AQ-Feb - April - 2012

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africaVolume 52, No. 1

February — April 2012

II N D I A NN D I A N CC O U N C I LO U N C I L F O RF O R CC U L T U R A LU L T U R A L RR E L A T I O N SE L A T I O N S

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l FUTURE TRAJECTORY: MAPPING NEW PATHWAYSl INFRASTRUCTURE: BUILDING THE FUTUREl SYNERGY: BUILDING BUSINESS FOR RESURGENCEl NEW FRONTIERS: WOMEN POWER, THE RWANDA WAY

Indian Journal of African AffairsVolume 52, No. 1, February - April 2012

INDIAN COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL RELATIONS

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africaQ U A R T E R L Y

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Mapping new pathwaysOver the last few years, India has emerged as an importantpartner not because it does as much or more than other partners of Africa, but because it consults with African policymakers on key decisions, writes Gurjit Singh

contents

February - April 2012 5February - April 20124

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y

BRIC(K)S of a newworld order

regular features+

At the fourth BRICS Summit in New Delhi,the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, Chinaand South Africa pitched for a bigger voicefor emerging countries in global gover-nance institutions, says Manish Chand

Building business for resurgence

556064

Doing BusinessBooks & IdeasDocuments

49 News� India, Egypt reviewbilateral ties

� India to expand science, tech cooperation withAfrica

� ‘Indian constitution amodel for us’

� India, Seychelles join hands in fightagainst piracy

� Destination next:India

� Asia, Africa facedaunting challenges: PM

Building the future

28 Women power, the Rwanda wayRwandan women have achievedthe practical utility, or worth ofthe word ‘feminism’ in the realsense, by preparing the countryfor the future generation, writesShubhra Parmar

India should not only re-connect but also forgerobust partnerships withAfrican companies andengage them actively to buildinfrastructure, observesSanjukta BanerjiBhattacharya

46Driven by the quest for mutual resurgenceand co-development, Indian and Africancompanies forged new partnerships andequations at the annual business conclave,writes Manish Chand



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A mid the global recession and the Eurozone despair, India and Africa stand out as thetwin beacons of hope and continue to be growth poles of the world economy, underlin-

ing the resilience and dynamism of their economies and people. This summer also marks thefourth anniversary of the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) process that has defied recessionarytrends to chart out new frontiers of a mutually empowering partnership. This edition of AfricaQuarterly takes a critical look at key pledges made at the two summits held in New Delhi (2008)and Addis Ababa (2011) and appraises their delivery and implementation. While the achievementsof the IAFS-I and IAFS-II are laudable and maps out the possibilities of leveraging diplomacy fordevelopment, the articles in this edition also look at the daunting challenges ahead and some ofthe gaps that need to be plugged to realise the full potential of the burgeoning India-Africa part-nership.

Trade, training and technology transfer have remained the three sturdy pillars which underpin theedifice of the IAFS process. A close scrutiny of the 2008 New Delhi Declaration and the 2011 AddisAbaba Declaration reveal a clear focus on human resource development, capacity-building andinstitution-building as defining features of the India-Africa engagement. Building upon $7.5 billionsoft loans announced at the two summits, India has been providing $1.75 billion for the last fouryears and will continue to do so till the 2014 summit when fresh funding pledges are expected tobe made. Between the two summits, India had committed $1.2 billion in grants to support capacity-building, which focuses primarily on setting up over 100 training institutes to upgrade the skillsand managerial base of the African people in diverse fields, including agriculture, education, IT,trade and entrepreneurship. These institutes are no longer ideas on paper, but active consulta-tions and feasibility studies have been undertaken to transform them into concrete projects on theground.

In his article, Gurjit Singh, additional secretary in charge of East and South Africa, provides adetailed overview of key accomplishments of the IAFS process and maps the path ahead. “Indiahas transformed its engagement with Africa into a modern functional one,” he writes. “The broadprinciples of current engagement with Africa are consultation and response, mutual benefit, sup-port to African democratisation and peace-keeping efforts, building capacities for human resourcedevelopment and creating facilities for value addition to African products and natural resources.”Singh is a little disappointed at the comparisons between the Africa engagement of India andChina that is often touted in the Indian media and stresses that in African perception, there is nosuch competition as Africa sees adequate space for all its partners to play their distinct roles.Consultation and consensus-based decision-making are what set India’s engagement apart fromthose of other countries. “In many African eyes, India is seen as an important partner not becauseit does as much or more or less than other partners of Africa, but because it engages in consulta-tion with Africa to make decisions,” says Singh.

Infrastructure development is, however, one area where Sanjukta Banerji Bhattacharya feels that

From the Editor's Desk

Beyond summits:New horizons, new hopes

February - April 2012 9

The annual India-Africa Conclave broughttogether government and business inter-locutors from India and Africa in Marchthis year. In an unprecedented rush, near-

ly 1,000 delegates, including 34 ministers, partici-pated in the event. Zimbabwe and the Central

African Republic (CAR) used the occasion to seekgreater economic engagement with India.

The Zimbabwean delegation was led by theVice President while the Prime Minister of CAR ledits powerful delegation. Both the leaders, who werereceived by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh,

Mapping newpathwaysOver the last few years, India has emerged as an important

partner not because it does as much or more than other

partners of Africa, but because it consults with African policy

makers on key decisions, writes Gurjit Singh

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with leaders from African countries at the India-AfricaForum Summit in Addis Ababa in May 2011.


February - April 20128

India can do much more, given the fact that over the next 10 years, Africa’s totalinfrastructure needs are estimated to be over $250 billion. In her article,Bhattacharya says that while India’s infrastructure development projects in Africamay not be as dramatic as those of China, India is slowly emerging as an importantfinancier and partner. If there is timely implementation of the decisions taken at theforum summits, Africa’s perception of India and its efficacy as an infrastructuredevelopment partner will improve. “It is only natural for developing countries to seekthe best deal that they can get and today it is ‘Advantage Africa’ because of the num-ber of players vying for Africa’s resources and markets with all kinds of incentives,”she writes.

Clearly, Afro-optimism is no longer a trendy cliché, but is increasingly reflected inthe diversity of India’s engagement with Africa and the resource-rich continent’sgrowing global profile. This was more than visible at the eighth CII-EXIM Bank con-clave in New Delhi (March 18-20) which was attended by 36 ministers from over 20African countries. Around 200 projects worth $30 billion were on the table. Theambition was soaring, with both sides setting a target of scaling up bilateral trade by$90 billion by 2015.

The ongoing African resurgence was also in focus at the fourth BRICS summit in NewDelhi, with the world’s top emerging economies pledging themselves to spur the eco-nomic rejuvenation of the continent. “In BRICS, we have a place where we feel thatAfrica is being treated with respect. Our views are treated equally among the part-ners,” said South African President Jacob Zuma.

There is perhaps no better way to celebrate Africa’s limitless possibilities and its giftfor subverting stereotypes than chronicling an inspirational story of Rwanda’swomen who have scripted a new narrative of human resilience and the sheer tri-umph of will against impossible odds. In her perceptive article, Shubhra Parmar cele-brates what she calls a “unique example of empowered feminism” exemplified by theRwandan women, which is also called “appreciable feminism” or “courageous femi-nism”.

While statistics can often lie, they are sometimes revelatory and capture the essenceof a society in transition: Rwanda has the highest percentage of women parliamen-tarians in the world. Around 70 percent of the country’s population is female and 50percent of all households are headed by women. “Rwanda has become a country ofwomen now. Rwandan history has witnessed a drastic change in women’s lives andshows the world how to have gender-balanced politics,” writes Parmar. As Rwandacelebrates the golden jubilee of its independence, the nation’s incrementalturnaround from the dark days of genocide to a modern, vibrant economy reinforcesthe faith of diehard Afro-optimists like India that Africa’s winning journey has justbegun and there are many pleasant surprises on the way.

— Manish Chand

E D I T O R I A L


Ghana, the Institute of Foreign Trade in Uganda,India-Africa Diamond Institute in Botswana andthe Institute for Education Planning andAdministration in Burundi.

The detailed project reports for all these insti-tutions have been prepared, agreements to estab-lish them have been signed with AU and imple-mentation procedures are underway. Courses insome of these institutes are expected to start thisyear. The Pan-African Institutes under IAFS-2 deci-sions are (i) India-Africa Food ProcessingCluster; (ii) India-Africa Integrated Textile Cluster;(iii) India-Africa Centre for Medium RangeWeather Forecasting; (iv) India-Africa Universityfor Life and Earth Sciences; (v) India-AfricaInstitute of Agriculture and Rural Developmentand (vi) India-Africa Civil Aviation Academy. TheAU is to decide the locations of these institutions,but for the Pan-African University at Ibadan, sev-eral meetings between India’s lead agency theDepartment of Agriculture Research andEducation, the AU and the Ibadan University havealready taken place and a DPR is being developed.

The challenge in implementing this ambitiousproposal is that it seeks partnership from theAfrican countries. The host country is to appointa nodal agency or ministry and allocate budget forundertaking the project. This is often a time-con-

suming effort but will pay dividends in the longterm for the sustainability of the project as manydonor-driven projects often languish when thedonor programme is over.

For the Indian side this is certainly a process oflearning and adjusting between a large number ofnew partners which the Ministry of ExternalAffairs has acquired in the pursuit of its Africa pol-icy. All these projects are funded from the Aid toAfrica Budget and have to go through the normalprocurement procedure prescribed for govern-ment procurement.

The traditional capacity-building support thatIndia offered to Africa was through scholarshipsand the ITEC programme. The ITEC programmehas acquired high brand value and about 1,100training positions were made available forAfrica in 2008. This has currently been increasedto nearly 3,000 seats per annum. To augment this,nearly 500 training positions for special courseswhich are not covered by the ITEC programmeand developed through joint action plan withAfrica are also undertaken. So far about 1,100 peo-ple have benefited and 43 countries have partici-pated in the last two years.

The traditional scholarships did not have a veryhigh utilisation rate because they were largely heldup in their host country processes while at thesame time the number of self-financing studentsfrom Africa is increasing. We have tried to broad-en the availability of these scholarships in Africancountries and from 250 in 2008 we now have 900per annum through the Indian Council for Cultural

Women from African countries learninghow to integrate circuit boards for solarlights at the Barefoot College at Tiloniain Rajasthan.

expressed their strong desire to enhance theirengagement with India.

In February 2012, Minister of State for ExternalAffairs Preneet Kaur led the first-ever delegationto Rwanda and Burundi. Both the countriessee India as an important partner and the Indiandelegation accompanying the Minister included 22business people.

At the African Union Summit in January thisyear, there were a large number of African dele-gations which waited patiently to meet the Indiandelegation. The message that is coming acrossfrom not only India’s traditional Anglophone part-ners in Africa but even Francophone andLusophone partners is that they see India as a reli-able and open-hearted partner. This surge ofengagement has been consolidated through thetwo India-Africa Forum Summits (IAFS) held inApril 2008 in New Delhi and in May 2011 in AddisAbaba when Prime Minister Singh led the Indiandelegation and also paid bilateral visitsto Ethiopia and Tanzania.

The surge in African nations’ desire to engagewith India and their view of India as a dependablepartner are often not matched in assessment athome where we are often seen as coming up lastin a perceived competition with some of Africa’sother partners. In African perception, there is nosuch competition as Africa sees adequate space forall its partners to play their distinct roles.

On the other hand, there is also a growingdesire of Africa’s traditional partners to closelyengage with India because they are getting themessage that India is succeeding in Africa inAfrican perception. Thus, there is already an India-Japan dialogue on Africa and several other coun-tries are asking for it as well. This indicates thatIndia has positively engaged with Africa and thisis the recognition of India as an important inter-locutor in the world.

Following the heritage of goodwill and deeppolitical relations, India has transformed itsengagement with Africa into a modern, function-al one. The broad principles of current engage-ment are consultation and response, mutual ben-efit, support to African democratisation and peace-keeping efforts, building capacities for humanresource development and creating facilities forvalue addition to African products and naturalresources. In this, India engages with Africathrough India Inc., in which India’s public and pri-vate sectors and a large number of ministries andtheir agencies are important partners. India hasalso followed a clear principle of leaving the pro-

jects to the African side to decide and working notonly bilaterally but also increasing regionally andat continental level where capacity-building is con-cerned. India is one of the few countries to followthis three-tier model.

The main thrust of the decisions of the twoIndia-Africa summits has been on capacity-build-ing and infrastructure development. Keeping theseprinciples in mind, about $2.5 billion was commit-ted as soft loans following the first summit and, for2011-14, a further availability of $5 billion of suchloans has been announced. On an average, $1.75 bil-lion is being committed annually and for the cur-rent year the target has been met. Among the sig-nificant projects being covered under these loansare a new Ethiopian-Djiboutian railway which willsupport regional integration and is being under-taken at the request of the African Union(AU); hydro-power projects in Rwanda, Burundi andthe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); trans-mission lines in Mozambique, Ethiopia and Kenya;and development of water resources and agricul-ture in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The evaluation of the implementation on theselines has now acquired speed since Indian pro-curement procedures had to be matched withAfrican procurement practices and following the fresh set of guidelines in 2010,greater streamlining has emerged and competi-tive bidding has become a norm in their imple-mentation. Most African countries today appreci-ate the ability of India to provide financing fortheir developmental requirements in which theyare allowed to set their priorities.

Between the two summits, India had committed$1.2 billion in grants to support capacity-building.Almost 100 new institutions will come up in Africancountries in the next three to five years. The choiceof location of many of these, particularly the Pan-African institutions, has been left to the AU and inthe case of some agriculture-related institutions,India is working regionally with the eight RegionalEconomic Communities (RECs) of Africa.

A large number of institutions are being estab-lished bilaterally as well and the principle beingadopted to build a partnership is that the local gov-ernments will provide local facilities whileIndia provides for institution establishment, devel-opment of a business plan, governance structureand Indian experts running the institutions jointlywith African counterparts for a period of threeyears. Among the four institutions offered at thePan-African level under IAFS-I, the Institute ofInformation Technology will be established in

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L YFUTURE TRAJECTORY


have been undertaken. These include an invitationto young parliamentarians from Africa to visit India.This is in recognition of Africa’s march towardsparliamentary democracy and India’s engagementwith young parliamentarians have been very wellreceived. The second group of suchParliamentarians visited India in March 2012 andalso attended the India-Africa Conclave.

Similarly, a group of 18 women artisans fromvarious African countries participated in a work-shop at Dastkari Haat Mela in Delhi Haat in NewDelhi in January 2012. The support to basketweavers in Zimbabwe and later to other countriesis being undertaken by the NID. Twenty-twoSecretaries General or CEOs of African Chambers

of Commerce also visited in March 2012 for anexperience-sharing programme and have also par-ticipated in the India-Africa Conclave. Similarly, inorder to encourage media and academic relations,regular invitations to journalists from Africa to visitIndia have been sent and care is taken to includenon-Anglophone partners as well. One such grouphad visited India at the time of the India-AfricaConclave in March 2012. The Annual EditorsConference is also implemented and the last con-ference took place prior to the IAFS-2 in AddisAbaba in 2012. Training programmes for Africanjournalists have already been undertaken for both

print and audio-visual media. Recognising that aca-demic linkages have not kept pace with the India-Africa relationship, plans have been prepared tohave nine symposia in India on Africa. These areadministered by the Indian Council of WorldAffairs. Two such symposia have already been heldin Addis Ababa and Lagos and two others areplanned forLusaka and Maputo in the near future.

Engagement of civil societies and non-govern-mental sources is an important aspect of the peo-ple-to-people relationship which has been the hall-mark of India’s engagement with Africa.

In many African eyes, India is seen as an impor-tant partner not because it does as much ormore than other partners of Africa but because it

engages in consultationwith Africa to makedecisions. While there issome cause of worry onthe Indian side thatmany programmes do

not take off in time or are slow to be implemented,from the African side the perception often is thatthey are preparing the partnership by putting theelements into place, which takes time, and appre-ciate the patience of the Indian interlocutors, par-ticularly as they feel that they are being given thespace to make their own decisions. That, after all,is at the heart of the India-Africa engagement.

An African woman showcasing her craftwork at the 25th Annual DastkariHaat Mela at Delhi Haat in New Delhi.

Relations (ICCR) and these scholarships now alsoinclude airfare like all other training programmes.

Given the high value attached to educationin India, two special programmes have beenlaunched through the IAFS processes. These arethe Special Agricultural Scholarship scheme forMasters and Ph.D. programmes conducted by theDARE and the C.V. Raman Fellowship programmefor post-doctoral research conducted by theDepartment of Science and Technology. As manyas 324 scholarships and 254 students under boththese programmes have already been in India forthe last two years.

Thus, overall in the three-year period 2011-14,nearly 22,000 scholarships and training positions

are made available to African students in India. TheTele-education component of the Pan-African e-network Project Regional Centre for Tele-educationwill on the expiry of its five-year period be con-verted into the India-Africa Virtual University, workon which is being undertaken by the Ministries ofExternal Affairs and Human ResourceDevelopment and the Indira Gandhi National OpenUniversity (IGNOU).

The third aspect which has been introduced fortraining programmes is that of undertaking thesein Africa itself. The CSOs have successfully under-taken this in some countries in the last three years.Barefoot College, SEWA, The Energy ResearchInstitute (TERI), National Institute of Design (NID),Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) andFederation of Indian Chambers of Commerce(FICCI) are also MEA partners in capacity-buildingin Africa. A variety of these programmes will beseen implemented in the next three years as MEAhas already signed agreements with the BarefootCollege, NID and SEWA.

These training programmes are going to bemeshed with experience-sharing programmes andit is not only Indian partners going to Africa butrelated African people coming to India in diversi-fied sectors like at DSDS and women representa-tives who come to Delhi Haat or basket weaverswho will come to NID. The BarefootWomen SolarEngineers Vocational Training programmes sup-ported by ITEC has been extremely successful andthe effort is to establish training centres in Africancountries where a critical mass of trained women

already exists. Thus, empowerment is not only forthe individual but for the communities also andgoes up to the people-to-people exchange.

Experience-sharing programmes with a view todeveloping new ideas for future cooperation arealso undertaken through workshops and confer-ences in the last year or so. A Ministerial Scienceand Technology Meeting for India and Africa tookplace in March. A workshop on traditional medicinetook place in 2011.

Developing trade and investment is one of theforemost challenges and opportunities. The rapidgrowth of Indian investment into Africa and thelines of credit extended have made India a valuableeconomic partner of Africa. Trade, the smallest

part of the trio, is also growing and is approxi-mately $50 billion per annum.

In order to promote trade and investment, Indiahad offered the WTO-compliant Duty FreePreference Scheme to LDCs, 34 of which arein Africa. Nineteen have accepted it so far and sev-eral others have made important leaps in theirexports to India by accessing those commodities orproducts for which there is a demand in India. Suchefforts break out from the traditional export pat-tern of African countries and encourage access tothe India market. Similarly, the entrepreneurialskills and equity investment of companies not onlyin the development of natural resources but also inmanufacturing and services have been noticed asa surge of Indian investment into Africa takes root.

In recognition of this, India held the First India-Africa Trade Ministerial Conference at the time ofIAFS-2 at Addis Ababa and a second meeting washeld in 2012 in New Delhi.

The proposal approved at the second summit tohave a private sector-led India-Africa BusinessCouncil has also come to fruition and the first meet-ing of IABC was held in March 2012 along with theTrade Ministerial Meeting. The IABC was co-chaired by Sunil Bharti Mittal, CEO of Airtel, andby Alhanji Aliko Dangote, GCON, CEO, DangoteGroup, Nigeria. This effort is to institutionallyengage the private sector from both sides to openup more avenues of cooperation. The IABC is theall-African version of the successful India-SouthAfrica CEOs format which is already in existence.

Several other experience-sharing initiatives

Almost 100 new institutions will come up in African nations .. in the next three to five years.

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L YFUTURE TRAJECTORY


Any understanding of infrastructuredevelopment in a country must beginwith what one perceives by the term‘infrastructure’. It’s generally under-

stood to mean physical and organisational struc-tures that are necessary for running a society, anorganisation or a country. In fact, it refers to theinterconnected structural elements, includingroads, telecommunications, schools, hospitals,water supply and waste management which facil-itate production and distribution of goods andservices and, thereby, enable a country’s or a

region’s development. In the context of present-day civilisational requirements, a country is oftenjudged by its infrastructure development andmaintenance and it is that which acts as one of thefactors in attracting investment and drivinggrowth. According to a report of the U.S. National

Research Council entitled ‘Infrastructure for the21st Century: Framework for a Research Agenda’,infrastructure includes both specific functionalmodes like highways, roads, bridges, airports,mass transit, electric power generation and wastedisposal and the “combined system these modalelements comprise”. It goes on to say that a “comprehension of

infrastructure spans not only these public worksfacilities but also the operating procedures, man-agement practices and development policies thatinteract together with societal demand and thephysical world to facilitate the transport of peo-ple and goods, provision of water for drinking anda variety of other uses, safe disposal of society’s

waste products, provision of energy where it isneeded, and transmission of information withinand between communities”.1

It is also necessary to differentiate between“hard” infrastructure and “soft” infrastructurefor the purpose of this article. Hard infrastructurerefers to the large physical structures needed forrunning a modern industrial country. Examples ofhard infrastructure include roads, highways, rail-roads, airports, mass transit systems andpipelines, to name a few, which are actually cap-ital assets that serve the function of conveyingpeople, goods, water and energy resources acrossdistances. Energy infrastructure includes electricgrids, power generation plants, alternative ener-gy plants, natural gas and petroleum pipelines.

