West Africa: challenges and resolutions

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Wednesday 18 November 2020, 14.00-15.15
DIIS ∙ Danish Institute for International Studies
Online via Zoom

Beyond the economic and political shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a year of both tension and change across the West African sub-region. The international community’s gaze remains fixed on developments in the Sahel, where Mali continues to be the epicenter of attention with a recent military coup d’état, continued ethnic confrontation, spreading violent extremism, and multiple internationally led interventions that are trying to shore up the country’s continued collapse.

Similar developments are manifesting themselves in Burkina Faso and Niger, and extremist violence in northeastern Nigeria is spreading and posing an increasing threat to the region’s coastal areas. Moreover, the Gulf of Guinea is experiencing growing levels of piracy and kidnappings at sea.

Contested elections have been held in both Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, where political leaders have tweaked constitutions to allow for third terms, while elections in Burkina Faso and Niger will occur at the end of the year. In Ghana, which holds elections on December 7, the fear is that vigilante groups aligned to political parties will clash prior to, during and after the elections.

Meanwhile, tensions are building up in Nigeria. As a signpost for the whole region, it is becoming clear that demonstrations in Lagos are more about a political elite’s decade-long exclusion of an increasingly young and frustrated population than police brutality, which initially ignited demonstrations.

The challenges that the sub-region is facing are many and complex, straddling violent extremism, state institutions that are unable to deliver public goods, as well as climate change and a growing young population.

To gain greater understanding of the challenges that West Africa is facing, this webinar is a dialogue between Kristian Kirkegaard Edinger, Team Leader for West Africa in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Kwesi Aning, Research Director at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra Ghana and current visiting researcher at DIIS. The dialogue is moderated by Peter Albrecht, Senior Researcher at DIIS.

The webinar will address both challenges of the region and possible solutions, some of which must be found from within West Africa, while others can be externally supported. Critical questions to be tackled during the webinar include: How do the region’s governments deal with the challenges that they are facing? What role should we expect from regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) in this regard? What can international actors, individually and collectively, do to support positive developments in West Africa? And what are some of the positive developments in the region – where do the opportunities lie?

Speakers
Kwesi Aning, Professor and Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research (FAAR), Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre
Kristian Kirkegaard Edinger, Sahel Coordinator, Team Leader West Africa, Africa Policy Development Department at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark 
Peter Albrecht, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Programme
14.00-14.05   Introduction, Peter Albrecht
14.05-14.15   The Challenges of West Africa, Kwesi Aning
14.15-14.45   Dialogue between Kristian Kirkegaard Edinger and Kwesi Aning
14.45-15.15   Q&A - moderated by Peter Albrecht

Practical information
The seminar will be held in English. Participation is free of charge, but registration is required.