The meeting will bring together academics, policymakers, private sector and civil society from Africa, China, India, Brazil and Europe to discuss new actors’ involvement in the continent and its impact on the EU’s relations with the continent. We believe that your participation would add enormous value to our deliberations.
Date: Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Venue: Jan Smuts House, East Campus, Wits University
RSVP: Nondumiso Nqunqa
Email: nondumiso.nqunqa@wits.ac.za
Background:
As the various debates over recent times reflect, most notably in the G-20’s adoption in November 2010 of the Seoul Development Consensus on Shared Growth, development requires economic growth that is balanced and shared. Europe have been Africa’s biggest trade, investment and aid partners for many years. However, the African landscape has changed dramatically in recent times. Africa’s deepening relations with big emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil have spurred thinking that the balanced growth and development is now more tangible, especially since growth in the markets of the North has slowed down so considerably over the last three years. This is coupled with the fact that the North’s development policy over 60 years has yielded mixed results.
In the last few years, external perceptions of Africa have changed largely because of progress made in many countries in achieving both political and economic stability. Africa is now characterised as the new frontier of growth, or as the World Bank put it in March 2011, ‘Africa could be on the brink of an economic takeoff, much like China was 30 years ago, and India 20 years ago.’
Parking will be available at the Planetarium on East Campus.
- Download the Draft Programme