Building thefuture

A country is often judged by its infrastructure development and maintenance and it is this criteria whichacts as one of the factors in attracting investment and driving growth.

India should not only re-connect but

also forge robust partnerships with

African companies and engage them

actively to build infrastructure, observes

Sanjukta Banerji Bhattacharya

INFRASTRUCTURE


INFRASTRUCTURE A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


Soft infrastructure, on the other hand, refersto those institutions that are required for themaintenance of the economic, health, educa-tional and social standards of a country, forinstance, financial institutions, healthcare, edu-cational institutions, even governance and legalinstitutions and emergency services. Examplesof soft infrastructure in India includes theEDUSAT, a satellite technology to provide edu-cation to the remotest areas; the Rural Health Mission which aims at having 24-hourfunctional hospitals in every block and theNational Literacy Mission that was launched in2005.2

Investment in infrastructure is part of the cap-ital accumulation required for economic develop-ment and this may have an indirect impact onsocio-economic welfare development as well,since it constructs the building blocks of a betterstandard of living through the provision of

schools, hospitals, potable water, electricity,transport services, etc. Although the causality ofinfrastructure and economic growth has beendebated, expansion of roads, railways and electricgrids as well as soft infrastructure has shown amarked growth in development, particularly indeveloping countries. In developed countries, thesame may not be true since the returns fromdevelopment of such infrastructure demonstratemuch slower growth. At one point of time, however, it should be

remembered that infrastructure development likebuilding of dams and highways was seen as a wayof pulling the United States out of the GreatDepression of 1929, while even earlier, infras-tructure projects like building of the transconti-nental railroad and the Panama Canal put Americaon the road to development.Although infrastructure was not included in

the United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000)or the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),subsequent U.N. reports have stated that most ofthe goals will not be reached if the infrastructuregaps are not bridged.3

The Commission on Growth and Developmentpresented a report in 2008 which noted that sus-

tained growth is attainable in developing countriesthrough the “right mix of ingredients”, pinpoint-ing five such “ingredients”, one of which wasimpressive rates of public investment in infras-tructure.4

Unless a country has the basic infrastructure,it is difficult for it to join international trade path-ways and, moreover, investors will be reluctant toinvest in a country from which it expects lowreturns. For instance, if Coca Cola were to investin a country, it will not only study market demandbut also road, rail and air links which will facili-tate marketability. Further, educational and other soft infras-

tructure are required to build human capacity tomeet the needs of the marketplace. Emergingcountries have all invested heavily in infrastruc-ture, whether they are situated in East Asia, SouthAsia or Latin America. In fact, many of these emerging states are now

engaged in infrastructure development in Africa,which they perceive as having immense potentialfor trade and investment partnerships. In fact,without infrastructure development, half thepotential is lost. It is therefore in their interest to develop both

hard and soft infrastructure in Africa. In thispaper, Africa’s infrastructure needs will be anal-ysed with the purpose of seeing how far India hasbeen able to assist in giving a boost to infrastruc-ture development. India has long been providing African students

with scholarships to study and build up expertisein India, thereby contributing to capacity-building,but, in recent years, both the government and theprivate sector have taken up specific projects todevelop roads, railways and airports, apart frominstitutes to train Africans in soft and hard skills.It has also been giving financial help on an insti-tutional basis so that not just individual countriesbut the continent as a whole or regions thereinmay benefit. However, the needs for infrastructure in Africa

are vast and more aid and projects will be need-ed in the coming years to modernise the continentand help it meet its development goals.

Africa’s infrastructure needs

Several African countries reversed their negativegrowth rates of earlier years and registered GDPgrowth rates of over 5 percent in recent years,particularly in the years preceding the 2008-09global financial crisis. According to some analyses, infrastructure

improvements contributed to over half of Africa’simproved growth performance between 1990 and2005 and have the potential to improve it further,particularly because of the growth of telecommu-nications technology. Studies have noted returns to investment in

infrastructure projects in telecommunications asaveraging 30-40 percent, more than 40 percent forelectricity generation and over 80 percent forroads, with returns being more for developing low-income countries than developed ones.5 In con-trast, lack of infrastructure in some African coun-tries reduced their growth potential.According to Antonio Estache of the World

Bank, the poorest countries need to spend 9 per-cent of their GDP on the operation, maintenanceand expansion of their infrastructure if they are toreach MDGs.6 Over the next 10 years, Africa’s totalinfrastructure needs are estimated to be over $250billion. Further, if Africa is to meet its MDG goals,it needs to achieve an annual GDP growth rate of7 percent. This implies annual new infrastructure and

maintenance requirements of 9 percent of GDP asmentioned, which works out to $40 billion between2005 and 2015.7 Another study commissioned bythe World Bank has estimated the cost of address-ing Africa’s infrastructure needs at about $93 bil-lion a year, which is about 15 percent of the region’sGDP.8One-third of this would be for operation andmaintenance.In most African countries, particularly the

lower-income countries, infrastructure emergesas a major constraint in doing business, depress-ing firm productivity by about 40 percent.9 It is amajor drawback to trade, both intra-continentaland international. According to a Standard Bank report, “Poor

infrastructure elevates production costs, exacer-bates economic distance and undermines businessconfidence. Therefore, better physical arteries andlinkages are the critical precursor to more rapid,inclusive and sustainable economic growth acrossthe continent.” The report adds that the generaldeficiency in physical infrastructure is the largestimpediment to Africa’s global integration and

“...Africa’s industrialisation and diversification,social welfare and standards of living and tradeand investment are grossly impinged by poorregional and international connectivity”.10

One of the most critical deficiencies is the con-tinent’s poor road and rail infrastructure, whichmakes costs of transportation of goods in Africaamong the highest in the world. Early World Bankstudies showed that a 10 percent drop in transportcosts would result in a 25 percent increase in totalAfrican trade. The Bank also concluded that only about 25

percent decline in Africa’s share of world exportscan be attributed to poor prices, while the rest isdue to non-price factors like poor infrastructureand information services11 among which a promi-nent one is poor transportation infrastructure.According to Foster and Briceno-Garmendia’sfindings in their study for the World Bank, Africa’sinfrastructure networks are increasingly fallingbehind those of other developing countries andare exacerbated by missing regional links. Further,Africa’s “difficult economic geography” is a par-ticular challenge for infrastructure development. Africa’s infrastructure services are twice as

expensive as elsewhere, which reflects both “dis-economies” of scale in production and the lack ofcompetition. The infrastructure challenge, howev-er, varies from state to state, with fragile statesfacing the worst problems even though resource-rich states also lag behind.12 If one takes the caseof roads and railway lines, paved road density inlow-income African countries stands at 34 km per100 sq km of arable land as opposed to 134 forother low income countries. Rail density stands at only 3.2 km per 1,000 sq

km for all of Africa, which is far below the worldaverage. In fact, the low density of both rail androad infrastructure impact on each other as thelimited availability of rail puts further burdens onthe already overburdened road networks.13

Moreover, long distances by road can increase theprice of the product. For instance, Rwandan coffee is transported

over 1,500 km on roads of variable quality viaUganda to the port in Mombasa, Kenya, or alter-nately by road and rail to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Transport costs may represent up to 40 percentof total costs of Rwandan coffee exports, accord-ing to some estimates.14 High transport coststherefore reduce trade potential. Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) infrastructure

deficit is most pronounced in the power sector.According to the U.S. International Trade

Over the next 10 years, Africa’s total infrastructure needsare estimated to be over $250 billion

Despite its huge reliance on maritime trans-port, many ports lack adequate physical facilitiesto handle maritime trade volumes. Sub-SaharaAfrica’s ports are small even when compared withthose of other developing countries, with thelargest being Durban in terms of volume of tradethat passes through it, which is three times that ofthe next port, that is, Cape Town.19

It should be noted that both these are in SouthAfrica. In future years, ports in Angola, Sudan andother countries, which have rich petroleumresources, will become even more important andtherefore these need overhaul and reform. As aresult of infrastructure issues, maritime freightcosts are higher in African ports than elsewhere,thus reducing trade potential. For landlocked countries like Mali and Rwanda,

estimated freight costs as a ratio of import valueis as high as 24 percent.20

Infrastructure challenges differ markedlyacross country groups, with middle income coun-tries like South Africa and Cape Verde having bet-

ter infrastructure facilities than resource-richcountries with economies heavily reliant onpetroleum or mineral revenues like Nigeria andZambia, or fragile states emerging from conflictlike Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic ofCongo (DRC) or the remaining low income coun-tries that are neither fragile nor resource rich, forinstance, Uganda. The worst off are the fragile states — DRC, for

example, needs to rehabilitate 50 percent of itsinfrastructure assets, much of which have degen-erated due to war and conflict. Such countries willneed to spend an average of 37 percent of theirGDP in reconstructing and building an infrastruc-ture platform, but because of the uncertainty onthe political front, they are unable to attract thenecessary investment. Non-fragile low income states also need to

spend about 23 percent of their GDP on basicinfrastructure, but that is a difficult matter toenvisage in practice.21

Poor infrastructure is a competitive disadvan-tage for Sub-Saharan Africa’s producers andexporters. These increase costs and can compro-

mise product quality and reliability, particularlyfor perishable items or products dependent onpower generation. To give just one example: cof-fee, which is a major export product and has thepotential to become an even bigger export product. Poor infrastructure conditions in East Africa,

however, often negatively affect coffee quality andlower producer returns. Poor road quality or lackof adequate road networks increases transporta-tion time, which can negatively affect coffee beanquality. Expensive and unreliable electricity supplyincreases production costs and disrupts coffeewashing, a value-added process that relies onwater pumps to deliver clean water. Other chal-lenges faced by East African coffee producersinclude the lack of credit, inexperienced manage-ment, and insufficient Internet access and com-munication technologies.22

Moreover, transport time and costs add to theprice of coffee. For instance, Rwandan coffee pro-ducers need an average of 42 days to export andthis excludes maritime transport time, while

Colombian producers need only 14 days (excludingmaritime transport time). As such, Rwandan pro-ducers face a 36 percent tariff equivalent com-pared to their Colombian counterparts.23

Inadequate infrastructure therefore compro-mises the integration of Africa’s products intotoday’s merging markets. If one puts it into per-spective, Africa’s share of world trade was 5 per-cent in 1980 whereas that of the BRIC countries(combined) was only 3.5 percent. Down the years,in 2010, the BRIC’s share had increased to over 15percent, while that for Africa had declined to 3.2percent. According to Freemantle and Stevens ofStandard Bank, South Africa, “Divergence ininfrastructure is critical to divergence in tradeintegration. “Consider that the BRICs’ power consumption

per capita is more than twice Africa’s, and theirroad density, measured in kms of road per 1, 000square km of land, is almost five times as high.Logistics costs, whether measured in nominalterms, time or other opportunity costs, are up totwice as high in Africa as in the BRICs.”24

There is therefore an urgent need for infras-

Commission (USITC), its electricity infrastructureis “the least developed, least accessible, least reli-able, most costly to operate, and, on average, high-est priced of any region in the world”.15 In 2007,Africa accounted for just 3 percent of the world’sinstalled base of power capacity, compared to 17percent held by China, 4 percent by India alone and7 percent by Latin America.16 Generation infras-tructure installed in Sub-Saharan Africa had a totalcapacity of only 67 gigawatts (GW) of electricity in2006. South Africa dominated with 43 GW followed

by Nigeria with six gigawatts. Twelve countrieshave less than one-tenth of one gigawatt, whichis less than 100 MW (megawatts), while Ghana,Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire and Zambia have 1 to 2 GWcapacities each.17 Africa, however, produces elec-tricity-intensive products despite the poor poweravailability and services; for instance, non-fer-rous and ferrous metals, coal, plant-based fibres

such as cotton, and sugar cane and beet. If electricity infrastructure could be increased,

Africa’s share of global trade in these productswould increase considerably. There are also elec-tricity-intensive products which do not figuremuch on Africa’s export list like manufacturedmineral products, chemicals, wheat, paper andpulp, but with better power facilities, Africa couldbecome a market leader because of its naturalresource base. The ability of SSA countries toengage in downstream processing of basic com-modities may be constrained by poor conditions inland and maritime transport infrastructure as well.SSA exports a significant amount of crudepetroleum but relatively few refined petroleumproducts and even fewer chemicals-products thatrequire complex production processes and ade-quate and reliable electricity supplies.18

Africa also needs to improve its ports and othermaritime facilities if it is to compete internation-ally. Over 90 percent of its external trade is car-ried out through maritime transport. The conti-nent accounts for 2 to 3 percent of global mer-chandise trade by value and only around 2 percentof worldwide maritime cargo originates in or isdestined for a Sub-Saharan African port.

In 2007, Africa had just 3 percent of world’s installed base ofpower capacity, compared to 17 percent held by ChinaPoor road and rail infrastructure makes

costs of transportation of goods in Africaamong the highest in the world. A 10 per-cent drop in transport costs would resultin a 25 percent increase in African trade.

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L YINFRASTRUCTURE




financier. The advantages accruing from this aremany, not the least of which is that Indian invest-ment in African infrastructure development pro-jects generate employment for the local Africanpopulation. Moreover, it is not merely targeted at coun-

tries from which it would like to get benefits likeoil concessions, but the money is often channelledthrough proper institutions for utilisation whererequired. Therefore, they are not all bilateral. Athird important factor is the involvement of the pri-vate sector, not only in public-private partnershipsbut also by themselves. India does not have theGDP of China, and critics have pointed out that itsown infrastructure needs overhauling.Nevertheless, India is partnering Africa in infras-tructure development in the true spirit of South-South cooperation. A fourth characteristic that needs mention is

that India has focussed on soft infrastructure fora long time and had built human capacity through

various scholarship programmes, but it is nowmoving into the arena of hard infrastructure aswell, given Africa’s needs for basic infrastructure.The Second India-Africa Forum Summit (2011)

emphasised the “common vision of a self-reliantand economically vibrant Africa and India”, andmentioned among other things that “We also sup-port African economic programmes within thecontext of the Programme for InfrastructureDevelopment in Africa (PIDA), New Partnershipfor Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and compre-hensive Africa Agriculture DevelopmentProgramme (CAADP)”.32

What is significant here is that India realises theneed for infrastructure development and capaci-ty building in Africa and seeks to prioritise it. At aJoint Debate on NEPAD and Progress inImplementation and International Support(Agenda item 63 [a]) during the 66th session of theU.N. General Assembly, Preneet Kaur, India’sMinister of State for External Affairs, noted thatIndia’s partnership with Africa was aligned withthe priorities integral to the developmental goalsof Africa and was built on the foundations of mutu-al equality and common benefit.

As such, priority had been accorded to infras-tructure development and capacity-building, apartfrom health, food security, agriculture and tech-nology cooperation. Elaborating on infrastructuredevelopment, she pointed out that India had decid-ed to support the development of a new Ethiopia-Djibouti railway line at a cost of $300 million andwas further discussing the augmentation of capac-ities for the development of regional structures inrailways with the AU. Moreover, building on thesuccess of the Pan-African e-network, India wasexploring the possibility of setting up an India-Africa Virtual University which would be provid-ed with 10,000 scholarships for African students.33

India operates at two levels in Africa: the gov-ernment sector and private industry. Both havecontributed to infrastructure development. At thegovernmental level, the World Bank estimates thatIndia averaged $500 million in infrastructure dealsper year between 2003 and 2007, and this wasprior to the India-Africa Forum Summits. At the

2011 summit, India pledged $5 billion in lines ofcredit and $700 million in grants for infrastruc-ture development, particularly for setting up 100training institutes across the continent. These, of course, will enhance “soft” infras-

tructure: that is, improvement in managerial andtechnological capabilities. In fact, although Indiahas aided hard infrastructure projects, its focus sofar, as mentioned, has been on capacity develop-ment which may be termed as soft infrastructure,and this it has done for decades through its ITECprogrammes. Unlike China, the private sector is amore important player in infrastructure develop-ment and the government often confines itself toopening doors, letting African countries work withthe most efficient Indian companies they canattract. India accommodates itself to the aid recipients’

desires (not its own) and therefore advances fundsto African regional banks or NEPAD. Lines of cred-it are provided, and African countries can them-selves seek out suitable Indian private partners. Infact, an important institution like the AfricanFinance Commission (AFC) is therefore planningto join hands with the Infrastructure Development

tructure building, rehabilitation, improvement andmaintenance in Africa. This needs money. As notedearlier, an average of $93 billion per annum isrequired for effective infrastructure development,according to World Bank estimates, and this maybe a conservative calculation. According toMcKinsey Global Institute, the figure may be clos-er to $110 billion per annum.25 According to theWorld Bank, the power sector needs at least $26.7billion as capital expenditure and another $14.1 bil-lion for operation and maintenance, ICT needs $7billion as capital expenditure and another $2 bil-lion for operation and maintenance, while thetransport sector needs $8.8 billion as capitalexpenditure and $9.4 billion for operation andmaintenance.26

Existing expenditure on African infrastructureamounts to $45 billion per annum, of which about$30 billion is financed by the African taxpayer.27

Looking at investment alone, it appears that offi-cial development assistance (ODA), private partic-ipation in infrastructure and non-OECD financierstogether exceed domestically financed publicinvestment.28 The private sector is by far thelargest source, at par with domestic public invest-ment. Much smaller, but still significant, capital flows

are provided by ODA and, to a lesser extent, non-OECD financiers such as China, India, and theArab states. The focus differs markedly in eachcase. Official development assistance makes animportant contribution to water and transport,particularly in fragile states. Non-OECD finance issignificant in energy and rail, especially inresource-rich countries. Private participation ininfrastructure is heavily concentrated in ICT.29

However, there is still a huge funding gap ofabout $31 billion and this can be filled by addition-al funding or, alternatively, by introducing low-cost but sustainable technologies. Looking acrosssectors, about 60 percent of the funding gaprelates to power and the rest relates to water andirrigation. There is no significant funding gap for ICT or

transport, but this is because funding hasalready come in for these sectors from both out-side donors and lenders, and public and privatefinancing. These figures, however, relate toAfrica as a whole: many states that are fragile orare not resource-rich have not been able toattract much infrastructure finance even for ICTor transport facilities.Nevertheless, despite investments, Africa as a

whole, and particular countries therein, are in dire

need of infrastructure development funds. Whilethe World Bank and the European Union have beenpitching in, of especial interest are the new play-ers in the field. Realising the need for effective infrastructure

in Africa for the pursuit of their own interests,China, Brazil and India are increasingly focussingtheir cooperation with Africa, African countriesand African regions on the infrastructure sector.Eager to entrench themselves in the process ofbuilding Africa’s commercial and social infras-tructure with an eye to future mutual profits, part-nership deals include some element of infrastruc-ture development. China was a leader in this, allo-cating a total of almost $16 billion to Sub-Saharancountries between 2003 and 2007, compared toonly $8.2 billion allocated by the World Bank.Between 2001 and 2007, China increased its infras-tructure spending in Africa by 46 percent a year. Its investments, however, are rather narrowly

spread and have focussed on Nigeria, Ethiopia,Angola and Sudan, all these countries being of spe-cial interest to its oil imports or otherwise being ofstrategic importance. In future too, it is going tospend $6 billion, $13 billion and $22 billion on theDRC, Ghana and Nigeria respectively30, againthese countries being the ones where it wishes toincrease its footprint because of their petroleumresources. It has recently built the new ultra-modern

African Union (AU) building in Addis Ababa at acost of $200 million, the tallest building in thecity — but this probably has a motive too since itwill help in strengthening its relations with the AU.Further, China’s investment in African infras-tructure provides an outlet for excess Chinesecapacity in the construction and engineering sec-tors and gives it scope to flex its global competi-tive advantage in construction. Having dramatically enhanced its own infras-

tructure over the past 20 years, it is now expand-ing into other emerging areas, and this makessense as its construction sector has been growingat the rate of 20 percent annually.31 However, notonly are its interests in infrastructure develop-ment in Africa narrowly defined, its investmentdoes not produce commensurate employment asthey bring in Chinese labour.

