How to navigate Africa’s institutional landscape

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The European Council on Foreign Relations is delighted to invite you to our online discussion on ECFR’s recent policy brief African regional cooperation: How to navigate Africa’s institutional landscape and mapping project by Amandine Gnanguênon.

Africa Regional Organisations (AROs) are one of the principal forms of inter-African state cooperation. Today, AROs play a crucial role in dealing with regional security challenges and have therethrough emerged as key partners for international conflict responses. But the short-termism and ad-hoc nature of international engagement with AROs has generated unexpected consequences.  Two decades after the creation of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), the African institutional landscape is characterized by two main problems: the Africa ‘a la carte’ cooperation practice and inconsistent international support for African responses to tackling volatile conflict situations.

What are the long-term costs of the proliferation of African regional arrangements in West and Central Africa? How can ARO improve their cooperation and donors better utilise their comparative advantages? What are the trade-offs between donors immediate response to crisis via AROs and the longer-term implementation of the APSA?

This webinar aims to present the new policy brief and mapping project authored by Amandine Gnanguênon on African Regional Cooperation in West and Central Africa and to discuss innovative and actionable policy proposals to address some counterproductive effects of overlapping situations.