Reporting Africa on Industrial Policy? Enter the Trailblazers of the DTI Media Network

Reporting Africa on Industrial Policy? 
Enter the Trailblazersof the DTI Media Network

by E K Bensah Jr

Now that Africa's Continental Free Trade Area is operational, its merits evidently transcend what benefit it would inure to African countries, such as Ghana, the country-host of the Afcfta Secretariat.

Far too many Ghanaians remain oblivious of the AU, and what AfCFTA really is about, and have doggedly sought to question the benefits for Ghana. That few are talking about how it will transform the AU into a global player is a source of concern. In this country, we are still not connecting the dots on what projects like these seek to do in amplifying the appetite of the AU as an assertive and global player within the context of Agenda 2063.

So, while many Ghanaians can identify with Agenda 2063, they remain unconvinced that what looks like a mere trade agreement could boost Africa to a place the world has never seen it go. AfCFTA is uncharted territory – a sea with infinite opportunities in helping us deliver the AU as an effective player on the world's stage.

Perhaps the UNECA said it best when it argued in its 2019 EDAR report that Afcfta is not just about intra-African trade, but about “dispelling the crisis of implementation” that had persisted in the telling of the African narrative.

Now that AfCFTA is alive, Africa should now have greater impetus to sign and ratify outstanding protocols, such as the Free Movement Protocol; and sign onto the AU levy of 0.5 percent that less than twenty countries are currently paying. Even more importantly, the success of Afcfta means that other all-important programmes under Agenda 2063, such as the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA) strategy need elaboration, demystifying and unpacking.

Building Media Awareness on AIDA's framework and related strategies

It is to this end that the African Union's Department of Trade & Industry(DTI), together with GIZ, convened a three-day workshop for business and economic journalists across the continent from 25-27 September in Addis Ababa.

Whilst the Department has continued to implement and coordinate these pan- African industrialisation programmes, and the benefits thereof, there remains limited visibility/awareness of these and their impact by the general populace of the continent. In addition, the continent continues to be negatively portrayed in international media channels – as exemplified by the Economist's 2001 cover depicting Africa as “a hopeless continent”. This kind of dyspeptic narrative builds and consolidates on negative perceptions that have compromised business risk, hence compromising the continent’s capacity to mobilise foreign investment.

The take-off of AfCFTA, and the liberalised trading market-induced business opportunities, has given new impetus to the Continent to improve its image if the much-needed capital to boost industrial supply capacity has to be assured.

Inevitably, the need for a more proactive communication of the various continental industrial frameworks becomes an important subject for re-jigging the erstwhile pessimistic narrative, as well as cultivating the need for a working relationship with the quintessential members of the Fourth Estate – the Media.

Against this backdrop, the maiden workshop sought to work closely with the media fraternity to build awareness in the continent and beyond on these programmes. Without a doubt, the need to demystify, unpack,and explain the Continent's industrial policies was imperative and could not have come at a better time.

AIDA versus Agenda2063

If there is a programme that has attracted immense mileage in helping open up the African Union to ordinary peoples, it is arguable that Agenda2063 would be it. While confusion remains over many of the AU's programmes and policies, at least Agenda2063 elicits within most the desire to see a better – read more assertive – Africa come 2063, in the 100^th celebration of the founding of the OAU. While most are cognisant of not being alive to see the full realization of Agenda2063, it has joined the lingua franca around discussions of the AU. More people seem to appreciate the message that it is trying to convey about ab Africa at peace with itself, and fully-assertive on the Continent and in global spaces.

Agenda2063 itself is very different from AIDA. It remains Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future. It is the continent’s strategic framework seeking to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable developmen, and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance.

Conversely, AIDA remains a programme under Agenda2063, and was borne out of the need to address the lack of the required industrial capacities and capabilities, inadequate entrepreneurship and institutional support, energy and infrastructure bottlenecks and demand constraints that resulted due to the low purchasing power of the vast majority of the population.