India’s ResponseIndia’s infrastructure development projects in

Africa may not be as dramatic as those of China,but the country is slowly emerging as an important

an average of $93 billion per annum is required for effec-tive infrastructure development of Africa



These countries are a part of the first phaseof the project which is likely to expand to includethe offices of the heads of state of 53 Africancountries. The second and third phases will seethe addition of 18 more countries by the end ofJune. The hospitals that will be connected are super-

specialty hospitals in India: the All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Escorts HeartInstitute, Care Hospital (Hyderabad) and NarayanaHrudayalaya (Bangalore) to mention only four ofthe 12 selected so far. The seven educational institutes that will be

connected to African counterparts are againamong the best that India has to offer: IndianInstitute of Science (Bangalore), Amity University,University of Madras, Indira Gandhi National OpenUniversity (IGNOU), University of Delhi, the IndianInstitute of Technology (Kanpur) and the BirlaInstitute of Technology and Science. A pilot project is already providing education to

African students: 34 Ethiopian students will

receive a Master of Business Administration(MBA) degree from IGNOU in June 2012 withoutever having entered India. According to PranabMukherjee, India has gifted a dedicated satellite fore-connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa to bridge thedigital gap.40

The project is expected to cost around $1 billion,but it will effectively boost Africa’s informationand communications technology sector and con-nect all African countries to a satellite and fibre-optic network. India is a market leader in this fieldand sells innovative technology to Western devel-oped states as well. India’s indigenous technologywill help develop Africa’s ICT infrastructure, whichfaces several challenges, but which is absolutelyessential in modern times for information sharing,

Finance Co (IDFC) to provide investment adviceand even financing to Indian companies that seekto invest in infrastructure projects in Africa.34

The AFC is a private sector investment bankand development finance institution partneredby Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, TheGambia, Guinea and Ghana. Its interest in Indiancompanies is mainly for the power and renewableenergy sectors, which need much developmentand Indian companies have expertise in cost-effective solutions. It is also interested in attract-ing Indian companies in the transport sector, avi-ation and ports.In the government sector, many of the India-

financed projects are directed through the EximBank which extends lines of credit to African gov-ernments or regional or continental institutions,many of which are intended for infrastructuredevelopment. In September 2010, Exim Bank’s total operative

lines of credit in Africa amounted to $2.8 billion,half of which had a direct infrastructure focus.

Although many of these credit lines were in therange of $10 million to $50 million, India made siz-able commitments to Sudan and the ECOWASBank for Investment and Development. More com-mitments were made during the 2011 summit ashas been noted, one of them being the Ethiopia-Djibouti rail link. India has attempted to improve certain sectors

in Africa, particularly the power and ICT sectors,but railways may soon become important. Actually,India has a lot of expertise in railways, having builtthousands of miles of rail connectivity linking theremotest villages of India to urban centres andvice versa. In 2009, World Bank president RobertZoellick had specifically sought the partnership ofIndian Railways in project implementationthroughout the developing world, with a focus onAfrica. Indian Railways is already in Africa: it has sup-

plied locomotives to Mozambique, Tanzania, Maliand Senegal and coaches to Angola. Two operativelines of credit ($27.7 million to Mali and Senegaland $10.25 million to Benin) are for the purchase

of railway coaches and locomotives from India.35

Zoellick visited India again in March 2012 andthen too said that Indian Railways could partnerthe World Bank in an ambitious plan to developtransport infrastructure in Africa.36 Apart fromIndian Railways, RITES, another government sec-tor concern, has left its footprint in Africa, build-ing bridges, airports and rail infrastructure in var-ious countries like Botswana and Malawi.37 WAP-COS too has executed some of the most challeng-ing infrastructure projects in Africa.38

One of the biggest government sector projectsis the Pan-African e-Network, visualised by thenIndian President Abdul Kalam in 2004 andannounced at the inaugural session of the Pan-African Parliament in Johannesburg. Since thenmuch progress has been made in increasing con-nectivity throughout the African continent and inlinking medical and educational institutions in Indiawith counterparts in African states so thatAfricans can benefit from Indian expertise in thesefields without incurring the cost of coming to India.

The current total cost of the project is $130 mil-lion, which is a grant from the government of India.The Ministry of External Affairs is responsible forthe project while Telecommunication ConsultantsIndia Limited (TCIL), which is a government sec-tor undertaking, is the implementing agency. Forty-seven countries have signed up with TCIL and theproject has been fully implemented in 12 countriessince February 2009, and these include such farapart states as Benin, Rwanda, Uganda, Mauritiusand Gabon. In many countries, including lowincome ones like Somalia and Cote d’Ivoire, learn-ing centres, patient-end hospitals and VVIP nodesare ready.39

In February 2012, the e-network project linkingleading universities and hospitals in India withtheir counterparts in 11 African countries was inau-gurated by External Affairs Minister PranabMukherjee via satellite and a video conference callwith his counterparts. These countries are varied:Ethiopia, Senegal, Gabon, The Gambia, Mauritius,Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Seychellesand Benin.

the World Bank estimates that India averaged $500 mn ininfrastructure deals per year between 2003 and 2007

Realising the need for effective infrastruc-ture in Africa for the pursuit of their owninterests, China, Brazil and India areincreasingly focusing their cooperationwith Africa on the infrastructure sector.



information gathering, selling and buying, and evenfor governance and disaster management, quiteapart from such fields as medical consultancy andeducation.So far as individual countries are concerned,

India’s Exim Bank has operative lines of credit inmany countries earmarked for specific infras-tructure projects. To name a few: Angola was given$40 million for railway rehabilitation; Ghana got$27 million for rural electrification and agricul-ture; Sudan received $350 million for setting up the4x125 MW Kosti Combined Cycle power plant, $42million for the SINGA-GEDARIF transmission andsub-station project, and another $52 million for theextension of the SINGA-GEDARIF transmissionline to Galabat; Ethiopia received $65 million forenergy transmission and distribution; Chad got$50 million for various projects like cotton yarnplant, a steel billet plant, etc.; Mali received $30 mil-lion for electricity transmission and distributionfrom Cote d’Ivoire to Mali; Zambia was given $50million for the Itezhi-Tezhi hydro-power project;and the DRC received $42 million for the Kakobolahydroelectric power project — and this is not theentire list.41

These projects are as of September 2010, andsubsequently more have been pledged. In fact,because of the success in implementing these pro-jects in a manner that suits Africa’s needs, India isbeing invited by African countries to participate insome of their projects. For instance, Kenya hasinvited India to participate in one of the largestinfrastructure development projects in Africa —the Lamu Port and Southern Sudan-EthiopiaTransport Corridor (LAPSSET). The plan is to build a railway line, a resort, a

port, an oil pipeline and a highway. Kenyan TradeMinister Chiran Ali Mwakwere, speaking at the8th India-Africa Project Partnership Summit, said:“With excellent infrastructure development capac-ities shown by Indian companies they can competefor the project... India has a proven capability indeveloping these infrastructures”.42

Apart from the government sector, Indian pri-vate firms have been involved in many of theseprojects following the path opened by the Indiangovernment through lines of credit and otherdiplomatic tools. Private sector companies haveled the drive through investment in infrastructureeven though the primary motive of private capitalis profit. Many of the private firms have invested in soft

infrastructure like automobile, engineering, chem-icals, banking, ICT, telecom, pharmaceuticals and

drugs, healthcare, education and services. Many ofthe corporate firms have stated policies of long-term commitment and sustainability and, there-fore, to back up their policy they have initiatedcorporate social responsibility programmes. For instance, Jain Irrigation and Kirloskar

Brothers have gone beyond merely commissioningagricultural projects to establishing better watermanagement systems for the benefit of millions ofAfricans. Bharti Airtel, which recently acquired 15telecom operations in SSA for $10.7 billion, hasadopted 18 schools in different African countrieswhere it has a presence.43

Apart from corporate responsibility, these com-panies will help to jump-start Africa’s growththrough their investment in telecom, automobiledevelopment and other sectors. India was a coun-try with few telephone connections compared todeveloped countries till the 1990s and the degreeof isolation of various pockets within the countrywas very high. The private companies changed allthis and now India has one of the largest mobileconnectivity, particularly among emerging nations.Apart from phone-to-phone connectivity, mobilesare now used for sending messages on gover-nance, disaster alerts, etc. Newer versions in factconnect villagers to the rest of the world throughthe Internet, social media and other facilities thatare now available on mobile phones.Some of the big Indian corporate firms are now

important players in Africa and have baggedimportant infrastructure development contracts.For example, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), one of India’slargest construction firms, has made its presencefelt in Tanzania, Mozambique, Sudan, Mauritius,Kenya and South Africa. In Tanzania it secured two World Bank con-

tracts worth $100 million involving collecting gasfrom offshore and onshore wells, processing it andpiping it to Dar es Salam; in Kenya, it is building apure soda ash plant for the Magadi Soda Company;in other states it is involved in various projectsranging from building and managing roads andhighways to constructing buildings to buildingpower sub-stations and transmission lines.Another company, Patel Construction, has got

contracts from countries and institutions like theWorld Bank. In Eritrea, it has a project from thelocal government for a water supply project andin Mauritius it won a $1 billion project to developa new integrated township in Port Louis. Yet another company, Subhash Projects, has

water-related projects in South Africa, Swazilandand Tanzania amounting to several millions.44

Private sector companies are known for their effi-ciency, product quality and time management,given the kind of competitive world that we nowinhabit.One of the biggest Indian companies in Africa

is the Tata group. Set up in 1994, Tata AfricaHoldings operates in 12 African countries stretch-ing from Ghana to Zimbabwe. Apart from doingbusiness, it has several self-undertaken projectsthat will help develop soft infrastructure. It has anadult literacy project in partnership with TataConsultancy Services and the WBD Trust; it has askills development programme in partnership withKgabane (South Africa) which even broughtAfricans to train in jewellery making in the Titanplant at Bangalore and ceramic decoration at theTata plant in Kochi; and Tata Steel KZN has under-taken community development programmes,including training local people for its steel plant.45

While Tata’s business enterprises gave the com-pany a revenue of $600 million in 2010-1146, it isalso developing infrastructure that will benefitAfrica — for instance, a Civil Aviation Academy, aCentre for Medium Range Weather Forecastingand an Institute for Agricultural and RuralDevelopment.

Yet other companies like NIIT are not only mak-ing profits in Africa because of the huge demandfor their services but are helping build capacity.NIIT has set up centres in six African countries andis expanding fast because of the demand.Therefore, India is doing its bit to help in infras-

tructure development in Africa. Although its pres-ence is nowhere near that of China, it has advan-tages of goodwill generated through its inclusivepractices, not the least of which is the generationof local employment that its projects involve. Moreover, it has long been in the field of capac-

ity-building and now, even some of the private sec-tor companies are entering this field. There is alsoa sense of corporate social responsibility amongthe large conglomerates which transliterates intoskill and soft infrastructure building. The Indiangovernment does not have the kind of foreignexchange reserves that China has and, further, its

own infrastructure needs inputs of trillions of dol-lars to make India comparable to developed states.What is important is that despite its own needs, ithas been giving billions of dollars to Africa for itsdevelopment.

Concluding remarksDespite the progress made, there is much more

that India can do for infrastructure developmentin Africa. One of the basic questions that has to beasked — and answered — is whether the decisionstaken at the two forum summits are being prop-erly implemented. Another question is regardingAfrica’s perception of India, i.e., whether it looksat India in isolation or whether it seeks its ownadvantages within the context of a rapidly-chang-ing global scenario. In fact, the second question is tied up with the

first: if there is timely implementation of the deci-sions taken at the Forum Summits, Africa’s per-ception of India and its efficacy as an infrastruc-ture development partner will improve. It is onlynatural for developing countries to seek the bestdeal that they can get, and today it is ‘AdvantageAfrica’ because of the number of players vying for

the continent’s resources and market with all kindsof incentives. Therefore, it is important for Indiato build on the advantages it has in partneringAfrica, not the least of which is its vibrant privatesector. Moreover, the Indian government and theprivate sector should also take advantage of thelarge Indian diaspora in Africa. Many are in business themselves and have local

domain knowledge which can help in risk calcula-tion and the assessment of market demand andaccessibility. India should go beyond its PravasiBharatiya Divas programmes, even though theyare important in re-connecting with the almost“lost” diaspora who left India generations back, toactual partnering with diasporic firms and engag-ing them in its projects. Most important, Indiashould leverage its myriad advantages to engagewith African countries, gauge their requirementsand deliver on time.

India has gifted a dedicated satellite for e-connectivity insub-Saharan Africa to bridge the digital gap in the region



Economies’, McKinsey Global Institute,

Report, June 2010, available at

http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/MGI/

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26 Foster, n. 8, p. 7.

27 Ibid., p. 8, 9.

28 Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia, Karlis Smits,

and Vivien Foster (2008). ‘Financing Public

Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa:

Patterns, Issues, and Options’. AICD

Background Paper 15,Africa Infrastructure

Sector Diagnostic, World Bank,

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29 Foster, n. 8, p. 9.

30 Freemantle, n. 10, p. 4.

31 Ibid., p. 5.

32 Press Information Bureau, Government of

India (2011), Second India-Africa Forum

Summit 2011: Addis Ababa Declaration.

Available at http://pib.nic.in/newsite/ere-

lease.aspx?relid=72319, accessed on 20

April 2012.

33 Statement of Preneet Kaur, Minister of

State External Affairs, 66th Session of the

United Nations General Assembly, October

11, 2011, available at www.nepad.org/sys-

tem,files,GA%2mtg_India.pdf, accessed on

20 April 2012.

34 The AFC is a private sector-led investment

bank that was set up in 2007 to help mobi-

lize and channel capital to infrastructure

projects in Africa and is now a market

leader. See www.indiaafricaconnect.

in/index.php?param=category/india-

africa-conclave/120, accessed on 15 April

2012.

35 ‘Indian Construction Firms Making

Inroads into Africa’, available at

http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/in

dian-construction-firms-making-inroads-

into-africa/4794/, accessed on 15 April

2012.

36 ‘India could be Africa’s Rail Partner: World

Bank’, see http://topnews.in/people

/robert-zoellick, accessed 15 April 2012.

37 For details see http://www.sadc.

int/cms/uploads/ K-7543%20RTFP%

20SADC%20Infrastructure% 20brochure

_English_V11_LR.pdf, accessed on 18 April

2012.

38 Sunil Bharti Mittal, ‘The Coming of a New

Dawn’, Public Diplomacy Division,

Ministry of External Affairs, available at

http://2billiondreams.in/index.php?param

=chapterdetails/12, accessed on 20 April

2012.

39 For details see www.mea.gov.in/static-

file/Pan-Project-March-12.pdf, accessed

on 15 April 2012.

40 ‘India Launches pan-African e-network

project’, available at http://www.indi-

aafricaconnect.in/index.php?param=pan,

accessed on 14 April 2012.


42 Trade Mark Southern Africa (2012), ‘Kenya

Wants India to Participate in Lamu Port

and Transport Corridor’, available at

http://www.trademarksa.org/news/kenya

-wants-india-partici pate-lamu-port-and-

transport-corridor, accessed 20 April 2012.

43 Mittal, n. 38.

44 Freemantle, n. 10, pp. 7-8.

45 Tata in Africa, Community Initiatives,

available at http://www.tataafrica.com

/Our_commitment/community_initia-

tives.htm, accessed on 15 April 2012.

46 Kushan Mitra and Rajiv Bhuvaa, ‘This Time

for Africa’, Business Today, May 29, 2011.

1 National Research Council (1987),

Infrastructure for the 21st Century:

Framework for a Research Agenda,

Washington, D.C., The National Academies

Press, p. 4, footnote 1.

2 Deepak Kumar (2005), ‘Infrastructure in

India’, MBA Review, Hyderabad, ICFAI

Journal of Infrastructure, June, Special

Anniversary Issue, p. 19.

3 UN (2005), Resolution adopted by the

General Assembly. 2005 World Summit

Outcome. Sixtieth Session. Available in

http://www.un.org/summit2005/presskit/

fact_sheet.pdf, accessed on 18 April 2012.

4 Commission on Growth and Development

(2008), ‘The Growth Report: Strategies for

Sustained Growth and Inclusive

Development’, The International Bank for

Reconstruction and Development/ The

World Bank, Washington, D.C., pp. 5-6,

available at http://cgd.s3.amazonaws.com/

GrowthReportComplete.pdf, accessed on

20 April 2012.

5 Antonio Estache (2006), ‘Infrastructure: A

Survey of Recent and Upcoming Issues’,

The World Bank, p. 8, available at

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INT-

DECABCTOK2006/Resources/Antonio_Es

tache_Infrastructure_for_Growth.pdf,


6 Ibid., p. 1.

7 Stephany Griffith-Jones, Jose Antonio

Ocampo (2008), ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund:

Developing Country Perspectives’, Paper

prepared for the workshop on Sovereign

Wealth Funds organized by the Andean

Development Corporation, London,

February 18, 2008. Available at http://pol-

icydialogue.org/files/events/Griffith-

JonesSovereign_Wealth_Funds.pdf,


8 Vivien Foster, Cecilia Briceno-Garmendia

(2010), ‘Africa's Infrastructure: A Time for

Transformation’, The International Bank

for Reconstruction and Development/ The

World Bank, Washington, D.C., p. 1, avail-

able at http://siteresources.

worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/

Resources/aicd_overview_english_no-

embargo.pdf, accessed on 20 April 2012.

9 Alvaro Escribano, J. Luis Guasch, and Jorge

Pena (2008), ‘Impact of Infrastructure

Constraints on Firm Productivity in Africa’,

Working Paper 9, Africa Infrastructure

Sector Diagnostic, World Bank,

Washington, DC. Available at

http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/librar

y/doc/420/impact-infrastructure-con-

straints-firm-productivity-africa, accessed

on 20 April 2012.

10 Simon Freemantle, Jeremy Stevens (2010),

‘BRIC and Africa: New Partnership Poised

to Grow Africa’s Commercial

Infrastructure’, Standard Bank, 15 October

2010, available at SBRP_doc7313410[1].pdf,

accessed 21 April 2012.

11 Reported in http://

businesstimesafrica.net/btm/details.cfm?

, accessed on 18 April 2012.

12 Foster, n. 8, p. 1.


14 USITC (2009), ‘Sub-Saharan Africa: Effects

of Infrastructure Conditions on Export

Competitiveness’, Third Annual Report,

USITC Publication 4071, April 2009,

Washington, D.C. p. 2-2, available at

http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pu

b4071.pdf, accessed on 17 April 2012.

15 Ibid. p. 2-5.


17 Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA)

(2008), ‘Power Supply Situation in Africa’.

Paper prepared for ICA annual meeting,

Tokyo, Japan, March 13-14, 2008. Available

at http://www.icafrica.org/fileadmin/doc-

uments/Tokyo/Background_paper_Power_

Supply_situation in_Africa_FINAL.pdf.

Accessed on 21 April 2012.

18 USTIC, n. 14, p. 2-4.

19 UNCTAD (2007), Review of Maritime

Transport, 2006, 2007, New York and

Geneva, p. 102.

20 Ibid. 123-124.

21 Foster, n. 8, p. 8.

22 USITC, n. 14, p. 6-5.

23 Ibid., p. 6-7.


25 Charlesles Roxburgh, Norbert Dörr, Acha

Leke et al (2010), ‘Lions on the Move: The

Progress and Potential of African

REFERENCES

Rwandan women today represent a uniqueexample of empowered feminism, whichhas its own significance in their context.Rwandan history has witnessed a drastic

change in women’s life and shows the world howto have gender-balanced politics.

Rwandan women are also known for their ownkind of feminism, called Appreciable Feminism orCourageous Feminism. The world will also remem-ber them for reversing the order of patriarchalnorms. Rwandan feminism remains a positive move-ment, which every woman is happy to be identifiedwith. It signals a commitment to struggle for women’sliberation from all forms of oppression — internal,external, psychological, emotional, socio-economic,political and philosophical.

A woman can be judged by her own individual-ity in a society. Rwandan women today are knownfor qualities like balance, connectedness, reciproc-ity and compromise. Rwandan feminism seespower as negotiable and negotiated; it assessespower not in an absolute but in relative terms, thatis, in terms of power-sharing, negotiation andinclusiveness. The ethnically fragmented society isonce again nourished by Rwandan women. Theyhave put their heart and soul into creating a live-ly society in Rwanda. They have nurtured life andbrought happiness out of dead souls, woundedbodies and horrified and scared children.

Rwandan women have not forgotten the

tragedies of genocide, but with their determina-tion, self-sacrifice and connectedness, they havebeen able to restructure and rejuvenate societythrough 18 years of struggle. The 1994 genocidehad left behind a country with a 70 percentfemale population. Rwanda’s Parliament todayhas more women’s representation than in anyother country.

Rwanda is now all about self-belief, self-sacri-fice, long-lasting commitments, political activism,and self-identity. Contemporary Rwandan womenare a creation of historical and current forces thatare simultaneously internally generated and exter-nally induced — from indigenous socio-culturalstructures and foreign influences. They are well connected with umbrella organisations. Each woman has become part of a unit or anorganisation.

The government of Rwanda is supportingwomen in the context of gender equality throughthe introduction of new laws and policies, provid-ing equal opportunities, especially for economicadvancement, in the fields of health, private sec-tor banking and academics. Special focus has beengiven on strengthening and encouraging womenleaders. Laws and policies have to be formulatedon the basis of affirmative action for Rwandanwomen. This can only be done when men give pri-ority to gender equality through an attitudinalchange and start appreciating and accepting the

enormous potential as development partners ofthe country’s women.

Socio-cultural transformationIn pre-genocide Rwanda, women’s life was cen-tred on being a domestic caretaker of the fami-ly, typically as mother and wife. Women had nodecision-making authority. In 1996, after thegenocide, 34 percent of Rwandan homes wereheaded by women and, as mentioned earlier,they formed approximately 70 percent of thepopulation.1 Women were not only involved indecision-making with husbands but also con-trolled economic decisions within the family.Changes in gender norms have altered the per-ception not only within the house but also with-in society. The position of Rwandan women hasbeen getting strengthened due to these rapidchanges. By 2000, it was noted that 57 percentof the total female population produced around70 percent of the agricultural output.2 Today,women entrepreneurs are a significant force in

Rwanda’s private sector, heading 42 percent ofenterprises. They represent 58 percent of enter-prises in the informal sector, which accounts for30 percent of GDP.

