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   Summary 15 (30 August -5 September)


FOLLOWING IS A MACHINE TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH. IT HAS BEEN EDITED FOR MISTRANSLATION ONLY. THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH IS AVAILABLE ON THIS WEB SITE AT: <http://www.ue-acp.org/fr/forum/syntheses/synt15.html>

KEY WORDS: PROGRESS OF THE DEBATE

* * Title: Summary 15 (30 August -5 September) * *

by: Anne SIMON <anne.simon@skynet.be>
<http://www.ue-acp.org/fr/forum/presentations/simon.html>

°°° Abstract:
Starting out from the local, pursuit of the advocacy for a thorough identification of local actors, of power relations, and of the legitimacy of recognized local representatives. The language and procedures of cooperation must be adapted to each of the actors.
Reactions to the presentation of negotiations of the next framework of EU-ACP partnership: The rebalancing of the partnership should be a whole separate line of negotiation (political objectives, financial and institutional conditions, possibilities of experimentation). Is the UE-ACP framework specific with regard to relations between the EU and other regions of the world? Otherwise compensation mechanisms of falls in export revenue could be useful to offset the marginalization of the ACP countries within the WTO. It would also be necessary that the EU-ACP organization push in this direction within the WTO. In their execution these mechanisms should be accompanied with more precaution. Finally, considerable progress is to be highlighted in the framework of the currently negotiated cooperation.
Development, cooperation and Internet What are we waiting for to speak of it? The development of the Internet is only marginal in the South (5% of Web sites are non-OECD). Yet this tool could serve as a lever for development and cooperation should be able to find a means of improvement it. °°°



1. To start out from the local: for a true analysis of local actors, and a language that is adapted them

Djibril Diop, following René Segbenou, insists on the identification of local actors. He comes back to questions of the legitimacy of local representatives (in relation among others to the power schemes introduced by policies of decentralization) and of the relations existing among the different powers.

He warns "developers" of the mistake of confusing these local actors with their systems of official representation without a more precise analysis. He also notes that to start out from the local level means a radical modification of past approaches of development (for example rural development, which followed a top-down approach). It is necessary for this that cooperation sets up of procedures and "a language" adapted to each of the actors, for example in the case of the illiterate populations.

2. Reactions to the document of presentation of negotiations in progress

René Segbenou reacts to the progress report on the ongoing negotiations, available on the site to the following address: http://www.ue-acp.org/en/documents/tfn080799.html

He is pleased that the fundamental political objective of these renegotiations is to give more reality to the partnership. On the other hand, he wonders this political objective is given the place that it deserves and is sufficiently present in the different lines of the negotiation, where it appears as a given without any more precision than that. With regard to the position of the EU, he asks what the partnership with the ACP countries has as specific with regard to the relations that the EU maintains with other countries or continents (USA, Canada, Australia, Latin America).

For him, the renewal of the partnership should be the object of a whole separate line of thinking and negotiation, including with regard to "the human, institutional and financial conditions and means necessary for its implementation", by making a detailed list of the reforms necessary to succeed in this, and devices for the experimentation of possible methods of partnership.

About the increase of resources allocated to compensation mechanisms for falls in the returns from the export of basic agricultural and mining products, in the free-market context that prevails, it would be desirable that precautions be taken in order "to avoid that compensations be diverted from their objectives" and can be distributed fairly among producers (as for the annulments of debts). Compensation mechanisms are all the more essential that the ACP countries are not listened to within the WTO. A strong EU-ACP coalition, which would constitute a proof of the strength of the EU-ACP partnership, could be a means to modify the rules of the game within WTO in a direction that is jointly favorable to them.

"Several advances (in lines of negotiation) are to be encouraged". He mentions several examples:

  • Opening of the partnership to a broad range of non governmental actors; The development of private trade and the investment (it would be desirable to speak more of the informal sector, SMEs and the SMIs, dynamic economic motors);
  • The search for equity among the 71 ACP States (to accept that cooperation is adapted to the specific needs of every country is a question of solidarity among the ACP countries);
  • The progressive abandonment of Projects and Programs approaches to the benefit of budgetary aid ("it could be associated to decentralized programming and the decentralization of the DG of the development of the Commission and to the administrative and political decentralization of the ACP countries");
  • The regional integration (which should involve also the integration of peoples);
  • Gender (a question of equity more that of equality). etc.

3. Development, cooperation and Internet

Pursuing his message of the month of June "Internet a strategic tool of EU-ACP cooperation" <http://www.ue-acp.org/en/forum/archives/1999-06/msg00027.html>, Michel Elie wonders about the lack of attention of participants of the forum to the Internet. He makes references to a recent report of the UNDP that highlights "the crushing domination" of industrialized countries in the access to Internet. Yet, the consequences that could entail the extension of the access to the Internet in the developing countries are very numerous. They are in fact part of the answers to several of issues of the forum. He mentions some of them, which could make it possible:

  • to contribute to encourage development, (extension of the access to public information and equitable access to knowledge, implication of Diaspora, limitation of the brain drain, increase of competition, development of virtual flows)
  • to improve cooperation: (modification of the organization and the operation of cooperation institutions, sharing of experiences, access to information, reduction of the number of mediators)

But the Internet cannot play its strategic role for development if the rebalancing of its accessibility in the South is not imposed. Cooperation must not lag behind and quickly able to being to draw benefits from this tool.



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