Progress towards Partnership: Assessing Global Affairs Canada’s Recent Announcements on African Engagement
Canadian Centre for African Affairs and Policy Research
Forging A Stronger Partnership.
Canada’s recent announcements regarding new initiatives to strengthen partnerships within Africa mark an encouraging shift in our diplomatic, trade, and development priorities. During the second annual Canada–African Union Commission High-Level Dialogue in Toronto on November 7, 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alongside several Canadian ministers and diplomats met with representatives from the African Union Commission, including Chairperson H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat. Importantly, members of the African diaspora were also in attendance and shared their reflections and vision for strengthening Canada-Africa relations.
Following the Dialogue, Ministers Joly, Ng and Hussen unveiled several initiatives aimed at strengthening Canada-Africa ties. Minister Joly committed $54.4 million for peace, governance, and diplomatic initiatives, including a Special Envoy for Africa, a high commission in Zambia, and an embassy in Benin. Minister Hussen followed with $176.6 million in funding to promote social and economic empowerment, climate resilience, and skill development. Finally, Minister Mary Ng announced the launch of a Pan-African Trade Hub and forthcoming Air Transport Agreements with Nigeria and Ghana.
Moving the Needle
These announcements, backed by over $200M in funding commitments, highlight Canada’s recognition of Africa as a valuable partner. After years of stagnation following the initial promise of an Africa strategy in 2021 and several rounds of public consultations, Canada is finally taking substantive action to strengthen its economic partnerships on the continent of growing global significance. The new embassy and high commission will bolster support for Canadians abroad while strengthening ties with key African governments, especially in strategic locations such as Zambia, whose significant mineral reserves - critical for the energy transition - present a compelling opportunity for Canadian expertise in sustainable resource development and renewable energy. Similarly, the upcoming Air Transport Agreements are a practical step in facilitating travel and trade with Ghana and Nigeria, two West African nations whose relative geographic proximity to Canada, economic significance and cultural importance within Africa make them natural strategic partners. Importantly, the diaspora engagement mechanism recognizes the latent knowledge, experience and energy within Canada’s diverse African diaspora, comprising over 1.5 million people, and serves as an important step to harness their expertise.
Progress towards a Comprehensive Strategy
Despite this progress, it is important to recognize that these announcements are just? “some of the first deliverables” in a planned new Africa strategy the government intends to announce by the end of the year. Therefore, it is imperative that these announcements are just the opening note, and not the crescendo, of Canada’s approach to engaging with the continent.?
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While the funding commitments are a promising start, these will need to increase to the order of billions of dollars to match the scale of the continent’s opportunities and challenges. For reference, our Indo-Pacific strategy committed $2.3 billion over five years to advance our strategic objectives in the region.?
The details and implementation of the announced initiatives must also be closely monitored, specifically the operationalization of the diaspora engagement mechanism, the Global Affairs trade and development program, the Pan-African Trade Hub and the Special Envoys for Africa and the Sahel. Furthermore, key sectors of mutual alignment such as agriculture, climate resilience, mining and manufacturing received only cursory mention. Infrastructure and engineering — a key priority for Africa’s development where Canada can play a unique role — was notably absent from the announcements. Details on how Canada plays to engage in these sectors must be featured in the upcoming strategy.?
The Road Ahead
Canada’s renewed commitment to Africa shows promise, but this must only be viewed as the first step. With this strong tailwind, 2025 has the potential to be a landmark year for Canada-Africa relations. Following the release of its Africa strategy, Canada will take the G7 presidency in 2025 alongside South Africa who will hold the G20 presidency. This perfect storm presents an ideal moment to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to African partnerships, particularly in infrastructure development. South Africa’s renewed focus on infrastructure development and the momentum of the G7-led Partnerships for Global Infrastructure Initiative set the perfect stage.
These recent steps made by our government are encouraging. But for Canada to be a trusted partner to African nations, these commitments must continue to grow to reflect the continent’s growing importance in the global economy. There is still much work to be done on this file. But the needle has been moved.
By David B. for Canada-Africa policy at Canadian Centre for African Affairs and Policy Research
David is an Infrastructure Advisory Consultant at Mott MacDonald and Chair, Board of Directors at Engineers Without Borders Canada , Canada. Born in South Africa to Congolese parents, he resides in Toronto. David holds a BASc. in Engineering Science, specializing in Infrastructure Engineering, from the 加拿大多伦多大学 and an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the 英国剑桥大学 .
In service to Chief Allen and Council at Constance Lake First Nation. Ready to negotiate a Shared Prosperity Agreement and Planning/ Design for Infrastructure. Also a Senior Advisor at Mokwateh.
3 个月Folks in newly elected President of Liberia Boakai's team have reached out with an interest to build strong relationship with the federal government and Canadian investors and investment bankers. FinDev Canada Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada
Fellow at Canadian Global Affairs Institute, President of AfriCan Access Consulting, Educator
3 个月Excellent overview including what's still missing.
Economist | International Public Policy
3 个月A good read. A braver step for Canada, in addition to funding commitments, is to boldly embrace government to government relations with African countries, in view of the AU Agenda 2063. This trust building exercise can be in the form of identifying key policy areas for mutual alignment with national policy agencies of individual African countries & through supranational bodies like African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat’s where relations can flourish, practically.?Sidestepping national agencies would be costly & portray a lack of interest in how policies that shape individual African countries are implemented.
President, Remillard Consulting Group
3 个月Canada will likely have a new government in 2025 in which case a December 2024 Canada-Africa Strategic Plan may join a whole host of other forgotten documents on dusty shelves in academe. The key question will be: what priority will a new regime put on Africa when it will be dealing with the consequences of America's hard turn towards the Trump Republican, concerns that will likely be all-consuming? Also, there are media reports that the Trump administration will be re-calibrating policies adopted under Biden, such as recognizing Somaliland - will Canada follow suit? Canada's main opposition parties have been quite silent insofar as Canada-Africa relations are concerned. There is a risk that Canada under the current administration or the next one will strive to be all things to all people and not focus its efforts on areas where it has a competitive advantage or where it can make the most gains over the medium-term. This likely means picking from amongst the 54 African countries according to a set of priorities including market size, growth rates(recent and projected), openness to investment and historical ties.