Political TransformationBefore 1994, Rwandan women were under-repre-sented in politics and could not participate in political and administrative debates. A womancouldn’t make any decisions for herself. She facedmany taboos related to the culture and traditionof Rwanda; she was not supposed to be involvedin cattle milking or cutting firewood; and she wasnot a decision-making authority regarding farmhouse management and other economic activities.Suddenly, after the genocide, the demographicchange in Rwanda meant a huge ‘U’ turn for

Women power, theRwanda wayRwandan women have achieved the practical utility, or worth of the

word ‘feminism’ in the real sense, by preparing the country for the

future generation, writes Shubhra Parmar

It was observed in 2000 that 57 percent oftotal female population producedaround 70 percent of agricultural output.

NEW FRONTIERS A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y

February - April 201228 February - April 2012 29

women. They came forward for reconstruction outof necessity. After the genocide, women startedtaking initiatives and participating in differentpolitical activities.

The new constitution guarantees a minimum of30 percent of parliamentary seats and other lead-ership positions to women. Today, as mentioned,Rwanda has the highest number of women parlia-mentarians in the world, with women constitutingnearly 50 percent in the Chamber of Deputies andabout 35 percent in the Senate. The Rwandan cab-inet has 34 percent women ministers.3

This is supported by the Rwanda WomenParliamentary Forum. The Rwandan constitutionof June 2003 provides for higher levels of repre-sentation to previously marginalised groups suchas women, youth and the disabled. This constitu-tional framework provides quotas for women ingovernment, which have resulted in an unprece-dented number of women being elected orappointed to decision-making positions at all lev-els. The constitution underpins the principles ofgender equality and elimination of all forms ofdiscrimination against women and provides a

strong platform for gender mainstreaming inRwandan legislation.

The participation of women at all levels of gov-ernance in Rwanda has yielded tremendous resultsand women are increasingly visible in the politicalarena. Following the 2008 parliamentarian elec-tions, representation of women in Parliament hasincreased from 48.8 percent to 56.25 percent,which shows the Rwandan government’s commit-ment to promoting gender equality.4 Followingelections held in the first quarter of 2006, the per-centage of women currently in decision-making atthe local government level (cells, sectors and dis-tricts) increased from 28.2 percent in 2003 to 40.2percent in 2005.5

Women, however, still face some political prob-lems. Discriminatory legal provisions may lead toconfrontation between men and women in the lightof the perception of the gender-bias in Rwandansociety. The major factors against womenempowerment and gender equality are gender-based violence, a high illiteracy rate, conservative

patriarchal society structure, discriminatorylaws, poverty, lack of respect for women and mis-understanding of gender roles creating an envi-ronment of mistrust within the family. After thegenocide, the government made a special provi-sion for women to be part of the political struc-ture and the public sector, despite the fact thatthe constitution is not explicit in regard to anyaffirmative action or quotas favouring women inRwanda. The government of Rwanda put in placevarious institutional mechanisms aimed at pro-moting gender equality. The Ministry of Genderand Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) is responsiblefor promoting gender equality and equity, chil-dren’s rights and family promotion. MIGEPROFdeveloped a National Gender Policy to provide theorientation on how to mainstream gender in pri-ority areas.

Among the areas covered are the 12 identifiedin the Beijing Platform for Action. Based onthe June 2003 constitution, the National WomenCouncil (NWC) was given the mandate to mobilisewomen and to identify their needs and constraintsthat required to be taken into consideration in the

development process. The Beijing Secretariat mon-itors the implementation of the Beijing Platform forAction. The secretariat serves under the NationalCoordinating Committee headed by the minister inthe Prime Minister’s Office in charge of gender andfamily promotion.

The Forum for Rwandan WomenParliamentarians is another mechanism estab-lished under the initiative of women parliamen-tarians. Its mission is to promote gender equalityand contribute towards building capacity forwomen in decision-making. It is mostly involved inlaws and the budget. A Gender Observatory mech-anism to monitor the implementation of gender-sensitive indicators and give recommendations forgender mainstreaming to various bodies is pro-vided in the constitution under Article 185.6

The Gender Observatory has the mandate tohold accountable, with respect to gender issues,the various interveners in both the public and pri-vate sectors, civil society and the donor commu-nity. Human rights organisations are also part of

the mechanisms that the Rwanda government isencouraging and a majority of them are groupedinto two main umbrella associations: CLADHO andPro-Femmes Twese Hamwe. CLADHO specialisesin legal matters while Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwedeals with the promotion of women’s rights in gen-eral. Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe has played a veryimportant advocacy role in ensuring that genderis mainstreamed in the constitution and in the legalreforms aimed at promoting gender equality.7 Thelaw on inheritance, matrimonial regime, successionand liberalities is meant to promote women’saccess to and control over properties.

Women in Civil Society Civil society organisations came into existence outof the social and economic needs of Rwandanwomen. Driven by economic necessity,women were the primary force behind the devel-opment of Rwandan civil society organisations.Being associated with these organisations,Rwandan women’s conglomerates themselves

plan, identify, implement and monitor differentactivities related to development, especially at theregional level. The primary activities of women’sgroups after the genocide were providing shelter,assistance to the widows and orphaned children,supporting income-generation activities and pro-viding health facilities and psychotherapy.

Various political tasks by these groups arefocussed on providing civic training and defend-ing women’s rights all across Rwanda. Differentwomen’s organisations working successfully atthe regional level in Rwanda are: ImbutoFoundation (for health, education, and economicempowerment), Organisation of African FirstLadies against HIV/AIDS ( OAFLA), Pro-FemmesTwese Hamwe (partnership with different organ-isations), Forum for African WomenEducationalists (FAWE), Women For Women

Basket-weaving is an old tradition andalso the biggest source of economic stability for Rwandan women.

The participation of women at all levels of governance inRwanda has yielded tremendous results



trained in specific areas for the betterment ofRwandan farmers: data collection and analysis,land productivity, returns to labour, production,agro-processing, agricultural research, post-har-vest processing and storage, rural credit and exten-sion schemes, competitive marketing, distributionand storage system and farm information.9

Rwanda is a nation led by women. It hasemerged as the top sub-Saharan African genderequity nation, ranking behind only Sweden andFinland in the world, according to Social Watch’sGender Equity Index.10 Rwandan women have nowstarted thinking beyond digging, cooking and stay-ing home; they are now entrepreneurs. They start-ed doing their own informal businesses such asbasket-weaving, purse-weaving and selling fruitsand vegetables. Basket-weaving is an old traditionwhich is the biggest source of stability and devel-opment for Rwandan women. But they are stillfacing financial problems. The government expectsthat a drive to register an estimated 900,000 infor-mal enterprises will both strengthen these busi-nesses and improve tax revenues.11

Women constitute 54 percent of Rwanda’s pop-ulation of nine million. Although there are no statis-tics available for women-owned businesses, theRwandan government acknowledges that themajority of employees in both the formal and infor-mal sectors are women. One of the key objectivesof the Rwanda Development Board, the agencytasked with the registration process, is the sensi-tisation and mobilisation of women to invest indoing business. But registration does not auto-matically guarantee loans for women-owned busi-nesses. Many women in rural areas complain theystill face difficulties in accessing loans under theWomen’s Guarantee Fund.12

Women entrepreneurs are a significant force inRwanda’s private sector, heading 42 percent ofenterprises. As mentioned earlier, they head 58percent of enterprises in the informal sector,which accounts for 30 percent of GDP. The major-ity are engaged in the retail sector (82 percent),with the rest focussing on the services (16 to 17 per-cent) and manufacturing (1 to 2 percent) sectors.Women entrepreneurs are increasingly able tosecure bank loans and purchase or inherit land.

An informal survey found that Rwandanwomen were less likely to register their businessfor tax purposes; 22.3 percent of businesses represented by women have declared their busi-nesses compared to 27.6 percent of businessesrepresented by men. Data also indicates thatwomen’s share of business ownership decreases

as the degree of formalisation increases. Whilewomen own 58 percent of informal enterprises,they own only 40 percent of partially-formal enter-prises. The World Bank’s Doing Business Report2011 named Rwanda the second-most reformedcountry in the world over a five-year period.

The Global Competitiveness Report also foundRwanda to be among the top three most competi-tive places to do business in Africa. According toWomen, Business and the Law 2012 Report, labourforce constituted 88 percent of the population.Not only has the economy grown by an average of8.8 percent since 2005, but Rwanda’s economy isalso one of the top ten fastest-growing of the lastdecade, according to the IMF.

According to U.N. Women statistics, “womenperform 66 percent of the world’s work, produce50 percent of the food, but earn 10 percent of theincome and own one percent of the property”.13

Globally, women represent 49.6 percent of thetotal population, but only 40.8 percent of the totalworkforce in the formal sector. In 2010, the GlobalGender Gap Index reported that 96 percent of thegender gap in health and 93 percent of the gap ineducation have been eliminated. But the gendergap for economic participation remains at 41 per-cent.14

Judicial Transformation Following the waves of antagonistic and bloodyevents that culminated in the 1994 genocide anddue to different hotbeds of tension in the region,Rwandan women realised the role they have toplay in conflict resolution. At the same time, thecountry’s conventional court system had been dec-imated by the genocide, in which a large numberof judges and prosecutors were killed. Faced withthis almost insurmountable dilemma, the govern-ment decided to reintroduce a traditional courtsystem called Gacaca.

Rwanda women have managed to move for-ward in part by adopting what is called theGacaca process, a traditional, pre-colonial systemof justice. In traditional Rwandan culture, womenwere not allowed to speak in public; so it was dif-ficult for women to participate in the Gacaca pro-ceedings. Gacaca was introduced in Rwanda forsocial reconciliation and to involve everyone inthe community. The Gacaca system is particularlywell suited to deal with post-conflict traditionaljustice because it is a participatory, community-based restorative justice system that encouragesopenness and dialogue between perpetrators andvictims as a means to resolve issues through

International, Haguruka, the Association forWomen’s Right in Development (AWID),Tubahumurize (to empower socially, economi-cally marginalised women in Rwanda), theAssociation of Genocide Widows Agahozo(AVEGA) and the Pyramid Project (for genderequality). National-level projects include TheGreat Lake Advocacy Group (GLAG) that com-prises CARE Burundi, CARE DRC, CARE Rwandaand CARE Uganda (for gender conflict issues).

Of late, the civil society organisations haveincreased contact with grassroots organisationsand communities. The civil society organisationsare framing new polices for better coordination insolving the problems of rural women. Their capac-ity-building activities, facilitated through trainingworkshops, address a wide range of needs, likeproject management cycles, financial manage-ment, reporting, leadership, networking, micro-credit schemes, gender concerns, environmentalprotection, agricultural techniques and farmingsystems, revenue-generating activities, as well as

processing and marketing of local products. Women’s legal organisations are now at the

forefront of ensuring justice to, and the legalempowerment of, women. They have also spear-headed law reform efforts and strategic policy-making that have transformed the landscape forwomen’s rights nationally and regionally. Theselegal reforms covered laws on violence againstwomen, sexual and reproductive health, citizenshipand inheritance. Support of these organisations isan urgent priority and a vital investment toincrease women’s access to justice.

Economic TransformationRwanda’s is a poor, rural-based economy. Ninetypercent of the population is engaged in agricultureand some mineral and agro-processing activities.In pre-genocide Rwanda, women were bound bycultural barriers and were considered as secondclass citizens in the economic arena. They werebound by a commercial code which stated thatwomen could not engage in commercial activitieswithout the express authorisation of their hus-

bands. Men owned land and decided which cropsto grow; they had access to information abouttraining or any opportunities for farmers, whilewomen did not have such access.

The male-dominated farming tradition has beentransformed through necessity. Rwandan womengenerally started growing beans, bananas, localgreens, sweet potato, cassava and trees for theirsurvival. Beans are a great source of proteins. ARwandan grows an average of 60 kgs of beans ayear, the highest in the world.

A training process called the Farmer of theFuture Initiative (FOFI) was initiated in the prima-ry school curriculum to empower young girls sothat both male and female producers have equalaccess to seeds, tools, animals, small stock andtraining for sustainable agricultural growth in thefuture. Rwandan women are now consideredas bean specialists. They took all the responsibili-ty for the bean crop: seed selection, weeding, sow-ing and harvesting. The presence of women farm-ers in farming research centres as evaluators has

brought a revolutionary change in society. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

(AGRA) works with strong support of the govern-ment to transform the gendered agricultural sys-tem. AGRA also provides well-targeted subsidies,access to good seeds, fertilisers and credit schemesfor Rwandan women. Women are now self-awareand know the self-sustainable way of growingcrops, especially beans, for their family, creatingthe concept of a kitchen garden in every house,helping in the nutrition of pregnant women.Nowadays, female farmers have equal access toseeds, tools, animals, small stock and productivityinputs which are essential for equitable and sus-tainable agricultural growth.

More than 60 percent of students in Rwandaare seeking agricultural training in gardeninginstead of going to secondary school or universi-ty.8 By passing on these farmers’ skills to theyounger generation, Rwandan women are secur-ing their children’s future and self-sufficiency infood. In this we can see an eco-friendly, caringnature and their love for earth. Women have to be



Rwandan women have now started thinking beyond conventional roles; they are now entrepreneurs

constitutional guarantees, the justice sector(judges, magistrates, intermediate- and grassroots-level judicial sector workers, law enforcement per-sonnel, and prosecutors) has not been adequatelyeducated about changes in the laws to protectwomen’s rights or about how to achieve genderequality in practice.

Women and EducationVision 2020 states that Rwanda is committed toreaching ‘Universal Education for All’ which is animportant Millennium Development Goal.Investing in the development of human resourcesin order to meet a major objective of Vision 2020,which is to create a “knowledge-based economy”,is therefore a government priority. Vision 2020also stipulates that major emphasis will be placedon vocational and technical training in the fields oftechnology, engineering and management.

In order to achieve gender equality and equi-ty, it is stipulated that Rwanda will continuouslyupdate and adapt its laws on gender support.17

Moreover, Rwanda has embarked on efforts tostrengthen women’s skills. From providing freenine-year basic education, Rwanda has raised it

to 12 years as the country’s meansincreased, ensuring that soon every Rwandanchild will acquire at least secondary school edu-cation. Rwanda has also increased universitiesand tertiary institutions from just one universityin 1994 to 29 universities by 2010 owned by boththe private and public sector — and promotedTVET centres across the country.

The government of Rwanda has also made anumber of international commitments that under-line its determination to promote education in gen-eral and girls’ education in particular. Theseinclude the Convention on the Rights of the Child(CRC), Education for All and the MillenniumDevelopment Goals. The convention commits sig-natories to ensuring that the right of all childrento education is realised by 2015 and Education forAll and the MDGs have a target of UniversalPrimary Completion and gender equality (in oppor-tunities and outcomes). The government’s pledgeshave led to an Education Sector Policy commitmentto ensuring that there is Universal Primary

Enrolment by 2010. Rwanda has achieved genderparity in primary education, making it one of a fewAfrican countries to do so and Net EnrolmentRates (NER) in primary schools is now 95.8 per-cent for girls and 94.7 percent for boys.18

The government efforts to promote genderequality in education are also seen in the budgetallocation to the education sector. Total educationspending increased by 12 percent between 2004and 2005 and accounted for 49 percent of totalexpenditure in 2005.19 The increase was mainlyallocated towards the implementation of the fee-free primary education policy.

In order to promote girls’ education and reversethe waning trend, a non-governmental organisa-tion, the Forum for African Women Educationalist(FAWE), has, with government support, opened apilot school for girls’ education and institution-alised a class prize for girls who perform very wellin examinations. It is noted that girls have been wellrepresented in professional/vocational educationthat focuses mainly on traditional skills such assecretarial skills, agro-veterinary skills, nursingand teaching, reinforcing further gender stereo-types in careers and professional opportunities.

Participation in NGOsToday’s Rwandan women are responding to the

needs and potential of vulnerable groups. The vul-nerable population now benefits from several gov-ernment programmes and from numerous andfragmented donor projects and organisations likeChildren in Critical Situations (child-headed house-holds, street children, working children and soldierchildren), Genocide Survivors (seriously injured,physically impaired, those made blind or deaf,including orphans), Women (widows, detainees’wives, pregnant women and raped women andgirls), Disabled People (mentally impaired, physi-cally impaired), HIV/AIDS Victims (infected, affect-ed people), Poor People (indigent, destitute andpoor people, but who happen to cater for them-selves) and Old People (without descendants orproperty and the retired).

The programmes could be targeted more effec-tively, managed at lower cost, and thus reach morevulnerable households. Different NGOs working inRwanda are: African Enterprise, African

reconciliation rather than by punishing. Women represent 35 percent of people with

integrity within the Gacaca courts elected by thepopulation at the level of local communities to trythe crimes and acts related to the 1994 genocide.15

It is worth mentioning that institutions in charge ofpeace and reconciliation, such as the National Unityand Reconciliation Commission and the NationalCommission of Human Right and GacacaJurisdictions, are headed by women. This is againrecognition by the Rwanda government thatwomen’s leadership in matters of national concernmeans a lot. In addition, there is a gender dimen-sion that is respected in the conflict-resolution pro-cesses. The Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe launchedan “Action for Peace” campaign, which advocatesactive non-violence, mediation and conciliation.

Besides, women’s associations organise confer-ences on peaceful conflict resolution, tolerance,unity and reconciliation. The government has madeevery possible effort to educate people about thisprocess.

The processes are difficult and the trauma andstigma of a rape is so great that women are unableto frankly share their experiences regarding sex-ual violence. Sometimes rapists went scot free,unpunished. The possibility that thousands of con-fessed criminals will never be brought to justice fortheir crimes undermines the legitimacy of theGacaca process.

Women are allowed and encouraged to beGacaca judges for effective and timely judgments.It had been estimated that the conventional justicesystem would have taken over 150 years to try andsentence all 120,000 prisoners held for crimescommitted during the genocide. As a result ofGacaca, however, 60,000 prisoners have now beenreleased and the entire process should be completed within the next few years. 16 In spite of



Women’s associations organise conferences on peaceful conflict resolution, tolerance, unity and reconciliation. The government has alsojoined the efforts to educate the people.

The government efforts to promote gender equality in education are reflected in the budget allocation

equality and women’s empowerment at the decen-tralised level. MINECOFIN and UNCDF are theimplementing and executing partners in Rwanda;other strategic partners are the Ministry of LocalGovernment (MINALOC), the CommonDevelopment Fund (CDF), the NationalDecentralisation Implementation Secretariat(NDIS), the Rwandan Association of LocalGovernment Authorities (RALGA), UNDP andUNIFEM.

The purpose of Gender Budgeting is to bringgender perspectives to how government resourcesand programmes are implemented. The aim is tomainstream gender perspective into the analysis ofpublic expenditure and means of raising public rev-enues, so that the impact on men and women areconsidered. The long-term goal of the programmeis to ensure that government spending addressesthe needs of women and men equitably and gov-ernment institutions promote accountability andtransparency in the determination of governmentpriorities and public spending.

The functions of GRB are: sensitise government

institutions at the central and local levels on GRB;provide effective training to all stakeholders in thenational planning and budgeting processes todevelop skills in preparation, review and analysisof the budget using the gender lens; and developa system of monitoring and evaluation for gender-responsive targets.

The three-year GELD programme seeks tointegrate gender equity into local-level planningand budgeting so that local development is moregender equitable and supportive of the mostexcluded socio-economic groups, especially poorwomen.

Specifically, the programme aims to developstrategies and mechanisms to improve women’saccess to resources and services at the local levelthrough gender-responsive planning and budget-

Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM),African Reconciliation Committee, Amahoro Africa,Catholic Relief Services in Rwanda, Christian Actionfor Reconciliation and Social Assistance (CARSA),Episcopal Church of Rwanda, Evangelical PrisonMinistry Rwanda, National Unity and ReconciliationCommission, National University of Rwanda Centerfor Conflict Management, Profemme TweseHamwe, Reach Organisation Rwanda, World VisionRwanda, International Crisis Group Rwanda, ForestPeople’s Programme Haguruka, Human RightsWatch, IBUKA, Never Again International,International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda,International Justice Mission, Rwandan Women’sNetwork.

International organisations, international NGOsand foreign NGOs working in Rwanda are: GlobalPolicy Forum, Internal Displacement MonitoringCenter, International Committee of the Red Cross,the United Nations system in Rwanda and the U.N.International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

More than 100 NGOs are working effectively inRwanda. They formulate their own strategies and

activities on the basis of their perception of theneeds of the beneficiaries and their capacities andmandates. The government now requires NGOs toregister with the Ministry of Rehabilitation andformulate their programmes in consultation withthe ministries concerned. While most NGOs havesubmitted applications for registration and areworking within the guidelines laid down by thegovernment, some still resist the new require-ments.

NGOs sometimes lack collective action, moti-vation and preferences to design accountabilitydue to the competitiveness among them. TheRwanda Women Network (RWN) focusses on med-ical outreach, counselling and improving the socio-economic welfare of women. These increaseresponsiveness and effectiveness in addressingthe issue of human health. This is mainly throughthe Polyclinic of Hope (PoH) and the Village ofHope (VoH) initiatives.

The poor state of women’s healthcare isencumbered by the large number of women rapedand, oftentimes, mutilated during the 1994 events.

