The future of the Africa-EU partnership JAES lunch-seminars: Talking Points Africa-EU: Dialogue and Negotiations in Global Fora Carlos Lopes UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA

Abstract

This talking points delivered by Carlos Lopes UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA at the Future of the Africa-EU Partnership JAES Lunch-Seminars. Mr. Lopes, on his remarks highlighted that, the changing face of aid in Africa. The Aid discourse has evolved significantly over time, shifting from a focus on the absolute levels of ODA flows, to aid effectiveness, viewing aid as only one of many inputs to overall development effectiveness and to facilitate local ownership of development priorities, as highlighted at Busan in 2011. A New Partnership for Development Assistance, The Africa-Europe relationship can no longer be viewed as a donor-recipient dynamic, but rather as a partnership for realizing development goals which benefit Africa as well as the global environment, in which these specific goals are conceptualized and owned by African States. Africans are increasingly connected to one another and to the globe, due to innovative and entrepreneurial ICT across the continent. ICT goods traded in Africa nearly doubled, as a per cent of total trade, between 2003 and 2011 (UNCTAD 2013).