It was back in January 2008 that AU Heads of State decided to devote the theme of the Summit to Africa's industrialization. The dedication of the Assembly to this theme demonstrated the high priority accorded to African industry as a compelling, dynamic force in converting commodities into high value-added products. Heads of State would adopt the Action Plan for Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA). The AU Commission was then directed to establish operational priorities, programmes and projects in close cooperation with key stakeholders. This was so as to further assist in the implementation of the Plan.

Following the decision to prioritise Seven Clusters under the auspices of AIDA, the document provides an “Implementation Strategy” under the following Programme clusters: industrial policy and institutional direction; upgrading production and trade capacities; promote infrastructure and energy for industrial development; human resources development for industry; industrial innovation systems, R&D and technology development; financing and resource mobilization and sustainable development. Ultimately, the Implementation Strategy is to help translate the seven clusters into concrete action-oriented programmes , projects and activities that can foster industrial growth and structural change in Africa, as well as entrench industrial integration regionally, continent-wide, as well as into the international economy.

Regional perspectives

At a time that there has been a lot of discussion around regional integration and regional value chains it was always going to be important to have presentations at the media workshop that spoke to the efforts of regional economic communities around industrialization.

For Dr.Kemji Ajoku of the ECOWAS Commission, for too long, trade policy had run roughshod over industrial policy. Over the years, too much attention had been given to trade and industry had conveniently been subsumed under trade. This was made all the more possible for regions like ECOWAS who were confronted with the behemoth of the Economic Partnership Agreements. Signing it, the EU suggested, would allow for some level of support for programmes on industry at the ECOWAS level. However, the reality was that as the region continued to resist the EPAs, so did the EU resist in offering its support to programmes on industry. Simply put, a carrot-and-stick approach for support from the EU in the event ECOWAS signed up to the EPAs may have guaranteed support for programmes. The operative word being “may”, by which time ECOWAS would have found its hands tied to the EU's whims.

The onset of the Afcfta has allowed some latitude for ECOWAS allowing it to now develop some programmes around regional industry. These include: the establishment of an ECOWAS Industrial Database; regional value strategy documents for agro and building materials; development of a regional automotive policy; and harmonization of ECOWAS Standards.

For SADC's part, Dr.J. Rutaiwha explained away a very different regional context where there was little pressure of the carrot-and-stick approach adopted by the EU towards ECOWAS on support for regional industrial programmes.

SADC possesses an industrialisation strategy that links it directly to Agenda 2063. Entitled “SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063”, the strategies emanating from the plan are three-fold: boost the productive capacity of industries; develop infrastructure that leverages industrialization, and promotes technological advancement. SADC's ten intervention strategies include revitalizing regional integration; industrial development; strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises; and enhancing competitiveness.

For SADC, their revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) between 2015 and 2020 includes the recognition that both regional integration and industrial development are at the heart of the Plan.

Media Networks, and the birth of DTI Media Network

At a time that media networks are all the rage, one could be forgiven for thinking that this new network populated by business journalists across the Continent to report Africa's industrialization programmes is yet another elusive Network that will go no where.

The difference with other Networks, such as Agenda 2063 Media Network, and the African Peer Review Communications Network, among others, is the hands-on approach of the AU staff themselves. Both Mrs. Ron Osman Omar, Senior Adviser at the AU's Department of Trade and Industry, and Rongai Chizema, Chief Technical Advisor and Head of AIDA Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU),have been at the heart of the training. Both during the training, and post-training engagements have asserted the recognition of the media fraternity in carrying the stories on Africa's industrialization stories, including Agenda 2063 and AfCFTA. This in itself has made the engagement after the training more interesting and inclusive, allowing the media to be proactive in finding ways to tell important and necessary stories that project Africa's industrialization efforts.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the “transformative flair” of journalism that Mr.Chizema referred to numerous times during the three days has come to stay. Forget Enter the (Chinese) Dragon; Enter the DTI Media Network on its path to transform reporting of Africa!

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