For the survivors of this tragedy, as well as otherviolent crimes, their social integration and recon-ciliation cannot work unless and until they are wellnourished with food. The food crisis and povertyare the main factors hindering Rwanda’s NGOs.HIV/AIDS is another hindrance factor.

Gender Mainstreaming The government is fully aware that investing inwomen contributes to the achievement of criticalsocial objectives like decreased fertility/infantmortality, improved child health status and betterproductivity. It is pursuing gender mainstreamingin local government and budgets through “genderbudgeting”. The Gender Responsive Budget (GRB)is one of the ways to mainstream gender atthe macro level to ensure a planning process thattakes gender seriously.

Currently, the Ministry of Finance andEconomic Planning (MINECOFIN), in collaborationwith MIGEPROF and different development part-ners, is in the process of institutionalising GRB asa key strategy for mainstreaming gender at

the macro level. Gender awareness among policy-makers and implementers can play a great role infostering socio-economic development. A memo-randum of understanding on the implementationof the Gender Equitable Local Development(GELD) programme in Rwanda was signed in Kigalion February 8, 2009.

The programme aims to improve women’saccess to resources and services at the local levelthrough Gender Responsive Planning andBudgeting. It is being implemented in five Africancountries — Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, SierraLeone and Tanzania — with funding from theBelgian government, the United Nations CapitalDevelopment Fund (UNCDF) and UNIFEM. InRwanda, the GELD programme will run untilAugust 2012.20

GELD is an important supplement to the ongo-ing efforts between UNIFEM and MINECOFIN tomainstream Gender in Budgeting processes acrossall sectors. UNIFEM is enthusiastic about strength-ening the mechanism of accountability and per-formance contracts (Imihigo) to deliver gender



From providing free nine-year basic education, Rwanda hasraised it to 12 years as the country’s means increased

Today women entrepreneurs are a significant force in Rwanda’s private sector, heading 42 percent of enterprises.They represent 58 percent of enterprisesin the informal sector.

ing, even as it helps in achieving gender equalityand justice goals.

The GELD programme aims to place genderequality and gender justice goals at the centre ofthe local governance and development processes.GELD seeks to address the following key issues:How can local governments deliver for Rwandanwomen? What institutional conditions fosterRwandan women’s substantive participation inlocal governance? What institutional conditionsand processes ensure that poverty and equity con-cerns are adequately reflected in identifying gov-ernance priorities and resource allocations? Whichcommunity dynamics constrain and preventwomen from achieving their human potential andhow can these be addressed?

GELD goals include the achievement of GenderEquitable Local Development through acceleratedlocalised action in realising government commit-ments towards the MDGs for gender Justice.

GELD’s stated objectives are: to strengthenlocal governments’ institutional capacity for gen-der responsive action in planning and budgetingand for them to apply a gender lens in trackingbudgetary allocations to ensure they are alignedwith expenditure performance in service delivery;to strengthen local governments’ capacity toengage in policy debates to advance gender equal-ity; to facilitate the empowerment of local com-munities through their respective local authoritysystems for effective participation in, and owner-ship of, their development and policy engagementfrom a gender lens; to support and facilitate localgovernments in knowledge generation that drawson their local experiences in gender mainstream-ing to inform and enlighten local government pol-icy decisions in local development planning andbudgeting; to plan and budget with a gender lensall local-level development initiatives that incor-porate the needs and interests of the poor andexcluded groups and resource allocations thataddress gender equality issues; to engage on pol-icy matters and influence open dialogues anddebates on the policy of decentralisation and localgovernance.

The government of Rwanda is found to be high-ly committed to the cause of gender equality andwomen’s empowerment as demonstrated by its2003 constitution, the approval of the NationalGender Policy, the establishment of NationalGender Machinery, ratification of the CEDAW, fol-lowing of the Beijing PFA, the Vision 2020 and thedevelopment of the EDPRS.21

It demonstrates the government’s commit-

ment to combating all forms of gender inequali-ties in Rwanda and issues related to communitydevelopment. The institutional framework forgender mainstreaming, the constitution and legalframework are in place to improve gender-main-streaming efforts in concern’s key areas. Themain challenge remains lack of gender analysisskills among the planners and other senior staffof different institutions and, to some extent, lackof sufficient support from institutions where gen-der is still regarded as an additional issue, and nota priority.

Transformation through MDGsBy the year 2015, U.N. member-states have

pledged to meet eight goals. Rwandan womendeserve a round of applause and appreciation fortheir achievements in the establishment of gen-der equality and national development. No othercountry except Rwanda has achieved andshowed the highest level of progress in humandevelopment in the context of gender equality.Gender equality is the key to achieving the otherseven millennium goals. Rwanda represents aunique case in the highest participation ofwomen in legislature in the world. It is the great-est achievement for Rwandan women and gen-der equality. According to a U.N. report, womenparliamentarians make different polices andlaws for women’s economic freedom and inher-itance rights as well as pass domestic violenceand marital rape laws for protection of women.Notably, Rwanda is one among 52 countries thatcriminalise marital rape. United NationsSecretary General Ban Ki-moon paid an officialvisit to Rwanda on January 29, 2008. In hisaddress to Parliament he commended Rwandafor its achievements in meeting the MillenniumDevelopment Goals. The Secretary General par-ticularly stressed the achievements on Goal 3:promoting gender equality and empoweringwomen. In education, Rwanda has alreadyachieved gender parity in primary school enrol-ment. In health, there has been a 30 percentdrop in the maternal mortality rate between2000 and 2005. In economic security, legalreforms have been passed to enable both womenand men to inherit land. “Women now comprise43 percent of elected local government leadersand hold close to half the seats in Parliament.With this Rwanda offers an outstanding exam-ple not only to other African countries but tothe entire world,” he said.

The Secretary General also highlighted the

importance of political diversity and encouragedthe government “to work for broad-based partic-ipation of political parties, civil society, and mediaorganisations in the legislative elections processlater this year”. Women are the modern decision-makers in Rwanda. They are nation-builders. Itwas nearly an impossible task to rebuild Rwandain the post-genocide period. However, womenachieved most of the MDGs for Rwanda andrebuilt it as a strong and gender equality-basedcountry. According to the data available with theDepartment of International Development on May14, 2010, Rwanda has come very close to the set tar-get of MDGs.

MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.A combination of adequate rainfall and govern-ment focus on agriculture has resulted in improvedagricultural performance. Women have contribut-ed in a major way to domestic agriculture inRwanda. The poverty rate has been reduced from70 percent in 1994 to 57 percent in 2006-07, large-ly due to agricultural growth.22

MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education.Rwanda is well on track to achieve universal pri-

mary education, with a 94 percent enrolment ratefor both boys and girls. The total literate popula-tion in Rwanda has increased from 57.9 percent in1991 to 70 percent in 2007. Recent available datasuggest that 87.6 percent of the total child popu-lation is going to school at the primary level andthere is no gender discrimination in this regard.23

MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality andEmpower Women. The Rwandan government hasimplemented various laws and polices in the con-text of decision-making roles to ensure genderequality and women empowerment in Rwanda. Asfar as the education sector is concerned, genderenrolment parity and gender parity in literacy rateshave been well achieved. The government policyhas reserved 30 percent seats for women’s polit-ical participation in the Rwandan Parliament.

Consequently, women hold 56 percent of seats inRwanda’s Parliament, which is highest percent-age in any country across the world.24

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality. There has beensteady improvement in health indicators inRwanda. The child mortality rate has fallen from86 per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 62 percent per1,000 in 2008.25

MDG 5: Improve maternal health. Maternalhealth has greatly improved due to modern con-traceptives, medical facilities and assisted deliv-eries. The women are playing an important role asdoctors, trained nurses and other hospital staff.This change has reduced the maternal mortalityrate from 1,071 per 100,000 live births in 2000 toonly 383 per 100,000 live births in 2010.26 Throughthis speedy improvement, Rwanda will definitelysoon achieve the set target of improving maternalhealth.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and otherdiseases. The modern health facilities and aware-ness campaigns focussed on young people hasreduced the HIV prevalence rate from 13.9 percent

in 2000 to 3.5 percent in 2005.27 Efforts have alsobeen made to prevent malaria and tuberculosis.Rwanda has succeeded in reducing the prevalenceand death rates associated with these two dis-eases. Knowledge and awareness of the younggeneration, especially girls, is the best preventionin this regard.

MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.Women contribute to sustainable agriculturalpractices like kitchen gardening and harvestingthe fields. Women play a major role in economicstability and independence. There are varioussustainability practices like Orphan’s bee-keep-ing and honey farm project, Urunana PineapplePlantation project in Ruhuha, Wirira Widow’sCorn Grinder and Sales Shop project, the Animalsfor Impoverished Families project, income gen-eration projects such as Rwanda Village Concept



Gender awareness among policymakers and implementers canplay a great role in fostering socio-economic development

1 Quick, Diana, ‘Redefining the Roles of Women

in Post-Genocide Rwanda: in 1994 Genocide’.

Quick is Director of Communications at the

Women’s Commission for Refugee Women.

Rwandan Government, ‘Good Governance

Strategy Paper, 2001.

2 Baldwin, Hannah and Catherine Newbury,

‘Aftermath: Women’s Organisations in Post

Conflict Rwanda’, Washington D.C.: Center

for Development Information and Education.

2000, pp. 43-44.

3 Aimable Twahirwa, ‘Rwanda: Women

Parliamentarians Outnumber Men, But

Gender Budgeting Still Needed’, Global

Issues, Inter press Services, Kigali, July 26,

2011.

4 Newbury, Catharine and Hannah Baldwin,

‘Aftermath: Women in Postgenocide and

Violence Against Women in the Aftermath’, In

The Aftermath: Women in Post-Conflict

Transformation edited by Sheila Meintjes,

Anu Pillay, and Planning Developing&

Supporting-The Health Work Force ,USAID

from American people, September 2009.

5 Baldwin, Hannah and Catherine Newbury,

‘Aftermath: Women’s Organisations in Post

Conflict Rwanda’ Washington D.C.: Center

for Development Information and Education.

2000, pp. 43-44

6 Article 185, Rwandan constitution 2003.

7 TUBAHUMURIZE is an organisation with the

mission to empower socially and economi-

cally marginalized women living in Rwanda.

Most are survivors of gender-based violence

and oppression, and many are living with

HIV/AIDS.

8 Rwandan Government Agricultural

Statistics,2010.

9 Rwandan Government Agricultural Statistics

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

(AGRA’s) work in Rwanda, in The New Times:

July 2011.

10 Gender Equity Index, 2011, Afrol News, 24 July

2011.

11 12 Aimable Twahirwa, ‘Rwanda: Women

Parliamentarians Outnumber Men, But

Gender Budgeting Still Needed’, Global Issues,

Inter press Services, Kigali, July 26, 2011.

12 Rwandan Government Economic Statistics,

010.

13 www.enterprisesurvey.org.

14 World Economic Forum (2010)

http:// www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Gend

erGap_Report_2010.pdf

15 John Mutamba, and Jeanne Izabiliza, ‘The

Role of Women in Reconciliation and Peace

Building in Rwanda: Ten years after Genocide

(1994-2004), Contributions, Challenges and

Way Forward, Study conducted by the

National Unity and Reconciliation

Commission (NURC), Kigali, 2005.

16 Powley, Elizabeth, ‘Strengthening

Governance: the Role of Women in Rwanda’s

Transition’, Washington, DC: Women Waging

Peace, 2003.

17 Vision 2020 &JM Rubagiza GATP, June 2010.

18 Net Enrolment Rate, Rwandan Education

Report, Government Data and Statistical

Report on Education2010

19 Rwandan Education Report, Government

Data and Statistical Report on Education

2007

20 Understanding on the implementation of the

Gender Equitable Local Development (GELD)

programme in Rwanda. UN Women, UN

Entity for gender equality and the empower-

ment,9 Feb, 2010.

21 Gender Budget Initiative (GBI), MIGEPROF &

MINECOFIN, 2004.

22 National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda,

“Millennium Development Goals: Towards

Sustainable Social and Economic Growth”,

Kigali, Rwanda, 2011.

23 National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda: The

Word on Women - No Progress without

Women: Rwanda’s Journey to Complete the

Millennium Development Goals. Trust Law.

PeaceWomen.org is a project of the Women’s

International League for Peace and Freedom,

United Nations Office, New York, USA. July

2011.

24 Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), “Women in

Parliaments 1945-1995: A World Statistical

Survey”. Geneva: IPU1995.

25 Department of International Development:

2010.

26 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey

2005’, Ministry of Finance and Economic

Planning, Kigali, July 2010

27 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey

2005’, Ministry of Finance and Economic

Planning, Kigali, July 2006.

REFERENCESproject, Bristol Volunteer Development Abroad(BVDA) bee-keeping project, coffee-growing pro-ject in Huye district, the Sustainable Access toFinancial Services for Investment project (SAFI),the Community-based Livelihood Enhancementproject (CLE), Community Learning and Actionfor Saving Stimulation and Enhancement project,the Trees for the Future project, the Gisenyi Landand Environment Rehabilitation project (GLER),Rwanda Solid Waste Collection and BiomassRecycling project, Community-assisted Access toSustainable Energy project (CASE) and theNorwegian People’s Aid Funding Project forRwandan Widows. Undoubtedly, women havebeen major contributors towards achieving eco-nomic as well as environmental sustainability inRwanda.

MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for devel-opment. Rwanda’s government, which is largelyconstituted by women, has been able to build a cul-ture of governance and management. It has con-structed and strengthened the global partnershipfor development, especially with the basket-weav-ing tradition. Strong macro-economic performanceduring the post-war recovery period has enabledRwanda to reach the Heavily Indebted PoorCountries (HIPC) completion point in April 2005and qualify for the Multilateral Debt ReliefInitiative (MDRI) in June 2005, thus benefiting froma substantial debt relief. The deadline for achieve-ment of MDGs has been given as 2015; Rwandahas, however, shown tremendous development inall these years and is not too far away from achiev-ing the MDGs very soon.

ConclusionRwanda has become a country of women now.This is an unprecedented transition as well astransformation in women’s history. It is currentlyestimated that 70 percent of the country’s popu-lation is female and that 50 percent of all house-holds are headed by women. The ethnic conflicthas changed the role, responsibilities and prioritiesof Rwandan women, forcing them into what weretraditionally men’s responsibilities and many ofthem are demonstrating remarkable ability to han-dle the problems of the aftermath.

Beyond ethnicity, there are other values ofhumanity and family ties, marriage and friendshipthat are stronger than ethnicity. Rwandan transi-tion needs to apply them to behavioural culturalpractices of different laws in favour of women,especially in the context of property, land, inheri-

tance, marriage, settlement, reproductive rightsand child adoption laws.

Rwanda has become known throughout theworld for its high percentage of women inParliament. Women parliamentarians are among apioneer generation, challenging traditional genderroles, taking on new responsibilities, embracinghigh profile positions, and advocating for theirrights. Like pioneers in other fields, their contri-bution and achievements are met with heightenedscrutiny. Different initiatives taken by Rwandanwomen motivated them to embrace a huge changein their ideology, thinking, and living pattern.Rwandan women faced the time of separation,potential fragmentation and alienation, but at thesame time it was a period of profound change forthem. After the genocide, gender roles in societyhave changed; new cultural practices and normshave been acquired by the Rwandans. Womenstarted doing formal, informal, traditional, non-traditional kinds of activities for the sustainabledevelopment of society. Men automatically accept-ed the new role of women.

The changed situation opened a new door forwomen with full freedom, development, andprogress. Women came forward with full vigorand proved themselves as the agent of change.Men in Rwanda also automatically accepted thenew rules and regulations in the context of genderequality. Women in conflict and post-conflict situ-ations show themselves willing to learn and applynew skills, even in non-traditional areas. Inthe post-genocide era, women started working asdecision makers, administrators, exporters,reporters, nation builders, project managers andNGO coordinators. Women have also been seen inintellectual roles as teachers, academicians,thinkers and philosophers. Women’s contributionto income generation has been observed to be cru-cial for the growth of society.

They have been associated with NGOs, reha-bilitation projects, micro-credit institutions andwith informal sectors like handloom and handi-crafts items. In response to the precarious econo-my, women tend to group themselves to secureand build houses and join savings and credit clubsand schemes to finance their reestablishment. Thenumbers of women who are professionally edu-cated have been increasing and they are associat-ed with fields like law, medicine, education andtraining, the civil bureaucracy, and informal busi-ness in production and services. The role ofRwandan women in uplifting the post-genocidesociety has been remarkable.



The air was thick with scepticism when theleaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China andSouth Africa (BRICS), the world’s top fiveemerging economies, began their fourth

summit in Delhi on March 29. But when the sum-mit ended with an ambitious 50-point DelhiDeclaration, the message was loud and clear. Thiswas no glorified photo-op or a mutual admirationclub. On the contrary, BRICS, which comprisesnearly half the world’s population and a quarterof global GDP, was seeking to create a new worldorder to reflect the seismic shift of power from theWest to the rest.

BRICS leaders pitched for a bigger voice foremerging countries in global governance institu-tions, including the United Nations (U.N.), theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) and the WorldBank. Despite their varying backgrounds and pro-files, the leaders also made it clear to the West thatforce and sanctions won’t do and underlined thatonly dialogue and diplomacy could resolve theIranian nuclear standoff and the Syria crisis.

In their speeches, Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and Presidents Hu Jintao (China),Dmitry Medvedev (Russia), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil)and Jacob Zuma (South Africa) underlined the need

for restructuring the world order to accommodateemerging economies and developing countries andcloser coordination on global issues.

“While some progress has been made in inter-national financial institutions, there is lack ofmovement on the political side. BRICS shouldspeak with one voice on important issues such asthe reform of the U.N. Security Council,” saidManmohan Singh, the summit host. He spokeabout the need for addressing the deficit in glob-al governance. “We are committed to stepping upexchanges with other countries on global economicgovernance reforms and increasing representa-tion of developing countries,” said Hu.

The Delhi Declaration encapsulated theseconcerns and saw BRICS leaders voicing disap-pointment with the slow pace of the IMF quotareforms and asking the West to implement the2010 governance and quota reform before the2012 IMF/World Bank annual meeting. It was anamplification of master themes that dominatedthe first three summits at Yekaterinburg (2009),Brasilia (2010) and China (2011) but the Delhisummit sought to break fresh ground. In a pio-neering step that could prove to be a game-changer, BRICS decided to create its first insti-

BRIC(K)S of a newworld orderAt the fourth BRICS Summit in New Delhi, the leaders

of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa pitched

for a bigger voice for emerging countries in global

governance institutions, says Manish Chand

Amid the BRICS’s growing engagement with the 54-nation African continent, South African PresidentJacob Zuma said at the 4th BRICS summit in New

Delhi that Africa was “treated with respect” and not patron-ised in this five-nation grouping of emerging economies.

Zuma also underlined that South Africa was proud to jointhe BRICS and claimed that it represented the entire conti-nent.

“In BRICS, we have a place where we feel that Africa isbeing treated with respect. Our views are treated equallyamong the partners. There is no feeling that some peopleare looking down on the continent of Africa,” said Zuma ina slightly emotive tone.

South Africa’s participation at the BRICS summit markedBRICS’ accelerated engagement with Africa. Over the lastdecade, China, India and Brazil have scaled up their trade andinvestment with African countries dramatically, triggeringanxiety in the West that still continues to be the continent’slargest trading partner. The BRICS countries stepped up theirtrade with the continent from barely $3.5 billion in 2000 toover $200 billion in 2011.

South Africa, the smallest economy in the grouping whichis often seen as an odd member in an even grouping, joined

the BRIC in 2010, changing its nomenclature to BRICS. Atthe summit, Zuma also underlined how the grouping ofemerging economies can spur the process of reforming glob-al governance and help Africa realise its developmental aspi-rations. “The reform of international financial institutionsremains a thorn in the flesh for us in the developing world. Inrecent years, we have seen changes in the quota shares atthe IMF, reflecting the changes in the global economy. Wewelcome these changes as they reflect a new reality,” he said.

He also outlined the importance of a development bankin for the African continent. “We warmly welcome our dis-cussions today regarding the feasibility of creating a newBRICS-led Development Bank. African leaders are also inprinciple supportive of such an initiative. This proposal is inline with our expressed support for Africa’s industrialisationand infrastructure development programmes, at the SanyaSummit. At that Summit, I also raised specific funding pro-posals to support the African Union Presidential InfrastructureChampion Initiative which I have been mandated to promote,”he said.

“In our own country, we launched a New Growth Path in2010. The infrastructure programmes will strengthen Africa’strade and investment linkages with our BRICS partners.”

SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN AGENDA

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Presidents Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Dmitry A. Medvedev of Russia , Hu Jintaoof China and Jacob Zuma of South Africa in New Delhi.

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L YPOWER SHIFTS


POWER SHIFTS A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


investment, was also released. The report was pre-pared by experts from all BRICS countries underthe leadership of Kaushik Basu, India’s chief eco-nomic advisor.

Contesting the West’s narrative, the five coun-tries warned the West against allowing the Iransituation to escalate into a conflict and said dia-logue was the only way to resolve the Iranian andSyria issues. “The situation concerning Iran can-not be allowed to escalate into conflict, the dis-astrous consequences of which will be in no one’sinterest,” said the declaration. The declarationsaw the leaders voicing “deep concern” overSyria as they called for “an immediate end to allviolence and violations of human rights in thatcountry”, backing a Syrian-led inclusive politicalprocess.

