Cornerstones of a Marshall Plan with Africa
Discussion details
Back in January 2017, the German government launched its Marshall Plan with Africa. "We need a paradigm shift; we have to realise that Africa is not the continent of cheap commodities but rather that the people of Africa need infrastructure and a future." - declared the German Development Minister Gerd Müller at that time. Instead of the old donor-recipient paradigm, the plan adopted as a basis of cooperation with African partners close political dialogue and a partnership based on mutual obligations. The Marshall Plan with Africa has focused on "the single most important challenge facing the African continent: the need to create 20 million new jobs every year". Four years into implementation of the Plan, Africa faces another economic crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The German experience aligns with the present EC approach to find a proper balance between ODA (Official Development Aid) and private investment. Find more at the following link : https://www.bmz.de/en/countries_regions/marshall_plan_with_africa/index…
(3)
Log in with your EU Login account to post or comment on the platform.
I think this kind of programs, though necessary and excellent, should not be called Marshall, in reference to the post-WWII american rebuilding program of Europe. Easy to find an appropriate name.
Thanks for the great work the German Government is doing under the Cornerstones of a Marshall Plan with Africa.
The claim of infrastructure and future for Africa is an honest one. We therefore launched a proposal for 8 new funds to finance infrastructure and SME entrepreneurship in Africa with a total of € 70 billion:
https://developmentfinance.un.org/sites/developmentfinance.un.org/files…
Among those funds is Le Pan Africain, a combined corridor of train, electricity and water covering 16 African countries and crossing the Sub-Sahara.
We as well in the midst of the 2020 Pandemic assessed the social goods needed to achieve support for investment in Africa such as:
- The willingness to co-finance public goods. Surprisingly high e.g. in Somalia and
Ethiopia
- The willingness to invest in local SME, high e.g. in Centrafrique, Congo
We reached 46 African countries yet and you can download our Monitor here on 49 printer-friendly pages:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/commitments/116…
You can find results for around 300 African cities and the 46 countries here to see how it worked:
https://trustyourplace.com/search-score
Unfortunately both the EU DEVCO, the EC and the BMZ reject even to assess our proposals and results. We are only allowed to publish them in the United Nations.
We cannot apply for any funding in the EU.
But we are allowed to read about a Marshall Plan for Africa and to post here where not
a single EU decision maker appears.