At its 592th plenary session on Wednesday 4 December, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) took stock of the state of democracy in Africa with senior African Union (AU) officials Kyeretwie Osei, Louis Cheick Sissoko and Brenda Brewer Moore.
Kyeretwie Osei, Head of Programmes at the AU’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), speaking on behalf of its President, Khalid Boudali, said that Africa appeared to be “at a crossroad in our grand democratic experiment”.
Since 2020, there have been a succession of coups d’état or attempted coups d’état in Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sudan, Chad and Gabon.
“We must make sure that good governance becomes a paradigm on our continent, which includes the reduction and the elimination of corruption and, above all, creating spaces for citizen’s expression”, he said, underlining the importance of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the EESC and ECOSOCC in Ghana on Wednesday 17 July.
The agreement provides for regular meetings, joint contributions to EU-AU summits and the creation of a permanent civil society engagement mechanism.
Also on Wednesday, the Chairman of the ECOSOCC Political Affairs Committee, Louis Cheick Sissoko, called for “more flexible funding mechanisms” from the EU for African civil society.
“The EESC must be aware that Africa is facing internal and external threats as a result of the rise of foreign powers that show no interest in the specific needs of African states and their populations and are defending their own agendas”, said Mr Sissoko. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)