BRICS leaders affirmed their commitment tosupport Afghanistan’s emergence as “a peaceful,stable and democratic state, free of terrorism andextremism” and underscored “the need for moreeffective regional and international cooperationfor the stabilisation of Afghanistan”.

The summit adopted an ambitious multi-lay-ered action plan that includes meetings of foreignministers on the sidelines of the U.N. GeneralAssembly and meetings of Finance Ministers andCentral Bank Governors on sidelines of G20 meet-ings. They also identified new areas of cooperationthat includes multilateral energy cooperation with-in BRICS framework, and future long-term strat-egy for BRICS; BRICS Youth Policy Dialogue; andcooperation in population-related issues.

This all-encompassing agenda that ranges fromopposing protectionism in trade and promotingmultilateralism in world politics to the U.N. reformsand collaborating in global climate change negoti-ations does not detract from differences of per-ception and divergences on certain issues amongthe Emerging-5. The BRICS, after all, comprise twopermanent members of the U.N. Security Council(Russia and China) and three aspiring members ofthe UNSC (India, Brazil and South Africa). But thefact that the E-5 has found substantial commonground to band together on a broad common agen-da is no mean feat and accounts for increasingglobal spotlight on this nascent grouping which isoften described as the first non-Western effort atre-engineering the world order. But if the BRICShave to succeed, they have to move from thedeclaratory phase to action and its success will bejudged by how it goes around fructifying some ofthe signature initiatives like the BRICS bank thatemerged from the New Delhi summit.

tution in the form of a BRICS-led DevelopmentBank that will mobilise “resources for infras-tructure and sustainable development projectsin BRICS and other emerging economies anddeveloping countries”.

The leaders directed their finance ministers “toexamine the feasibility and viability of such an ini-tiative, set up a joint working group for furtherstudy and report back by the next summit. Thejoint BRICS bank may emerge as the supplementto the West-dominated World Bank or theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment and could hasten the reordering ofthe global financial management system. SouthAfrican President Jacob Zuma has voiced hope thatsuch a bank will give an impetus to the develop-

mental aspirations of Africa by bringing much-needed capital for financing infrastructure pro-jects in the continent.

Besides the BRICS bank, the four-year-oldgrouping set up an ambitious target to scale intra-BRICS trade from $216 billion to almost $500 bil-lion by 2015 and sought to promote greater eco-nomic integration. The development banks of thefive countries signed two pacts on promoting tradetransactions in local currencies of BRICS countries. These included enabling the masteragreement for extending credit facilities in localcurrencies and BRICS multilateral letter of creditconfirmation facility agreement. The mechanismenvisages grant of credit lines in local currenciesand cooperation in capital markets and otherfinancial services, treasury transactions and issu-ing local currency bonds in BRICS markets, sub-ject to national laws and regulations.

Other key economic decisions included settingup a BRICS exchange, which has already becomeoperational. The BRICS report, which maps outsynergies and complementaries among economiesof BRICS countries to spur mutual trade and

l Global governance reforms: BRICS leaderscall for reform of global governance institu-tions, including the U.N., the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.Back a “merit-based selection-process” forthe heads of the IMF and the World Bank.

l IMF QUOTA REFORMS: The Declaration callsfor greater representation of developingcountries and emerging economies in theIMF by speeding up quota reforms.

l GLOBAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY: BRICS lead-ers support closer coordination for balancedand sustained global economic recovery.

l INTRA-BRICS TRADE: Development Banks ofBRICS countries sign two pacts for boostingintra-BRICS trade. BRICS to set up ExchangeAlliance, a joint initiative by related BRICSsecurities exchanges.

l DEVELOPMENT BANK: Leaders agree toexplore the setting up of a BRICS-led South-South Development Bank. It will promotemutual investment and fund infrastructureprojects in BRICS and developing countries.

l ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: Backs speedierresolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and thecreation of an independent Palestine co-existing with Israel.

l DOHA ROUND: Step up joint efforts for suc-cessful conclusion of the Doha Round ofmultilateral trade negotiations.

l AFRICA: Jointly help in the development andresurgence of Africa.

l ACTION PLAN: Adopts an all-encompassingaction plan that includes, among otherthings, meetings of foreign ministers onsidelines of the UN and meetings of FinanceMinisters and Central Bank Governors onsidelines of G20 meetings/other multilateralmeetings.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF 4TH BRICS SUMMIT (As reflected in the March 29 Delhi Declaration)

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shakeshands with South Africa’s PresidentJacob Zuma on the sidelines of theBRICS Summit in New Delhi on March 29.External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna andNational Security Adviser ShivshankarMenon are also seen.

Afro-optimism is no longer a fashion-able cliché spouted by diehardAfricanists. The ongoing Africanresurgence is gaining new converts by

the day. This was more visible at the annual India-Africa Business Conclave in New Delhi held fromMarch 18 to 20. It was not just deals worth billionsthat were struck here, but enduring partnershipswere forged, driven by the quest for mutual resur-gence and co-development.

The eighth edition of the Confederation ofIndian Industry (CII)-EXIM Bank Conclave onIndia-Africa Project Partnership lived up to its rep-utation as a key platform for leveraging businesssynergies and economic complementaritiesbetween the two fastest-growing regions in theworld. The master theme of the conclave was:‘Creating Possibilities; Delivering Values’.

Thirty-six ministers from over 20 African coun-tries addressed the conclave, over 600 delegatesfrom Africa and over 500 from India participatedin the three-day jamboree and 200 projects worth`1,539 billion were on the table. The ambition wassoaring, with both sides setting a target of scalingup bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2015. The pro-jects straddled diverse areas, including agricul-ture, skill development, finance, infrastructure,information technology, manufacturing, mining,health, power, textiles, telecom, tourism, trade andtransport. These projects included a proposal forsetting up tomato production plants in Burundi, anupgraded cement plant in Djibouti, developinghydropower in Mozambique and new railway linesin Rwanda.

Placing the burgeoning business tiesbetween India and Africa in perspective,Commerce and Industry Minister AnandSharma underlined that deeper economic coop-eration between the two sides will provide thegrowth impetus to both the regions in times ofthe global economic downturn. “We will have toact together. In doing so we will emerge as theengines of global economic recovery,” saidSharma in his keynote address.

“A new eastern wind is blowing over our con-tinent,” said Central African Republic’s PrimeMinister Faustin Archangel Touadera, whosecountry, along with Zimbabwe, was the guestcountry at the conclave. Touadera stressed thatthe bilateral ties with India need to be revitalisedthrough greater investment flows, and technolo-gy sharing. Pitching for greater investment fromIndia, Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Joice Mujurusaid there is enormous scope for value-added busi-

ness activities, specially in view of expected dou-ble-digit Gross Domestic Product growth in hercountry by 2015.

The EXIM Bank of India and the government ofCentral African Republic signed an agreement fora new line of credit valued at around `3,078 mil-lion which will be directed for projects in agricul-ture and mining sectors.

The overarching theme that underpinned theconclave was forging and sustaining a multi-faceted development partnership between Indiaand Africa, once co-sharers in the anti-colonialstruggle and now equal partners in co-scriptinga narrative of economic renaissance and renew-al. India’s Minister of State for External AffairsPreneet Kaur encapsulated the essence of thisblossoming partnership. “The tripod on whichthe India-Africa relationship stands today withthe resonance of South-South cooperation is thatof technology, investment and training,” shesaid.

Mutual development was the reigning ethos.“We are committed to work with Africa for fulfill-ing its developmental aspirations and we knowboth the pain and the pleasure of the processes ofdevelopment in a democratic framework for multi-cultural and pluralistic societies.”

India reaffirmed its commitment to fast-track-ing the establishment of over 100 training insti-tutes. The training institutes encompass areasfrom IT, foreign trade and education, planning and

SYNERGY A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


Building businessfor resurgenceDriven by the quest for mutual resurgence and co-development, Indian

and African companies forged new partnership and equations at the

annual business conclave, writes Manish Chand

(Left) Zimbabwe’s Vice President JoiceMujuru, India’s Commerce and IndustryMinister Anand Sharma and CentralAfrican Republic’s Prime Minister FaustinArchange Touadéra, inaugurating theconclave. (Top) A session in progress.


(From left) Syamal Gupta, Chairman, CII Africa Committee; Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman,Kirloskar Brothers Ltd; Sunil Kant Munjal, past president, CII & chairman, Hero CorporateService Ltd; Madhusudan Ganapathi, Secretary (West) in India’s Ministry of ExternalAffairs; Jonathan Wutawunashe, Dean, African Diplomatic Corps; Chandrajit Banerjee,Director-General, CII, at the Valedictory Session of the conclave.

SYNERGY

administration, civil aviation and vocational train-ing. India also plans to set up 32 institutions atregional level and approximately 40 institutions atbilateral level.

The last six months have seen an intensificationof bilateral engagement at multiple levels thatincludes the India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conferenceand the India-Africa Science and TechnologyMinisters’ Conference.

The focus is on adding greater economic contentto the India-Africa partnership. The launch of theIndia-Africa Business Council, comprising leadingbusiness leaders of both sides, is another milestonein this direction. The council is co-chaired by SunilBharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Group, and AlhajiAliko Dangote, president and chief executive,Dangote Group, Nigeria.

The CII, India’s apex business body, signed eightMoUs with business chambers from Cameroon,Rwanda, Gambia, Seychelles, Malawi, Ghana andSierra Leone. The conclave also sought to rope inthe youth to sustain this partnership with over 25

young parliamentarians from African countrieswho visited India and participated in the three-dayevent.

The joint pursuit for food security was anoth-er important theme. “Innovative financingoptions for agriculture and irrigation will be crucial for spurring food production growth,”said Sanjay Kirloskar, chairman, KirloskarBrothers Ltd.

T.C.A. Ranganathan, chief of EXIM Bank ofIndia, stressed that even as Indian companies areincreasing their footprint in African markets,Indian industry would do well to strengthen the‘Brand India’ presence in Africa. It is about overtwo billion dreams of young people in India and54 African nations. The annual conclave hasacted as a forum for miracles, says JonathanWutawunashe, Dean, African Diplomatic Corpsand Zimbabawe’s ambassador to India. “We arepursuing the right goals and our partnershipshould become more visible to the world,” saidthe envoy.


External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna co-chairedthe sixth session of the Egypt-India JointCommission Meeting with his Egyptian counter-

part Mohamed Kamel Amr during his three-day visit toEgypt beginning March 3. He also had a series of high-level meetings and met top Egyptian leaders, includingSupreme Council of Armed Forces Chairman FieldMarshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and PrimeMinister Kamal El Ganzoury during his visit.

Minister Krishna and Minister Amr reviewed thebilateral relations and accepted recommendations ofsub-committees on trade and economic co-operation,scientific and technical cooperation, cultural cooper-ation and information technology.

Following the joint commission meeting, the twocountries signed four documents. These included aMemorandum of Understanding (MoU) on coopera-tion in the field of environment protection, work planfor cooperation between the Indian Council ofAgricultural Research and the Agricultural ResearchCentre of Egypt for 2012-13. They also signed an MoUbetween the Egyptian Organisation forStandardisation and the Bureau of Indian Standards.

EAM Krishna said the Egyptian Prime Ministerhad suggested that a multisectoral Indian delegation,with representatives from both private and public

sectors, visited the country to focus on concrete areasof economic cooperation.

“I have welcomed this proposal and requested theEgyptian side to identify specific sectors of theirinterest so that we can take the proposal forward. Wehope that this delegation will visit Egypt shortly forfocused and productive discussion,” he said.

India, Egypt review bilateral tiesThe two countries sign fourdocuments related to agricultural

research, environment protection and standardisation

WITH A view to exploring opportunities for expandingannual bilateral trade between India and Nigeria, for-mer Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo came toIndia on a five-day visit starting March 12. Obasanjowas accompanied by a nine-member delegation ofprominent Nigerian businessmen.

“One of the main aims of Obasanjo’s visit was toencourage greater bilateral economic synergy,” said astatement issued by the Indian External AffairsMinistry.

“This visit is yet another affirmation of the closeand substantive ties between India and Nigeria,”

the release said. Bilateral trade between the Indiaand Nigeria touched $13 billion in 2010-11 and isexpected to cross $19 billion in the current financialyear.

Home to around 35,000 Indians, over 100 Indiancompanies have their presence in Nigeria, Nearly33,000 Nigerians visited India in 2011, with businessand medical tourism as the main focus.

Obasanjo has served as Nigeria’s president twiceduring 1976-79 and 1999-2007. He is currently theChairman of the Board of Trustees of Nigeria’s rulingPeoples’ Democratic Party.

Nigeria to strengthen ties with India

India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna withEgypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr at the sixth Joint Commission Meetingbetween India and Egypt in Cairo on March 4.

NEWS

Tunisia wants to learn from India’s experience ofpluralistic democracy and looks at the Indian con-stitution as one of the models to be inspired by

in writing its new constitution, the country’s ForeignMinister has said.Hedi Ben Abbas, Tunisia’s Minister of State for

Foreign Affairs, said on April 24 that his country wasimpressed by India’s ability to maintain cohesiondespite ethnic, cultural diversities.“How to manage that cohesion, inspired at least in

that area (from the Indian constitution)... It certainlyis one of the models to be inspired from,” he said. Minister Abbas said Tunisia, where the Arab

Spring movement began, also wanted to learn fromthe Indian experience of holding elections. The north African country will conduct elections

next year after its constitution is written, the dead-line for which is March 2013. “The whole world will have its eyes on Tunisia

(when elections are held),” he said.

Minister Abbas also evinced interest in India’sexperience of using electronic voting machines in theelections but said it would not be possible to use themin Tunisia’s 2013 elections. “Given the time we have,it is too early to implement this in the coming elec-tions,” he said. The Foreign Minister said the country wanted to

depart from the old constitution based on the Frenchsystem. “We are designing something that is futuris-tic,” he said. Stressing on cultural ties, Minister Abbassaid he wanted Tunisia to be more visible in India andadded that the two countries “share common cultur-al elements”. “Bollywood industry is so strong... it is already

invading different cultural spaces in Tunisia,” he said. The minister said that India and Tunisia had set a

target to take their bilateral trade to $1 billion in thenext three years. Answering queries on Syria, theminister said Tunisia supported the Syrian people butdid not want to create a situation “in which foreigncountries interfere directly”.He said his government also was responsible for

the success of the “democratic process” underway inhis country.

‘Indian constitution a model for us’Tunisia sees the Indian constitution as an inspiring model as it prepares

to conduct elections next year after its new constitution is written

India’s Minister of State for External Affairs E.Ahamed with his Tunisian counterpart HeidiBen Abbes in New Delhi on April 23.

India to expand science, tech cooperation with AfricaAfrican Union expresses its keenness to have a long-term

strategic partnership with India in science and technology

Building upon growing political and economic ties,India and the 54-nation African continent are nowpoised to expand their cooperation in frontier

areas of research, capacity building and knowledgeindustries.Empowerment through knowledge and technology

was the buzzword at a two-day science and technologyconclave in New Delhi that brought together more than100 scientists, diplomats and 31 science and technology(S&T) ministers from the African countries.The March 1-2 conclave focused on building capaci-

ties in research and development, social entrepreneur-ship and innovation technologies.“There exists an enormous potential for cooperation

in science and technology between India and Africa,given the fact that we both are emerging economies,share common problems and have to meet the aspira-tions of our people,” said Jean Pierre O. Ezin,Commissioner, Human Resources, Science andTechnology, at the African Union Commission.He called for strengthening ties between India and

Africa in sectors of research and development, humanresource development and exchange of technicalknow-how.Among the key areas, the two sides agreed to work

on are all people-related sectors to provide the over twobillion population living in India and Africa

better living conditions, quality food and water, afford-able healthcare and meeting energy needs of two fast-growing economies.The African Union, which represents 54 nations of

the African continent, expressed its keenness to have along-term strategic partnership with India in scienceand technology (S&T), given India’s “remarkableprogress” in this area in the last decade.“The challenges faced by the African nations are

similar to ours. Some of our solutions may be similartoo,” India’s Science & technology and Earth SciencesMinister Vilasrao Deshmukh told the conference whileflagging social entrepreneurship and innovation as keyareas for collaboration.At the end of the conference, hosted by the Indian

ministries of Science & Technology and External Affairs,the ministers from India and Africa adopted a declara-tion that reaffirmed the commitments for a strongengagement made at the India-Africa Forum Summits,recalled their common challenges and growth potential,and outlined means to achieve development by becom-ing knowledge economies. The areas identified forfuture cooperation included capacity building, with Indiaassisting the Commission of the AU and RegionalEconomic Communities by providing training and othercapacity interventions towards improving policyenabling environment in the African nations.

Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh and other dignitaries atthe India-Africa Science & Technology Ministerial Conference, in New Delhi on March 2.



NEWS

AN INDIAN university has tied up with a universi-ty in Mozambique to help provide “global careeropportunities for students”.The O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) signed a

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with theUniversity of St. Thomas of Mozambique (USTM)at Maputo in Mozambique on March 6.USTM Rector Joseph Wamala said: “The MoU...

marks an important beginning in institutional col-laborations between Africa and India reflectingthe impact of globalisation and the need for pro-moting global career opportunities for students in

Mozambique”. Nearly 15 female students from dif-ferent provinces have been selected for full schol-arship from the Government of Mozambique tostudy at JGU at Sonipat in Haryana.

Indian, Mozambique University sign MoU

Dulce Vania from Mozambique is studying fora management degree in India and is also abudding entrepreneur — she exports human

hair to her homeland.“I have stated a small-scale human hair export

business. Back home, it is used for making variousaccessories,” Vania said.Studying for a management course in finance

from the Punjab College of Technical Education(PCTE) at Baddowal, close to the industrial hub ofLudhiana, Vania said that African students studyingin India were trying to learn entrepreneurial skills.“Things back in our country have started to get

better, but it still needs a lot of improvement. Somestudents here have started to work on small-scale,”she said. Ugandan Ilahi Marian is a pharmacy studentat the PCTE. She hopes to open a well-equipped drugstore back home to help enhance the health facilitiesthere.“There are only 10 multi-specialty hospitals in the

whole of Uganda as far as I know. There is an urgentneed to enhance the health sector as for every 1,000people, there is just one doctor,” Marian said.African students find it cheaper to study in India

— and that too in a system that is better than in theirown countries.“In India, people make things simple for us to

understand. Also, Indian teachers are very affec-tionate and devote a lot of time to us,” said AdamSemlambo of Tanzania, studying for a Masters inComputer Applications course.His countryman, Ummi Marealle, a student of

management in international business at PCTE,concurs. “The quality of education in India is muchbetter than in other places. Staying in Ludhiana,thanks to industries like Vardhman, Oswal, Herogroup and others, we get a lot of industrial expo-sure,” Marealle added.

Destination next: IndiaAfrican students find it cheaper to study in India — and that too in

a system that is better than in their own countries

Students from various African countries at thePunjab College of Technical Education atBuddowal near Ludhiana.

In order to effectively prosecute sea pirates, Seychelles has

sought India’s support in strengthening its judicial system

With its $1-billion economy losing about fourpercent of GDP to piracy, Seychelles hassought India’s help in putting an end to this

threat to trade in the Indian Ocean, particularly in pros-ecuting the sea brigands.Seychelles Foreign Minister Jean-Paul Adam, who

was in India on a three-day visit starting February 14,said that he had asked his Indian counterpart, S.M.Krishna to assist in the trial of pirates and help increaseconvictions.The two sides signed three agreements during this

visit — two on setting up a coastal surveillance radarsystem in Seychelles and one for supply of an Indian-built Dornier maritime reconnaissance plane to thearchipelago nation.“In Seychelles, we have estimated that piracy has

cost us four percent of the GDP in terms of growth andthis is a terrible cost to our economy...there is a hugeopportunity cost,” Minister Adam said when askedabout the impact of piracy on his country’s economy.He said the next step in the anti-piracy operations

was prosecuting the sea brigands to end the impunitythey enjoy.“In Seychelles, currently we have convicted 67

pirates who are serving sentences in our jails and wealso have another 18 who are awaiting trial.“We look forward to working with India and one

of the key issues I discussed with the minister(Krishna) is further support that India can give to ourjudicial system in terms of lawyers and judges, whowill be able to help us in effectively prosecuting thepirates,” he said.“In Seychelles, we have really been hit very hard by

piracy and it has come out of the blue. It was a shockfor us. We have always considered ourselves as a coun-try that is 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from anywhere. Because we literally are. We are in the mid-dle of the Indian Ocean and we thought distance wasour protection. But piracy has broken that illusion,”the minister said.The Foreign Minister said interaction with the

Indian leaders had helped in “bringing a new dimen-sion” in the already excellent relations.

“We have been particularly working very closelywith India in our shared security. We share an ocean— the Indian Ocean — and we have both given a lot ofimportance to exchanging views and to strengtheningeach other’s capacity to better face the challenges tosecurity, including, for example, piracy but also thewider sphere of security, which is important for thisregion,” he noted.Minister Adam said that Seychelles regarded its

relations with India as the “deepest”, as thearchipelago is the “southern shield” leading up toIndia and the two nations can “act as one” for mutu-al security benefits.In this regard, the Seychelles Foreign Minister point-

ed out that India had placed its warship and a Dornieraircraft alongside the archipelago’s armed forces tocarry out surveillance and for providing security cover.“By guaranteeing Seychelles security, we can also

better guarantee Indian security,” he said.

