You could say that Europe and Africa are a community with a common destiny ... or simply: great partners. This is how former German President Horst Köhler looks at it and insists: Take advantage of opportunities!
Prof. Dr. Horst Köhler served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. Prior to that, he was Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Finance, President of the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Managing Director of the IMF.
Regarding Africa, there are currently only two stories left in the public forum, media and politics: one is a story of suffering that evokes compassion, i.e. the familiar story of Africa ravished by hunger, poverty and wars.
The other story focuses on threats that evoke fear; coincidentally, this too is a centuries-old recurring fear-mongering theme of the black man overrunning Europe, which is now gaining momentum again in the wake of the dominating migration debate.
The African toolbox is much more colourful and the challenges, as well as the opportunities, are much more diverse than the very one-dimensional migration debate leads us to believe.
Regardless of which story you chose, compassion or fear, limit our view of African reality, reducing our neighbouring continent to its relationship with Europe and producing solutions that are also limited and thus misleading. Many African politicians over the last few months have been telling me slightly unnerved: ‘All you Europeans want to talk to us about now is migration’; and by that they do not mean that migration is not an important political issue, but that African-European cooperation can and must do so much more than just curbing migration. If every problem is just a nail, everything can be fixed with a hammer. However, the African toolbox is much more colourful and the challenges, as well as the opportunities, are much more diverse than the very one-dimensional migration debate leads us to believe.
Africa is important and continuously growing in importance - from a political point of view, from an economic point of view, from an ecological point of view, and increasingly from a cultural point of view. Africa has a wealth of resources, which has been exploited by the rest of the world for a long time while Africa’s own population scandalously does not profit from it to this day. Africa owns 60% of the currently unmanaged agricultural land on this planet. Africa and its forests, deserts, and coastal areas are of enormous importance to the global ecosystem. The African continent endures many dire consequences of climate change caused by the other continents, however, it can also play a crucial role in its fight against it. Africa also has a population that is growing so rapidly and is getting younger on average that it has become an economic and social factor on this globe that no one can continue to ignore.
The population is likely to double by 2050 to 2.5 billion people, which means that about 25% of the world's population will be Africans in contrast to only about 5% Europeans. At that time, an ageing European society will face the largest youth population in the history of mankind - right on our neighbouring continent, where half of all people are already younger than 18 years. In Germany, the median age right now is around 47. The current period of destabilisation and conflict in world politics, as well as the debates about migration, terrorism, capitalism, democracy, and so on, foreshadow what these gigantic demographic upheavals can mean for global coexistence.
For me it is clear: One of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is to provide the youth of Africa with positive outlook. This is a force to be reckoned with, for better or for worse. I deliberately say ‘force’, because I believe that's exactly the right strategic category to place this global challenge, in the same way as we understand the rise of China or digitalisation as new power factors in world politics.
One thing that could is a partnership, and I would like to outline in a few brush strokes, where I see important starting points of such a genuine partnership.
Africa's youth is hungry for education, for prospects, even for political participation.
First: The strongest driver of development is education. Africa's youth is hungry for education, for prospects, even for political participation, and we should not feed this hunger with small-mindedness and fear, but with openness and generosity. In this respect, Germany has a lot to offer, especially with its dual vocational training system or the universities of applied sciences. The possibilities of bringing practical education to Africa are virtually unlimited. A joint effort of the German industry to promote vocational training in Africa or the establishment of a German technical institute in Africa could lead the way and signal a path to joint prosperity. Beyond that, we could offer more young people from Africa the opportunity to come to Germany and Europe for a brief time to learn, study, and research! We should massively expand the German and European exchange programmes and develop scholarship opportunities! As one student at the University of Kumasi in Ghana once told me in a discussion, what we need is not ‘brain drain’, which removes the best talent from African countries, but ‘brain circulation’, which opens doors for a new generation of willing people who want to learn globally, and then develop their country locally.
For God's sake, we should not allow the refugee debate to stop us from creating educational prospects for African youth in all possible ways - in Africa and in Europe. Incidentally, I really do not understand why, in 2018, Germany still has such a hard time to create a modern immigration law. It would provide an enormously important step to establish peace and direction into our migration policy. It would also send a strong signal, not least to Africa, that we understand how to differentiate between asylum and migration, and that we prefer to shape our future with openness instead of protectionism.
