AFRICA: Africans, Diaspora should take global responsibility

Paris– Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora should take global responsibility towards the development of Africa, says South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Addressing the African Union–African Diaspora in Europe Regional Consultative Conference (RCC) in Paris, France on Tuesday, the minister said Africans should work together for the continent’s development.

Dr Dlamini Zuma said Africans’ quest was to, through the dialogue, rally behind the call for them to collectively take a global responsibility for their own development, and “for the African condition in its totality, which covers the ground occupied both by Africans in Africa and in the Diaspora”.

She said the meeting was about the opening up of more vistas in which Africans and those in the Diaspora could create more opportunities and possibilities for the voices of Africans to be heard to influence the shape of the world in the future.

The conference focused on ways forward on crucial issues including migration, global governance, peace and security, sustainable development and knowledge sharing and the empowerment of the vulnerable groups such as women.

Dr Dlamini Zuma explained that the AU was making a call on the African Diaspora to put forward concrete and tangible proposals for cooperation between itself and its Diaspora.

She said those in Africa were aware of some of the reasons why Africa’s best educated and productive citizens found themselves on the other side of the Atlantic – and not at home where their skills, energies and resources were in great demand.

“In responding to the call by the AU, we must pay due regard to the fact that we are building on many good initiatives that are already underway in Africa that need our active support.

“One crucial element in our quest to reunite Africa and her Diaspora is the need to acknowledge and accept our diversity as Africans as much as we recognise the quest for greater unity. Africa is big with many countries, nations, nationalities, religions, tribes and challenges,” she said.

The minister however said that diversity should not preclude Africans and the African Diaspora from acting in unity of purpose.

“Notwithstanding the divergent views we may espouse, we should be united in our desire to see this better Africa in a better world,” she said.

Dr Dlamini Zuma also explained that the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) project of the AU offered Africans a possibility to work together, adding that NEPAD remained the blueprint for the social and economic regeneration of the continent.

She also alluded to the Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund in which Africa is using its own resources to address its developmental challenges.

“In this way we are putting our own resources behind infrastructure projects on the African continent,” the minister said.

She said the fund would initially focus on transport, energy, water and sanitation, and telecommunications infrastructure investments – it would mainly focus on projects that could contribute to the regional integration of the continent.

Minister Dlamini Zuma recognised that the African Diaspora in Europe continued to face various challenges such as xenophobia, racial discrimination, and political and socio-economic marginalisation.

The meeting forms part of a series of RCCs that have been organised in preparation for the Summit of the African Diaspora to be held during the first half of 2008 in South Africa.

Similar conferences have already taken place in Brazil for Latin America, London for the United Kingdom, New York for North America, Barbados for the Caribbean.

The Africa RCC will take place in Addis Ababa in October 2007.

The RCCs aim to produce a shared vision for sustainable development for the African continent and its Diaspora. – BuaNews