India, Seychelles join hands in fight against piracy

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna with hiscounterpart in Seychelles Jean Paul Adamin New Delhi on February 14.



NEWS


Asia, Africa face daunting challenges: PMRural reconstruction, poverty eradication are fundamental to sustain-

able development in India and Africa, says Dr. Manmohan Singh

Noting that three-fourths of theworld’s poor live in

Asia and Africa, PrimeMinister Dr. ManmohanSingh said on March 5 thatrural reconstruction andpoverty eradication werefundamental to sustainabledevelopment.Delivering the inaugural

address at the goldenjubilee celebrations ofAfro-Asian RuralDevelopment Organisation, the Prime Minister saidchallenges faced by people of the two continentswere daunting. “Over much of the last century, the people of

Africa and Asia fought shoulder to shoulder to lib-erate themselves from colonial domination. Today,the challenges we face are different but equallydaunting. There are threats to international peace.The processes of globalisation and the growing inter-dependence among nations pose fundamental chal-lenges to our economic sustenance,” he said. Countries in the two continents face rising aspi-

rations of teeming millions who demand and deservenutritious food, clean drinking water, quality edu-cation and affordable health care, Dr. ManmohanSingh added. According to him, the Afro-Asian Rural

Development Organisation had the potential “ofplaying a vital role in our collective battle” againsthunger, disease and despair that afflict large seg-ments of populations in the two continents. “Three quarter of the world’s poor live in Asia

and Africa. Rural reconstruction and poverty erad-ication are fundamental to our plans for sustainabledevelopment and inclusive growth,” he said. Underling India’s vision for a partnership with

Africa to deal with some of the common challengesof the 21st century, the prime minister noted thatIndia initiated the India-Africa Forum Summit pro-cess in the year 2008, during which the leaders ofIndia and the African continent agreed on a

Framework for Cooperation for a Sustainable andWide-ranging Partnership in Development. “The firstarea of cooperation identified under this frameworkwas agriculture. The thrust of the first phase ofcooperation in this sector is on capacity building.We hope and trust this will complement the goodwork being done by the Afro-Asian RuralDevelopment Organisation, which runs internation-al training programmes in seven member countries.” He said that India would provide more than 500

new scholarships over the next few years, particu-larly in agricultural sciences. “We have earmarked700 science fellowships named after the celebratedIndian Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman for Africa. Over150 African students have already been awardedthis prestigious fellowship.”Prime Minister Singh said that institution build-

ing was another important facet of cooperationbetween India and Africa. “We have earmarkedabout $100 million for establishing various insti-tutions, including the India Africa Institute ofAgriculture and Rural Development, soil water andtissue testing laboratories, farm science centres,agricultural seeds production-cum-demonstrationcentres and rural technology parks in differentparts of Africa,” he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with otherdelegates at the Golden JubileeCelebrations of the Afro-Asian RuralDevelopment Organisation in New Delhi.


NEWS

Noting that India “would always be a trusted devel-opment partner of Seychelles”, PresidentPratibha Patil on April 30 announced a $50 mil-

lion line of credit and $25 million grant for the IndianOcean archipelago.“India would always be a trusted development part-

ner of Seychelles,” President Patil said in a press state-ment after talks with her Seychelles counterpart JamesAlix Michel in Mahe.Expressing satisfaction over the present state of their

economic-commercial relations, the two countriesagreed that considerable opportunities still exist for fur-ther expansion, particularly in the areas of trade andeconomic cooperation. Noting that a business delegation from India had

joined her to explore business opportunities inSeychelles, the President said her participation in theBusiness Forum Meet soon after her arrival on April 30“was very encouraging”.“I am confident that this interaction will further push

bilateral relations in the economic and commercialfields,” President Patil added. “We have agreed to further enhance exchanges in the

fields of higher education, manpower development,

health, information and communications technology,science and technology, hydrographic surveys, monorail,tourism, hospitality and culture,” she said. “In fact, the signing of the MoU on co-operation in

the field of youth affairs and sports will go a long wayin enhancing people-to-people exchanges too,” sheadded. The two countries also expressed satisfaction at the

present level of bilateral cooperation in the defence andsecurity areas, “especially in the context of combatingpiracy in the Indian Ocean region”. “Piracy in the region adversely impacts on us all.

India reiterated its commitment to provide assistance toSeychelles in the defence sector, including training anddeputation of experts. Today, we have seen the signingof an MoU on co-operation on training of police per-sonnel,” President Patil said. The President also expressed her “gratitude” for

Seychelles’ “valued support on regional and globalissues of crucial importance to India”.

India, Seychelles boost trade tiesPresident Pratibha Devisingh Patil announces a $50-million line of credit

and $25-million grant for the Indian Ocean archipelago nation

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil with theSeychelles’ President James Alix Michel, at StateHouse in Mahe on April 30.

DOING BUSINESS

DOING BUSINESS A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


The National Institute of Design (NID) and the Ministryof External Affairs have inked a $1-million MoU totrain and empower craftswomen in five African coun-

tries — Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ethiopia, Tanzania andUganda. The MoU was signed in New Delhi between GurjitSingh, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, and Pradyumna Vyas, Director of theNID, a statement said on February 29.The initiative will cover five African countries over a

period of three years. “This collaboration between the ancient civilisations

with rich tradition in craft skills will further strengthen

the bonds between India and Africa”, the statementadded.An NID team will visit Zimbabwe to identify 25

craftswomen who would be trained in India in collabo-ration with New Basket Workshop Foundation, anAfrican NGO. The project aims at women’s empowerment through

skill enhancement and appropriate marketing throughleading Indian brands like Fab India. India has assured that it will assist Zimbabwe in

reviving its textile sector. India will provide skills train-ing and also help in the development of textiles clusters.The two ministers also reiterated the need for enhanc-ing and diversifying the bilateral trade between the twocountries which currently stands at $128 million. The two ministers also agreed to convene the meet-

ing of the Joint Trade Committee within the next sixmonths.Product development and diversification will be

achieved through a model of collaborative workshopsbringing on board basketry artisans of both Africa andIndia on a common platform, along with designers anddesign students facilitating knowledge, experience andskill sharing in the process of design intervention.For each of the five African countries, an assess-

ment-cum-workshop would be conducted over a periodof three years.

India to train African craftswomenThe Ministry of External Affairs and the National Institute of Design sign

an MoU to empower craftswomen in five African countries

COIR, KERALA’S golden fibre, is seeing its internation-al market share, especially in Africa, the Middle Eastand Latin America, growing following a world-wideshift towards eco-friendlyproducts.The popularity of value-added products like coir

pith and coco lawn is proving lucrative forthe coir industry, a traditional and keysector of the state’s economy, which isexpecting `10 billion worth of exportsthis financial year.“Right now, coir pith and coco lawn are

the most sought-after products mainlybecause of being eco-friendly,” said K.R. Anil,director of the government-run National Coir

Research Management Institute inThiruvananthapuram on February 3.Coir pith is a soil conditioner and not a fertiliser.

It’s the by-product after coir is made. “And to make ita soil conditioner, the natural chemical in the coconut

husk called ‘lignin’ has to beremoved. The uniqueness of this is

that it absorbs water and if thisis used especially inwater-scarce areas, oneneeds to water the plant

once in two days,”said Anil.

.— Sanu George

Demand for Indian coir products rises in Africa‘Touching lives’ of the disabled in Ghana

India, Rwanda sign pacts to bolster business relationsNew Delhi offers $80 million for a hydroelectric project and extends

help to develop solar electrification of 35 schools in rural Rwanda

Building upon their growing business synergy, Indiaand Rwanda, a rising economy located at the cross-roads of central and east Africa, have signed three

agreements, including a pact on renewable energy, tostrengthen trade and investment ties.The pacts were signed after Minister of State for

External Affairs Preneet Kaur held talks with RwandanForeign Minister Louis Mushikiwabo in Rawanda’s cap-

ital Kigali. The Indian minister was on a visit to Rwandafrom February 14-16.The pacts envisage an expanded renewable energy

cooperation and India helping to develop solar electrifi-cation of 35 schools in rural Rwanda. The two sides alsosigned an agreement for the establishment of a jointcommission that includes consultations at the level offoreign ministers and senior diplomats. During her visit, she also called on Rwanda’s President

Paul Kagame on February 16.During the visit, Minister Kaur reiterated India’s

commitment to setting up a Vocational Training Centrein Rwanda and other projects aimed at human resourcedevelopment and capacity building. She conveyed thatthe Indian government would support the Rwanda gov-ernment in the establishment of an EntrepreneurDevelopment Institute, the Indian External AffairsMinistry said in New Delhi on February 16. Minister Kaur also met Rawanda’s Agriculture

Minister and discussed projects to intensify co-opera-tion in the area of enhanced agricultural productivityand food security. Expanding trade and investment fig-ured prominently in the discussions. A 22-member del-egation accompanied the minister on the trip.

INDIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS provider Airtelhas added a human face to its operations in Ghanawith ‘Touching Lives’, a project to help improve thelives of physically-challenged people in the westAfrican country.Airtel Ghana’s ‘Touching Lives’ is dedicated to

people “who are living in trying circumstances byoffering them various support”, Donald Gwira, headof corporate communications, said on March 11.Last year, the company took over the case of

eight physically-challenged cobblers in Bolgatanga,Upper East regional capital. Gwira said, This year,the company is helping Rebecca Asantewa, one ofthe 13 people who have been nominated for Airtel to

help this year. Gwira said she “was nominated for usto help because of the work she was doing in thecommunity”.

India’s Minister of State for External AffairsPreneet Kaur with Rwanda’s Foreign MinisterLouis Mushikiwabo in Kigali.

India has assured that it will assist Zimbabwe inreviving its textile sector.

Rebecca, a Ghana national, with physically-challenged children.

DOING BUSINESS A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


NIGERIA’S OLDEST bank Wema Bankplc has deployed Indian IT bellwetherInfosys Ltd’s software productFinacle to offer core banking, retail e-banking and treasury services to cus-tomers through its 137 branchesacross the African country.“Built on new generation tech-

nologies, open standards and service-oriented architecture, the Infosysproduct will support over 1.3 millionuser accounts and is central to ourgrowth strategy based on customerexperience,” Wema Bank Chief

Executive Segun Oloketuyi said onApril 16. With Finacle’s scalable and

secure architecture, the bank wasable to move its critical operations toa cost effective, integrated platformcapable of supporting 24x7 multi-

channel transactions. “Finacle’s robust

implementation policyhas enabled us to moveour 137 branches simul-taneously to the new cen-tralised banking system

reducing both time and costs. Wehave leveraged the software to pro-vide customers multi-channel flexi-bility to access services and maketransactions,” Oloketuyi said in astatement from the Nigerian capitalAbuja.

Nigerian bank runs on Infosys software

Hero to set up manufacturingplants in Africa

Integrated power generator JSWEnergy, looking for suitable acqui-sitions inside India, is planning to

set up a 450-600-MW coal-firedplant in South Africa where thepower sector is opening up forinvestment.“We are interested in acquiring

power projects in India. The sectorwill now see only serious long-termplayers. Many of the new playershave put on hold their projects or are going slow,” Navraj Singh,Senior Vice-President, BusinessDevelopment, JSW Energy, said.According to him, the decision on

target companies would depend on

the total package, whether landacquisition has been done and thelike.Meanwhile, JSW Energy, with a

domestic generation capacity of2,600 MW, is planning to put up a pithead power plant in South Africawhere it has a 0.5 million tonne coalmine.“South Africa’s power sector is

now opening up. We have a minethere and are looking at setting up apower plant with a capacity rangingbetween 450 MW and 600 MW. Weare also looking at additional minesin South Africa,” Singh said.

— Venkatachari Jagannathan

TWO-WHEELER maker HeroMotoCorp said it had identifiedgrowth markets in Africa to set upmanufacturing and assembly plantsthere.“We have identified some of the

countries which have potential tobecome high-growth markets. Wewill probably set up assembly plantsin some. In some, there may be man-ufacturing and in others, it will prob-ably be exports,” said Sunil KantMunjal, Chairman, Hero CorporateService, on March 20. “This will depend on each market,

its legislation, and what the eco-nomics of business requires. We haveseen some truly outstanding oppor-tunities there.”“We believe their is a unique

opportunity for us to go and do busi-ness in two-wheeler segment there.Many of the African countries haveshown rapid growth in the two-wheeler segment,” he added.The company expects to

generate 10 percent of total revenue from exports in next five years.

JSW Energy eyes S. AfricaThe power company plans to set up a 450-

600-MW coal-fired plant in South Africa

Nigeria attractsenterprisingIndians

HOME TO one of Africa’s largest for-est expanses, the Republic of Congowants Indian companies to invest inthe timber industry, says its Forestryand Environment Minister HenriDjombo.“We have a big timber industry and

would want Indian private companiesto come and invest in the our timbercompanies,” Minister Djombo said.The country, informally known as

Congo-Brazzaville to differentiate itfrom its larger neighbour, theDemocratic Republic of Congo (erst-

while Zaire), is also looking forward to cooperation with India in scienceand technology, agriculture, railways,information technology, industry,health and pharmaceutical sectors.Minister Djombo was in New Delhi

to participate in the 12th edition of thethree-day Delhi SustainableDevelopment Summit startingFebruary 2.

Congo invites Indian companies toinvest in timber industry

Assuring a safe and high-return environment,Mauritius Prime Minister NavinchandraRamgoolam has urged Indian entrepreneurs to

step up investments through partnerships and joint ven-tures, and use the island nation as a gateway to Africanmarkets.“We see ourselves as a bridge between Asia and

Africa,” said Prime Minister Ramgoolam while address-ing a business meeting organised jointly by three lead-ing industry chambers in New Delhi on February 8.“Time is ripe for Indian companies to plug in to the

African nations using Mauritius as a base,” he said.The Mauritian Prime Minister was on a six-day offi-

cial visit to India. He said high growth, recorded in thelast two decades, has made Mauritius an attractiveinvestment destination. Mauritius is the largest source of FDI in India.

Between April 2000-November 2011, FDI inflows fromMauritius to India were $62.05 billion.

‘Make Mauritius gateway to Africa’Step up investments through partnerships and joint ventures,

Mauritian prime minister urges Indian entrepreneurs in New Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with his Mauritiancounterpart Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam andhis wife in New Delhi on February 7.

Delegates at the 12th edition ofthe Delhi SustainableDevelopment Summit.

WITH MAJOR Indian interests inNigeria in trade and investment,the African country’s huge eco-nomic potential continues to be abig draw for Indians.“With an annual bilateral

trade in excess of $13 billion,India continues to be Nigeria’ssecond largest trading partner”,Indian High Commissioner inAbuja Mahesh Sachdev saidrecently.“We were the largest

investor-country in Nigeria in2010 and major new Indianinvestments were announced in2011. India’s Airtel alone is amidst a

$600 million network expansionplan in Nigeria,” the HighCommissioner added.Nigeria is the largest trading

partner of India in Africa.

BOOKS & IDEAS A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


SO THE PATH DOES NOT DIE

Protagonist Fina’s search for happiness and belongingbegins on the night of her aborted circumcision and continuesthrough her teenage years in Freetown, Sierra Leones capital; hertwenties in the Washington Metropolitan Area; and ends with herreturn to Sierra Leone to work as an advocate for war-trauma-tised children.

The novel explores the problems she encounters in each setting against the backdrop of the tensions, ambiguities, and fragmentation of the stranger/immigrant condition and the characters struggles to clarify their ideas about home and abroad.

AN HONOURABLE MAN

It is 1884. In Khartoum, General Gordon stands on the roof of hisfortress as the city is besieged. He has vowed to fight the Mahdi to the death. At his side is the boy he rescued from the English dockyardslums — his reluctant last ally. As the men make agonising progressacross the desert, John Clarke struggles to be the hero of his imagin-ing, while his abandoned wife, Mary, troubles his conscience. Back inLondon, as controversy rages over the expedition, Mary finds herselfadrift and isolated. Her only release comes from laudanum, an addic-tion that will take her into Victorian London’s darkest corners. A novelof extraordinary power that combines the intimate and the epic.

By Pede Hollist; 296pp; Cameroon;Langaa RPCIG; Paperback; £17.95

CHIONISO AND OTHER STORIES

Playing with his doppelganger, Godfrey, he looks back on lifein Harare, and in Zimbabwe, over the last decade, exploring itfrom a familial perspective. How does a father cope with a rebel-lious daughter or a wife he perceives as wayward?

How does one mediate traditional gender roles? What to dowhen status in the form of a car undermines the stability of amarriage? What moral compromises are demanded by newwealth and political cronyism? And what is the effect of religionon our lives? Have we become more caring and compassionate,or does piety provide a mask, to disguise greed and ambition,and justify a contempt for the poor?

By ShimmerChinodya;190pp; Zimbabwe; Weaver Press;Paperback; £15.95

DIPLOMATIC POUNDS & OTHER STORIES

Ama Ata Aidoo’s latest collection of short stories brings togetherdiverse themes that speak to the relationship between Africa and itsDiaspora in terms of home and exile and a sense of belonging and alien-ation.

The collection reveals the intricacies of friendships and love rela-tionships and the complexities involved in African Diaspora connections,engaging with a sense of anomie and fragmentation that is partly a con-sequence of living across different cultures — African and the West andreveals her interest in presenting common human frailties.

By Ama Ata Aidoo; 176pp; UK; Ayebia;Paperback; £10.99

AFRICA JUNCTION

Adele is in a mess. On her own with her young son, strugglingto cope with her job as a teacher, and stuck in a disastrous affair— her life is unravelling. Her memories of idyllic years as a childin Senegal are fading, but she’s haunted by a vision of her child-hood friend, Ellena. Africa is in her head.

Ellena’s childhood in exile from brutal conflict in Liberia was farremoved from the vibrant Senegal Adele remembers, and a care-less, heartless act by Adele destroyed the girls’ friendship and jeop-ardised Ellena’s fragile family. Adele must return to Africa toattempt to pull together the drifting threads of her life.

By Ginny Baily; 288pp; UK; Vintage UK; Paperback; £8.99

UTAFANYA NINI?

This delightful book in Swahili, large format and beautifully colourillustrated, is designed to stimulate children’s imaginations. If thechild were a bird, it could fly high and spray everything in beautifulcolours, build nests for many birds, carry a friend on its wings andtravel to faraway places. If a magician, the child could heal the sick,grow up quickly, be beautiful and well dressed, change the colours ofall the animals; as President, the child could build a house on top ofMount Kilimanjaro, make all days public holidays, enlarge Tanzaniaand make all libraries free. The two Japanese writers and illustratorswork and live in Tanzania.

PIETER HUGO: This must be the place

The book presents nearly ten years of work by award-win-ning South African photographer Pieter Hugo. This book

By Pieter Hugo, T.J. Demos & Aaron Schuman; 224pp; UK; Prestel; Hardback; £35.00

Photography

UTAFANYA NINI?By Chisato Kubo &Hayato Ito; 32pp; TANZANIA;Mkuki Na NyotaPublishers; Paperback; £10.95

By Gillian Slovo; 352pp; UK; Viirago; Paperback; £11.99

L I TERATURE

includes a selection of over 100 seminal images from beforeand after ‘The Hyena & Other Men’, the series that catapult-ed him into the spotlight in 2007.

Essays by Demos and Schuman situate Hugo’s extraordi-nary career in the realm of contemporary photography.

As Schuman writes, Hugo’s images “offer an arrestingargument for the untrustworthiness of photography, and atthe same time reveal the striking vitality that remains at theheart of the medium when a practitioner bravely dares topose difficult questions.”

BOOKS & IDEAS A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


CHILDREN OF WAR: Child soldiers as victims andparticipants in the Sudan civil war

The use of child soldiers in the Sudan Civil War has shattered theaccepted understanding of why children join armies. Thousands ofchildren signed up to participate in Africa’s longest running civilwar, yet, so far, the international community and the academicworld have viewed them as victims rather than participants.

In this ground-breaking new study, Christine Emily Ryan chal-lenges preconceptions which have held back aid work and recon-struction in the Sudan region. She illuminates the multi-dimensionalmotivations which children have for joining the Sudan LiberationArmy, and unravels the complexity of their political participation.

MADE FOR GOODNESS: And why this makes all the difference

As archbishop of Cape Town at the height of the Apartheidregime in South Africa, Desmond Tutu saw many shocking and violentincidents. He came across many appalling stories of man’s inhumanity to man.

Yet, he still has a firm conviction that we are ‘made by goodnessfor goodness’. He argues that, though we sometimes act out ofdepravity and despair, we do know in our heart of hearts that we arenot as we were meant to be, and were created to be so much more.

By Christine Ryan;320pp; UK; I.B.Tauris; Hardback;£59.50

By Desmond Tutu &Mpho Tutu; 244pp;UK; Rider; Paperback; £7.99

UBUNTU AND THE LAW: African ideals andpostapartheid jurisprudence

This is the first comprehensive study to address the relationship ofuBuntu to law. It also provides the most important critical articles onthe use of uBuntu, both by the Constitutional Court and by other lev-els of the judiciary in South Africa. Although uBuntu is an ideal orvalue rooted in South Africa, its purchase as a performative ethic ofthe human goes beyond its roots in African languages.