Second: The German economy with its strong industrial competence is the perfect partner for Africa to promote the much-needed diversification and transformation of the African economies. I am pleased to see that the German industry and retail is increasingly recognising the enormous growth potential of the African continent. I am also hoping to see especially creative ways to integrate African locations into global value chains. Our middle class can play an important role in this process with its locally rooted philosophy and social responsibility. However, for a powerful strategic economic partnership with Africa, the government must also take charge and initiative through a bolder and more flexible use of financing and guarantee instruments. The objectively should not simply be to promote export, but more importantly to safeguard the equity investments of small and medium-sized enterprises, which create jobs locally. I believe that the ‘Compact with Africa’ programme, initiated by the Federal Government with its G20 Presidency last year, can produce a new, lasting impetus, if it also integrates an improvement of the investment climate in selected African countries with the improvement of our funding instruments. I sincerely hope that this initiative will not fade over time and that the new federal government will now demonstrate its drive and ambition in implementing ‘Compact with Africa’.
Third: Europe must finally realize that it shares a common destiny with Africa. This requires that Europe reviews its agricultural, industrial and trade policies in terms of what will really create jobs in Africa. In order for African economies to process more of their own natural resources, I believe it is justified for African governments to demand temporary protection for the establishment and development of appropriate infant industries. In its own best interest, Europe needs to find a positive response to this issue and should not allow defenders of the status quo in its ranks to hold back progress. It also makes sense to me to develop special cross-border economic zones in Africa, which can evolve into regional hubs with clear governance rules.
My fourth point is not economic, but rather cultural: It is time to drop our arrogance towards Africa, learn more about its history, its reality, and its culture. We must learn to differentiate. And we must learn more about and from Africa. This continent deserves the full attention of our brightest minds. It deserves to be explored and talked about more than ever before. And it deserves the respect of a mutual learning process, from and about one another. By the way, I am convinced that in this process we will also learn more about ourselves better: what it means to be European, or to be German in this world of mutual dependencies.
I believe that the key to a true, strategic partnership between the two continents must be based on using these asymmetries productively instead of trying to hide them.
Between Europe and Africa there are obvious political and economic asymmetries. I believe that the key to a true, strategic partnership between the two continents must be based on using these asymmetries productively instead of trying to hide them. I see two optimal starting points for this: Firstly, we can use them to build stronger financial bridges between the ageing, savings-oriented companies of the North and the young, investment-hungry companies of the South. Secondly, we can turn the asymmetries into productive avenues (and even that is no longer just an economic, but almost a cultural point) if we relate our own concepts of growth to the much-needed growth in Africa, thus facilitating ecological and economic growth there by establishing another way of conducting economic activities as well as manufacturing and consuming. I am thoroughly convinced that this is not a sacrifice scenario. Quite contrary! I believe it will release completely new prosperity avenues for us, beyond the material and ultimately self-destructive need for ‘more and more’.
Why are we so afraid to visualise a truly global social contract? To anyone who thinks this is too ambitious, I say: Let's not kid ourselves! The migration movements of recent years, which we have only seen in fragments here in Europe, are not a historical slip-up; they are messengers of things to come: a new era in which the stark differences in prosperity between countries are no longer accepted by a troubled and growing youth in the South. It is possible to reveal a positive outlook to this youth. Africa’s economic transformation can only succeed in a reciprocal interaction with a structural transformation of Europe.
This includes topics such as digitalisation, globalisation, climate change, global inequality, and the future of capitalism. All these challenges scream for structural transformation and rethinking of the relationship between the economy, the government and society, in the north as in the south, and in the east as in the west. In connection with this large-scale global transformation, we must also classify our Africa policy.
This text is an abridged version of the speech ‘Africa has a vision’, which the previous German President Horst Köhler held at the symposium ‘Future Values: Responsibility for the World of Tomorrow’ on the 9th of April in Hamburg.
The full speech can be found on the personal website of former German President Horst Köhler at www.horstkoehler.de
Prof. Dr. Horst Köhler served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. Prior to that, he was Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Finance, President of the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Managing Director of the IMF.
