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Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

       

       

GOVERNANCE INSTITUTE 2017: Economic Governance and The Management of Debt for Africa’s Economic Transformation

Date : 04 September – 15 September 2017
Venue: CODESRIA Dakar, Senegal
Theme: Economic Governance and The Management of Debt for Africa’s Economic Transformation

 

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) held the 2017 edition of its Institute on Democratic Governance at its Secretariat in Dakar, Senegal. The Institute which was held from 4th to 15th September 2017 was directed by Prof. Horace Campbell, holder of the Kwame NKRUMAH Chair of the Institute of African Studies in Ghana. He was assisted by Professors Vusi GUMEDE (Thabo Mbeki Institute for Leadership in Africa) and Abdou Salam FALL (IFAN / UCAD). The Institute was attended by 14 young scholars from different parts of the continent. One of the highlights of the Institute was a public conference on the theme:. “Financial Capital and Intervention in Libya: Opposition to the African Currency” held on Tuesday, 12 September 2017 at CODESRIA premises with Professor Campbell as the Lead Speaker. The conference, which was well covered by local and international media, had in attendance government representatives, diplomats, university lecturers, young researchers and various eminent personalities from the intellectual community.

Announcement

The opening ceremony of CODESRIA’s Democratic Governance Institute, 2017 was held on Monday, 4 September 2017. The opening ceremony was chaired by the Executive Secretary of CODESRIA, Dr Godwin Murunga. The Institute which has in attendance 15 laureates from different African countries, is being directed by Professor Horace Campbell, with Professors Abdou Salam Fall and Vusi Gumede as resource persons. The theme of the Institute is Economic Governance and Africa’s Economic Transformation. The Institute will end on Friday, 15 September 2017.

The 2017 session of the governance Institute focuses on interrogating, in a historical and contemporary sense, the governance dimensions that are at the core of the economic realities that most African countries are undergoing at present. Literature and reality point to the fact that most African countries are experiencing economic and political conditions similar to those that preceded imposition of Structural adjustment programs. In the context of the resource boom, a number of African countries borrowed heavily from China and the ‘Eurobond’ market. Most of these borrowing was pegged on continued high commodity prices or discovery of new resources like oil. On the other hand, and as detailed in the ‘Report of the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa (HLP)’ and the ‘Afrileaks’ the dynamics through which African countries are accumulating debt is not just a function of their borrowing spree. Suspect loans, national and international criminal networks and international legal regimes that govern borrowing and lending from private funds would constitute forms of theft of resources from Africa. These practices further accentuate point weakening of institutional governance practices related to debt management and agreements for sale of commodities. Ultimately, the sovereignty of the nation state in Africa, and the accountability of governance regimes in the continent to the citizens is continuously undermined and subverted. Poor economic governance creates other spirals such as rising levels of inequality, mortality, food and energy insecurity, destructive conflicts, religious extremism, ethnic and gender violence, environmental degradation, and migration. Engagements during the institute will seek to deepen intellectual understandings of these processes, reflect in depth on the contemporary economic trends in the continent and its influence on political processes and seek to propose the kind of political and economic governance architecture at a national and continental level required to insulate African economies from global economic criminal networks.

The Pedagogical team
Director of the Institute
Prof Horace G Campbell: Prof of Comparative Politics and International Relations at Syracuse University, Department of African American Studies and Department of Political Science and; Kwame Nkrumah Chair Institute of African Studies University of Ghana Legon. Prof Campbell is a passionate Pan-African whose intellectual engagements have seen him devout much time teaching and researching in the continent. The span of his intellectual engagements include research, teaching and published works on Pan Africanism, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, The Politics of the Global Economy, Nationalism, African International Relations, Politics of Contemporary African Societies, African Politics and Society, The Politics of Southern Africa, Militarism and Underdevelopment, Militarism and Transformation in Southern Africa, Caribbean Politics and Society, Comparative Politics, The Politics of Industrial States and Introduction to African American Studies.

Resource Persons

1. Prof Vusi Gumede: is Professor & Head: Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute at the University of South Africa. Formerly, Gumede was Associate Professor in Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. Some of his published works include Political Economy of Post-Apartheid South Africa, CODESRIA Press (2015), Post-Apartheid South Africa: Social & Economic Inclusion, CAMBRIA Press (2015), and forthcoming, Democratic Developmental State in South Africa: Challenges and Prospects, UKZN Press

2. Prof Fall Abdou Salam: Directeur de Recherche des Universités, Coordinateur du Laboratoire de recherche sur les Transformations économiques et sociales (LARTES) à l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) ;
2012-2014, Directeur de la formation doctorale « Sciences sociales appliquées au développement » Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar.
2012-2014: Président du Conseil Scientifique du Forum International des Dirigeants de l’Economie Sociale et Solidaire (FIDESS-Rencontres du Mont Blanc), Paris: Membre du Comité Scientifique de la Revue Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales, Canada; Membre du Comité Scientifique en Sciences Sociales de l’Institut de Recherche en Développement (IRD) siège à Marseille: Membre du Comité Scientifique de la Revue Méthodes du Conseil pour le Développement de la recherche en Sciences Sociales en Afrique (CODESRIA) à Dakar; Membre du Comité Scientifique de la Revue « Espaces et Société », Ecole d’architecture Paris-Val de Seine, LAVUE, Paris.


Day 2: Is there a sub Saharan Africa? Epistemological Questions for African scholars and African policy makers?
By Prof. Horace Campbell, Director of the Institute

 

Draft program 2017

List of participants 2017

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