then stated, that is what I have done my entire life and that is what I would attempt to do today.
As a thriving millennial who considers herself on the pulse of new technology, it was inevitable that with the current scramble for AI and how topical it is, I turned to ChatGPT and Bard out of curiosity to answer the team’s pressing questions highlighted above. These were the answers I received:
It ended by highlighting that the overall sentiment was positive but there was room for improvement. As we know, AI tools are just that, tools, but very advanced tools. As a result, because of my knowledge in this space and work over the years, these sentiments are aligned with sentiments I have heard over the years. However, as the researcher that I am, I was curious to know what the sources of these information were. So, I went on to ask a further prompt:
Prompt: What are the sources of these information?
Answers: European Commission, The African Union, The United Nations, Academic Research
At this point, I felt the results may be biased by sources being large Governmental organisations. This also highlights key considerations when reviewing data on which Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are trained. Therefore, I went on to use social media listening tools to scrape the internet and see what information was present from other grassroot organisations. I then came across a blog article written by Development Reimagined, an African led, Female led consultancy helping organisations and businesses to reimagine their approach to trade, aid, finance, climate action and much more. A snippet of the blog here:
To this point, the skeptical perceptions of the EU in these partnerships appear to stem from a lack of trust, lack of transparent communication, lack of trust in the EU’s motives and the EU’s willingness to execute on its promises (past).
While the drivers for these feelings appear to be numerous, an obvious comparison was that between the EU and China’s development work in Africa. I ensued to conduct a quick competitive intelligence on the type of development work the EU and China engaged in. This showed that among the flagship programs highlights by the EU, over 85% could be themed under the Sustainable Development Goals attributed to planet and prosperity. On the contrary, through a survey carried out by Development Reimagined where African ambassadors were asked where China’s contribution fall, the top 4 named SDGs were: SDG 1- No Poverty, SDG3 – Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG8 – Decent work and economic growth and SDG9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. This then begs the question that, does the type of work the EU funds and engages in affects its perception? And if yes, is this positively or negatively? Furthermore, how does the approach implored by funding partners such as the EU or China in building and maintaining relationships with implementing partners affect its perception? Does the EU gain enough visibility in this process? And overall, how does this affect trust in the EU’s motives?
Research conducted by SökerData Ltd on the level of trust between black and ethnic minority communities and Governmental institutions in the UK highlighted a 26% decrease in trust in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. Similarly, a study conducted by Mo-Ibrahim foundation across 34 countries highlighted a higher percentage of trust in religious leaders (69.4%) compared to local Government council (43.2%). This suggests that Governmental organisations or organisations that partner and work with Governments will experience a similar decrease in trust. Thereby, imploring these organisations to think about creative strategies to rebuild trust and engage with these communities.
To this end, building trust and engaging with these communities and countries, will entail strategies that cause organisations to reflect and review internal processes. This will include ensuring there is a high degree of co-creation with partners, the use of language that is inclusive for example swapping terminology like ‘hard to reach’ to ‘easy to ignore’. This will require transparency and accountability in the information shared and lastly building trust in a bottom up approach by engaging grassroot organisations and building trust champions for example with religious leaders who have a high level of trust. These are all attributes of an organisations’ culture, that is developed and implemented by its leadership and subsequently its people.
After spending half the day with the team, I truly left feeling there are absolutely good intentions, motives and the will to positively develop EU-AU partnerships. However, there are systems and processes in place that need to be reviewed so that these intentions can be translated, scaled and felt on a grass-root level. Considering this conversation was instigated by the EU team, it is a great step and sign of willingness to build a mutually beneficial partnership and I am hopeful this will materialise. As the implementation of the Global Gateway programs ensues, I look forward to seeing how trust is built in a sustainable manner while successfully delivering these programs.