The Courier

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission and Amadou Toumani Touré, President of Mali, at the plenary of Heads of State.

© European Commission

This is certainly one of the largest political and cultural events on cooperation with developing nations and specifically with African nations that the European Commission has ever organised in Brussels. A week of activities, from November 13 to 17 – preceded by several days of media hype about its development policy – where the Commission faced heckling from those with opposing views. The outcome was surprisingly positive – even the most sceptical observers, like Aminata Traoré, were won over, aknowledging that debates were open and lively. It was largely a success.

The setting: one of Heysel’s exhibition halls in the Belgian capital, more used to hosting the annual automobile show and other commercial mega-exhibitions than political meetings. What is rare for an event with a serious agenda, fashion shows with alluring models, concerts, an African cinema festival, exhibitions of African comic strips and other arts staged not only the Heysel, but galleries, theatres and numerous prestigious cultural venues in and around the city. It all created a party atmosphere pleasing even the hardened political-phobics.

The entire event was publicised by giant posters on the main boulevards and metro stations; leaflets and flyers were distributed around the trendy places where young people go. All this was backed up by a daily happening on the ‘Millennium Campaign’ theme in Place de la Monnaie outside the opera house in the centre of town.

A large banner even covered the façade of the Berlaymont building – seat of the European Commissioners. The week began with the handing out of the Youth Development Awards to the winners of a graphic arts competition from the various Member States of the Union emphasising the importance of a development consciousness in young people.

Taking development to the man and woman in the street

Even local cinemas participated, where in one of them – not directly involved in any way – an usherette was seen holding a flyer for the European Development Days (EDD), www.eudevdays.eu, while chatting to regular cinemagoers. A quick glance revealed her source of supply: a display next to her counter, where the advert for the EDD had been placed alongside those for tango shows, rock concerts and other events. It clearly illustrated that the organisers had spared no effort in bringing development issues directly to the man and woman in the street.

In fact, the audience was much more varied than the usual suspects (civil servants, activists and other regular attendees) at these get-togethers, strolling around picking up information from the many stands in the Heysel’s development ‘village’. They came to find out about the new Latvian or Maltese development policy; the long-standing Finnish commitment to development; about pacifist movements such as Nonviolent Peaceforce or Pax Christi; or the involvement of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) in the African Partnership Forum.

This was just an appetiser! The main course, so to speak, was the opening ceremony of the EDD by then-Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and the then-holder of the Presidency of the European Union, Finland, represented by its Secretary of State for Development, Marjatta Rasi. This was followed by a debate on the theme ‘Perspectives on Governance’ in which activist for an alternative globalism, and former Minister of Culture in Mali, Aminata Traoré, made a robust challenge to the European Union’s development policy and that of other large international institutions. Other participants in this debate were Saïd Djinnit (African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security), Mark Malloch Brown (United Nations’ Deputy Secretary General), Paul Wolfowitz (then-President of the World Bank), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Donald Kaberuka (President of the African Development Bank) and Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development. In parallel, a few hundred metres away, the Forum of EU-Africa Affairs was going on. This brought together a group of business leaders whose companies are involved in developing countries.

Call to reflect

Then there was the Governance Forum, concluding with the Plenary Session of African Heads of State. The Governance Forum was the real ‘think tank’ of the programme. Organisers wanted to get participants to think about development issues as an open dialogue. It was also an invitation from the Commission to reflect on its own progress. There was a crowd of rather frustrated listeners, who could not attend all of the multiple round table discussions happening simultaneously. It was difficult to choose between sessions in the afternoon: ‘Building a culture of democracy’, ‘Accelerating the fight against corruption’, the ‘Avenues open to civil society’, ‘Inequalities and vulnerable groups’ and ‘Migration and development’.

The Plenary Session of African Heads of State – a procession of the great and the good of the African continent – was attended by 14 Presidents (Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda), a Vice-President (Gambia), Prime Ministers (Ethiopia, Mauritius, Swaziland) and a handful of former Heads of State. It was an opportunity to get up to speed with progress made by the continent on good governance, and especially to show that while there are still real challenges in Africa, they should not take away from the progress underway.

However, it was a pity that the Heads of State generally settled for justifying the running of their respective States rather than tabling new ideas to evaluate and stimulate good governance among rich and poor nations, businesses and large international institutions. The only challenge to these official statements was a small demonstration by a few opponents during the speech by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, which was quickly quelled by security people.

At the EDD’s closing ceremony, popular figure of South African Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mgr Desmond Tutu, shared the platform with Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Luis Amado, Portuguese Foreign Minister and  Commissioner Louis Michel.

Creativity, quality and beauty: a sales edge for Africa

All the festivities made the EDD a one-off in raising the economic opportunity and development potential of cultural creativity in African countries. Fashion shows by great designers like the dynamic Alphadi from Niger – a driving force in African fashion design – and Senegal's Claire Kane, paid tribute to the sophistication and elegance of African beauty. This ranged from allusions to the wonderful traditional dress of Berber women, to the up-to-date, 21st century sensuality of avant-garde metallic bustiers.

Other activities attracted similar attention including the comic strip exhibition at one of Brussels' prestigious locations – the Flagey centre.

This venue also hosted the African film festival, in association with Kinepolis, one of the largest multiscreen cinemas in Europe. Finally, the contemporary art exhibition, ‘Afrique Europe: Rêves croisés’ (‘Africa, Europe: crossed dreams’) allowed some of the most imaginative and best known of today's African artists to display their works.

All these activities came under the banner of ‘Africa is going places’, which the key figures behind the European Development Days, European Commissioner Louis Michel and the Commission's Director General for Development, Stefano Manservisi, wanted to emphasise at this event. Their intention was to move people away from the usual depressing clichés about the continent and change its image among investors and other partners.

Judging by the attendance at the EDD events and also the coverage in the national press about this great show featuring the African continent, it’s a gamble that seems to have paid off.

Africa deserved this tribute... and put on a great show.