Africa’s Common Voice

GERD

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The over-stretched issues around the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) leave no eyewitnesses to the situation settled. Not long ago, African member states signed an agreement to accelerating intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations (AfCFTA), scheduled to commence on the1st of July. COVID-19 gives room to extend discussions on salient instruments to permit the full implementation of this agreement.

Africa is still far away from the distant future to achieve Agenda 2063 albeit; we are progressively making decent strides towards achieving the Africa we want. Africa cannot afford to take the risk of our golden ticket to a defined and unified African Voice. The COVID -19 pandemic not only highlights vulnerabilities and deficiencies, however on the contrary, it just shows everyone how relevant AfCFTA is to Africa. As we see close in borders, restrictions on international travels, in most countries constraints on internal activities influencing global trade, decreasing supply chains. Lockdowns in Africa costs 2.5% ($65 billion) on our annual GDP.

The Nile River is a long transboundary river, but also one of the most water-scarce river basins in the world. The geopolitical feud between Ethiopia and Egypt over claims of the share of the Blue Nile to build the dam, which worries downstream country Egypt if matters get out of the clutch is inescapable on Africa. It bears to mention there is a lot at stake. African geopolitics cannot catch up with the complexities of a revolution because of escalations from the feud in these challenging times.

Over the last few decades, with particularly decisive changes in three years on the $4.8 billion project, the hydro-diplomacy on the Nile River basin has unrolled considerably. Current misconceptions surrounding the GERD’s purpose is a failure to establish a few basic facts and ensure the public has access to accurate information. Words and actions shape our reality. The stand-off on the progress of the GERD project is due claims such as this: Egypt is an intransigent country that refuses to allow Ethiopia to exploit its water resources and build dams to achieve development and generate electricity for the poor Ethiopian population deprived of services.

The issue is highly politicized that “it seems to suppress legitimate engineering inputs and environmental

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Operations Coordinator, PACCI. discussions as well as public discussions. I suggest that concerned authorities should make the project transparent, and “consider finding bridging solutions that meet the needs of all parties involved”. A new approach to dealing with these issues, via the innovative use of water diplomacy and water management tools (transboundary) is necessary. The speed at which African Union Member States ratified the AfCFTA, gives a glimpse of the resolve, the commitment, and the readiness of Member States to move into the next key steps thus, implementation and delivering results. As far as the GERD project is concerned, the vision of the African Union to: a. Achieve greater unity and solidarity between African countries and their people b. Defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity of its member states c. Promote peace, security, and stability on the continent d. Accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent is flawed.

Under the auspices of African member states, the Union and other key African stakeholder organizations can marry efforts to lead negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia to lay out procedures for discussions, key implementation phases with important milestones defined and agreed upon by

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involved member states. Member States individually and collectively can influence critical decisions on a highly complex matter. These interventions can or will directly influence the speed and quality of implementation of the GERD project that brings transformative results with measurable impacts on local populations’ livelihoods. A Coordinated diplomatic effort through the African Union is required to help Africa speak with one voice and address the long-standing issue between the two countries as well as calling to invoke the spirit of solidarity fundamentally behind the principles of the international relation system to ensure that the countries can have fair access to the Blue Nile.

The successful implementation and maintenance of the AfCFTA is a wide-range of conditions. Cutting across multiple issue areas, and thus varying from the concrete to the abstract. As a continent, there are significant long-term benefits to increasing intraAfrican trade that can be shared by all.

Ensuring stability, peace and security, and a sensitive eye is required towards harmonizing economic integration, as well as geopolitical will are crucial in the implementation of AfCFTA and boldly achieving Agenda 2063. Therefore, promoting national economic development and facilitating mutual understanding in Africa cannot be over emphasized and their role in AfCFTA implementation is essential.