Indeed, this collection helps break through some of the stale anti-nomies in the discussions of cultures and rights, since both thecourts and the essays discuss uBuntu as not simply an indigenousideal but one that in its own terms calls for universal justification.

By Drucilla Cornell &Nyoko Muvangua(Eds.); 448pp; USA; Fordham UniversityPress; Hardback;£85.00

AFRICA’S FUTURE: Darkness to Destiny - How the past is shaping Africa’s economic evolution

Many seek to fix Africa — economists, experts, politicians, gurus,cognoscenti and glitterati. But, the continent conceals multiplesecrets, including the Holy Grail — explanations of its saga. Africa’sFuture tells the tale of Africa’s economic evolution, revealing uniqueprisms for understanding the continent’s panoramic story.

Clarke provides fresh and challenging insights into Africa’seconomies and future, offering seasoned views on a continent ofunlocked potential which has witnessed many false dawns. Not poorbut poorly managed, Africa holds greater promise, its destinyrevealed by its history.

AFRICA: Power and powerlessness

In Africa, the distribution of power and powerlessness seems tobe more rigid than on other continents. Political power is in thehands of narrow elites while the overwhelming majority has hardlyany access to decision-making.

The common denominator of this book is the notion of power. It follows the analytical differentiation between the concept ofpower-over that is largely used by mainstream political science, and the concept of power as social practice. The authors ask pertinent questions on how power is composed, created and used on the African continent.

By Hana Horakova &Paul Nugent & PeterSkalnik (Eds.); 184pp; Germany. Lit Verlag; £29.99

HOW EUROPE underdeveloped Africa

Few books have been as influential in understanding Africanimpoverishment as Walter Rodney’s classic. Rodney argues that theimperial countries of Europe, subsequently joined by the US, bearmajor responsibility for impoverishing Africa.

They have been joined in this exploitation by agents or unwitting accomplices both in the North and in Africa. This newedition includes additional essays by Rodney and an introductionby the Walter Rodney Foundation, the co-publishers of this officially approved edition, to whom proceeds of the sales of thisbook will go.

By Walter Rodney; UK; Pambazuka; Paperback; £14.95

By Duncan Clarke;320pp; UK;Profile books; Hardback; £20.00

ment, the book focuses on the way in which the global economyworks, Africa’s record and the choices made by its leaders, therole of the outside world and the global aid regime. It assesseswhether the odds are in Africa's favour and identifies the areaswhere African leadership could make better choices.

WHY AFRICA IS POOR: And what Africans cando about it

The book looks at the fragile economic and political situa-tion in Africa and makes the quite controversial argument

that the main reason why Africa’s people are poor is due tothe choices made by their leaders. Greg Mills draws exten-sively from his experiences in Africa and examines the poli-cy choices that have stunted African development.

In providing some answers to the conundrum of develop-

By Greg Mills; 511pp;South Africa; PenguinSouth Africa; Paperback;£9.99

ECONOMY & POLITICS

DOCUMENTS A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


(Joint Statement on the occasion of the State

Visit of the Prime Minister of Mauritius to

New Delhi)

07/02/2012

Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, GCSK,FRCP, Prime Minister of the Republicof Mauritius, paid a state visit to Indiafrom February 6-11, 2012 at the invi-

tation of the Honourable Prime Minister of theRepublic of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.The Prime Minister of Mauritius was accom-

panied by his wife, Mrs. Veena Ramgoolam, Dr.The Hon. Arvin Boolell, GOSK, Minister ofForeign Affairs, Regional Integration andInternational Trade, Hon. Cader Sayed-Hossen,Minister of Industry, Commerce and ConsumerProtection and high-level officials. An importantdelegation comprising the main economic sec-tors from Mauritius also accompanied the PrimeMinister.After a ceremonial welcome in New Delhi, the

Prime Minister of Mauritius visited Raj Ghat topay homage to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.During the State Visit, the Prime Minister ofMauritius, called on the President of India, Smt.Pratibha Devisingh Patil and the Vice Presidentof India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari.The Prime Minister of Mauritius met the

Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh,and held discussions on bilateral, regional andinternational issues of mutual interest and rel-evance. Official talks between India andMauritius were held on February 7, 2012, in anextremely warm, cordial and friendly atmo-sphere reflective of the special and unique rela-tionship between the two countries. The PrimeMinister of India hosted a banquet in honour ofthe Prime Minister of Mauritius and the accom-panying delegation.

The Prime Minister of Mauritius received ShriPranab Mukherjee, Minister of Finance and ShriJaipal Reddy, Minister of Petroleum and NaturalGas and Smt. Preneet Kaur, Minister of Statefor External Affairs. He called on the UPAChairperson, Smt. Sonia Gandhi.The two leaders recalled the historical and

cultural ties based on the foundations of kinshipand shared heritage and common valuesbetween the two countries. They reiterated anabiding faith in and commitment to democracy,development and peace.They shared the confidence that cooperation

at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levelswill enable the two countries to realise theirdevelopmental aspirations, and contribute topeace, prosperity and security in the IndianOcean Region.The two sides signed the following documents

during the visit:(i) Memorandum of Understanding on

Cooperation in Science and Technology; (ii)Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperationin Youth and Sports; (iii) MOU for Cooperationbetween Ministry of Textiles, Government ofIndia and Ministry of Industry, Commerce &Consumer Protection, Government of Mauritius;(iv) Education Exchange Programme 2012-2016and (v) Memorandum of Understanding betweenthe Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre Trust Fund andthe National Council of Science Museums ofIndia.Both sides noted with satisfaction the

progress achieved in the implementation of pro-jects under the economic package offered by theGovernment of India to Mauritius in the past.One Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv was gift-ed to Mauritius in November 2009 as part ofthis package. The Coastal Surveillance RadarSystem was installed and commissioned in April2011. The construction of the Offshore PatrolVessel is underway.The Government of India announced an offer

of an economic package, including a Line ofCredit of $250 million and a grant of $20 million.The Prime Minister of Mauritius thanked thePrime Minister of India for this generous finan-cial package.The two leaders agreed to strengthen coop-

eration to enhance security in the Indian Oceanregion through jointly agreed programmes ofEEZ surveillance, exchange of information,capacity building and the development of aneffective legal framework against piracy.

The two leaders emphasised the need tointensify cooperation to tackle the challengesfaced by Indian Ocean Rim countries, includingstrengthening the Indian Ocean Rim Associationfor Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC). Mauritiuspledged its full support to IOR-ARC as Indiaassumed the Chair of IOR-ARC.The two leaders reviewed the progress

achieved so far in cooperation in hydrographybetween India and Mauritius. Both sides agreedthat six years of bilateral cooperation in hydrog-raphy had led to the successful preparation ofnew navigational charts of Mauritian waters.The two leaders reviewed the various efforts

to promote bilateral trade and investment tiesand the development of infrastructure in a man-ner that contributes to sustainable developmentin both countries. The two leaders noted thegrowth of bilateral trade between India andMauritius which has increased from US$207 mil-lion in 2005-06 to US$818 million in the year2010-11, a growth of 295 percent in the last fiveyears. During Financial Year 2010-11, India’s

exports to Mauritius were US$801 million andimports from Mauritius were US$17 million. Itwas agreed that the Joint Commission Meetingwould be held at an early date where all issuesrelating to closer economic cooperation would beaddressed.Both sides noted with satisfaction, the grow-

ing economic and commercial ties between Indiaand Mauritius. The two Prime Ministers agreedon the need to foster greater business linkagesin all areas where opportunities exist whether atbilateral or regional level.Both sides noted that the Meeting of the Joint

Working Group on DTAC was held fromDecember 21-23, 2011 in a friendly, constructiveand positive atmosphere. Both sides agreed tocontinue discussions at an early date with a viewto reaching a mutually agreeable outcome.Mauritius welcomed the initiative taken by

India to hold the India Africa Forum Summits ona regular basis. Both sides noted with satisfac-

India, Mauritius map road ahead

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with hisMauritian counterpart NavinchandraRamgoolam at the Joint PressConference in New Delhi on February 7.

INDIA ANNOUNCED AN OFFER OF AN ECONOMIC PACKAGE, INCLUDING A LINEOF CREDIT OF $250 MILLION AND AGRANT OF $20 MILLION



tion that the process had enhanced India’sengagement with Africa and given it a modernand functional dimension. Mauritius expressed its appreciation for the

contribution by India for infrastructure devel-opment and capacity building in Africa. A largeamount of credit lines were providing an impor-tant basis for increased development andenhanced business interaction between Indiaand Africa. The human resource development and capac-

ity building initiatives were providing opportu-nities for training African youth to participate intheir own development process. They expressedtheir satisfaction that the Pan African e-NetworkProject had been successfully implemented inMauritius and that, under the IAFS initiatives,the Hybrid Planetarium at the Rajiv GandhiScience Centre would be undertaken.

Both leaders reiterated the importance of aneffective multilateral system, centered around astrong United Nations, as a key factor in tacklingglobal challenges. In this context, they also recog-nised the need to pursue reform of the main UNbodies, including the revitalisation of the UNGeneral Assembly and expansion of the UNSecurity Council in both categories of member-ship. The Prime Minister of Mauritius reiterat-ed his country’s consistent support for India’scandidature for permanent membership of anexpanded UN Security Council.The two leaders underscored the need for

strengthening and reforming multilateral finan-cial institutions and enhancing the voice andparticipation of developing countries, including SIDS, in international economic deci-sion-making.The two leaders reaffirmed their unequivo-

cal position against terrorism in all its formsand manifestations. In furtherance of theshared security interests of both countrieswhich are interlinked in the region, it wasagreed to enhance bilateral cooperation on

issues of common concern, including piracy, ter-rorism, organised crime and drugs. It was alsoagreed to intensify cooperation in the areas oftraining and capacity building of the MauritianPolice Force. The Prime Minister of Mauritiusexpressed interest in the purchase of equipmentto strengthen the capability of Mauritius PoliceForce. The Prime Minister of India assured that this

equipment could be supplied expeditiously toMauritius under a mutually-agreed time frame.Both the Prime Minister of India and the PrimeMinister of Mauritius also agreed on the necessity of ensuring adequate surveillance ofthe vast EEZ of Mauritius through mutuallyagreed programmes.Both sides agreed that climate change was

one of the most important global challenges. Theyreaffirmed the provisions and principles of theUnited Nations’ Framework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCCC), in particular, that ofequity and common but differentiated responsi-bilities and respective capabilities. They reiterated that developed countries

should take the lead in undertaking ambitious mit-igation efforts and providing financial and tech-nological support to developing countries. BothParties shall collaborate on projects of mutualinterest to preserve common eco-systems. Theyshall also collaborate to address vulnerability ofMauritius as a Small Island Developing State (SID)to Climate Change and strengthen coastalresearch.India reiterated its consistent support to

Mauritius for the restoration of Mauritiansovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. ThePrime Minister of Mauritius thanked India forits long-standing and unwavering stand in thisregard.Both leaders welcomed the fact that the busi-

ness delegation, led by the Hon. Prime Ministerof Mauritius, had meaningful interactions withthe business communities of India in New Delhiand Mumbai. The Prime Minister of Mauritiusthanked the Prime Minister of India for thewarmth, cordiality and gracious hospitalityextended to him and members of his delegationduring their stay in India.Prime Minister Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam

extended an invitation to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to pay a visit to Mauritius.The invitation was accepted and it was agreedthat the dates of the visit would be finalisedthrough diplomatic channels.

‘A complete meeting of minds’

(Statement by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan

Singh to the media during the State visit of

Prime Minister of Mauritius)

07/02/2012

It is a great honour for me to welcome PrimeMinister Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam on hisState Visit to India. He is a very special dearfriend of India and a distinguished member of

the Indian diaspora.Prime Minister Dr. Ramgoolam and I have com-

pleted extremely fruitful and wide-ranging dis-cussions aimed at strengthening and furtherexpanding the India-Mauritius partnership.Relations between India and Mauritius are root-

ed in strong historical and cultural links. However,over the years, our relations have been trans-formed into a modern, dynamic, comprehensiveand mutually beneficial partnership that encom-passes active cooperation in a wide spectrum ofspheres.We have agreed that the next Meeting of the

India-Mauritius Joint Commission on Economic,Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation willbe held later this year to identify new measures topromote cooperation in key areas.India has been a long-standing development

partner of Mauritius. I was happy to inform thePrime Minister that the Government of India willprovide a new economic package to Mauritiusconsisting of a Line of Credit of US$250 millionand a grant of US$20 million. A part of this grant will be used to establish

a hybrid planetarium at the Rajiv Gandhi ScienceCentre in Mauritius.We reviewed the status of implementation of

the India-Mauritius Double Taxation AvoidanceConvention. Both India and Mauritius have amutual interest in ensuring that there is no mis-use of the convention. We are happy that theJoint Working Group on this Convention hasresumed its work and held a meeting recently in

Port Louis in December 2011. We have directedour officials to continue their work towards finding a mutually acceptable and satisfactorysolution to the issues that concern us at the earliest.The Memorandums of Understanding signed

today in the areas of Science and Technology andEducation will enable institutionalized coopera-tion in human resource development in our twocountries. I have also invited Mauritius to make the best

use of the opportunities available under the ini-tiatives launched by us as part of the India-AfricaForum Summit process. Diaspora links have provided the foundation

for our bilateral relations. The Memorandum ofUnderstanding on Cooperation in the field ofSports and Youth Affairs will help in strengthen-

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with hisMauritian counterpart NavinchandraRamgoolam in New Delhi on February 7.

THE TWO LEADERS SAID THAT DEVELOPED COUNTRIES SHOULD TAKETHE LEAD IN PROVIDING FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES



ing these contacts, particularly amongst the youthof our two countries. The Memorandum of Understanding on

Cooperation in Textiles is aimed at developingcooperation to mutually benefit from the strengthsand endowment of both countries with regard toraw materials, skill development and increasingproduction capabilities.Defence and security cooperation is one of the

key pillars of our relationship. We both have com-mon security interests. India will continue to sup-port Mauritius in ensuring the security andsovereignty of its land and maritime territory.We have agreed to strengthen our cooperation

to address the growing menace of piracy which hasemerged as a major security and developmental

challenge for all littoral states of the Indian Ocean.A stable and peaceful Indian Ocean is an objectivewe both share. In this context, we have agreed thatIndia — as current chair of the IOR-ARC, andMauritius — as the host for its Secretariat —should work together to reinvigorate this impor-tant initiative.We have had a complete meeting of minds on

key regional and global issues. We deeply appre-ciate Mauritius’ consistent and strong support forIndia’s candidature as a permanent member of anexpanded and reformed United Nations SecurityCouncil.This visit of Prime Minister Dr. Ramgoolam has

imparted a fresh impetus to our efforts to furtherstrengthen our excellent bilateral relations.

trade and economic cooperation, culture, con-nectivity, education, space and tourism. We lookforward to working closely with you towardsthis end.I once again wish you a very pleasant stay in

India.Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great plea-

sure to invite you to join me in a toast to:

n To the good health and well being of PrimeMinister of the Republic of Mauritius HisExcellency The Honourable NavinchandraRamgoolam, and Mrs. Veena Ramgoolam;

n To the progress and prosperity of the friend-ly people of the Republic of Mauritius.

n To the close and continuing friendshipbetween India and Mauritius.

‘Mauritius not a friend but family’

(Banquet speech by Prime Minister Dr.

Manmohan Singh during the State visit of

Prime Minister of Mauritius to

New Delhi)

07/02/2012

It is my honour and privilege to warmly welcomePrime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam andhis delegation to India. Excellency, we regardyou as a close and special friend of long stand-

ing. Even more than a friend, we regard you asfamily. The bonds of friendship between India andMauritius are rooted in strong historical and cul-tural links. After an arduous journey and over-coming the vagaries of nature, your ancestors set-tled in Mauritius and have laid the foundations ofa modern and prosperous State. The linkagesforged by Mahatma Gandhi and Manilal Doctoramong others, were carried forward by Smt. IndiraGandhi. She developed a close rapport with yourdistinguished father, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam,who led your country to freedom and prosperity.Today, our two countries have built strong

bridges across the Indian Ocean to bring our peo-ple closer together. Yet advances in technologyand communications allow us to close the gap

even further between us. Our interests and wel-fare are interlinked. We must work towardsgreater integration in the widest sense of the term.India and Mauritius are both pluralistic soci-

eties where rule of law and democratic valuesare cherished. Unity in diversity is the hallmarkof both our countries.We compliment you and the people of

Mauritius on the socio-economic progress thatMauritius has achieved over the last fourdecades. Mauritius has emerged as a model ofsuccess for Africa as well as for the entire world.Despite the prevalent winds of turbulenceaffecting the global economy, Mauritius hasshown remarkable resilience under your lead-ership and has maintained an impressive eco-nomic growth and a high standard of living. Indiais committed to extending its full support to theGovernment and people of Mauritius in theirdevelopment efforts.Your visit has provided us an opportunity to

reaffirm our special relationship and to identifyways and means of further enriching our multi-faceted partnership for the mutual benefit ofour two peoples.There are many areas where our two coun-

tries can elevate the level of our cooperation toan even higher level. These include the areas of

(Intervention by India’s Minister of State for

External Affairs E. Ahamed at the London

Conference on Somalia in London)

23/02/2012

Let me begin by thanking the United Kingdomfor organising this important and timelyconference. We hope today’s deliberationswould be a step towards a comprehensive

strategy to rid Somalia of the instability and con-flict that has mired it for over two decades. We arehere to affirm our solidarity with the people ofSomalia with whom we share two millennia of civ-ilizational exchanges across the seas.As His Excellency Sheikh Sharif remarked to me

yesterday, his country and mine are neighbours,separated only by the waters of our commonocean. India desires stability in Somalia. Piracy isthe most obvious example of the lack of it. Notmany years ago, India made a major contributionto peacekeeping in Somalia through its significantinvolvement in UNOSOM-II. Last May followingmy Prime Minister’s announcement at the secondIndia Africa Summit we became financial contrib-utors to AMISOM. We have continued to extendhelp to Somalia in capacity building through humanresource development and have recently increasedthe number of scholarships we grant. We havealso successfully contributed in the informationtechnology sector in Somalia. We remain commit-ted to helping Somalia in its development.Much of India’s trade passes through the Gulf

of Aden, estimated at about US$ 120 billion annu-ally. Indians constitute 7 percent of all the

World’s seafarers and a manifestation of theSomali predicament has been the tremendoushuman cost that these seafarers pay. As I speak,a number of Indian seafarers remain hostage topirates in Somalia. We hope the outcome document of this important Conference willreflect our concerns over the treatment metedout to mariners. We support all internationalefforts, led by the United Nations, for the cre-ation of an environment in which the Somalis cantake care of their own destiny, free from violenceof all kinds. I am confident this conference willbe a reaffirmation of our collective commitmentto Somalia’s immediate future.

‘India desires stability in Somalia’

India’s Minister of State for External AffairsE. Ahamed, with Deputy Prime Ministerand Foreign Minister of Luxembourg JeanAsselborn on the sidelines of the LondonConference on Somalia .



(Speech by Minister of State for External Affairs

Preneet Kaur at the inaugural session of India-

Africa Science and Technology Ministerial

Conference at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi)

01/03/2012

Iam delighted and deeply honoured to have thisopportunity to welcome this distinguished gath-ering of Ministers and delegates for the India-Africa Science and Technology Ministerial

Conference and Tech Expo.India has always felt a special solidarity with

Africa. In more contemporary times, the ties offriendship that bind us were forged in our com-mon struggle against colonial domination andapartheid. India is keen for a reinvigorated andmulti-dimensional India-Africa relationship. Thetradition has continued under the rubric of theIndia Africa Forum Summit that paves the wayfor India and Africa in the areas of technologytransfer, economic cooperation and capacitybuilding. This new paradigm of cooperation aimsat building upon the historical trust, goodwilland political engagement between India andAfrica to create a modern functional partner-ship for mutual benefit.We have now embarked upon an intensive and

all-encompassing engagement with the Africancountries to implement important decisions thatIndia and Africa took together at the first and sec-ond India Africa Forum Summits held in April 2008and May 2011, respectively.It is a matter of great satisfaction that today we

are fulfilling one of the important commitmentsmade at the first India Africa Forum Summit byorganising the S&T Ministerial Conference. We areconfident that the Science and Technology expo-sition will provide an opportunity to witness,appreciate and share various technologies. It willalso help to develop an understanding for science,technology and innovation systems in the Africancontinent.India’s visionary Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal

Nehru considered institutions of scientific knowl-edge as “temples of learning” and “places of pil-grimage”. The spirit of this vision echoes, as under

IAFS-I and IAFS-II, India has committed more than100 capacity building institutions in Africa. Thismanifests our desire to build African capacitiesfor both human and natural resources. Among the institutions, that we propose to

establish and which have direct impact in the fieldof science and technology are; Food ProcessingCluster, Medium Range Weather ForecastingCentre, University for Life and Earth Sciences,Soil, water and Tissue Testing Laboratories, FarmScience Centers, Material Testing Laboratories forHighways, Rural Technology Parks, Food TestingLaboratories, Centres on Geo-InformaticApplications and Rural Development, Women SolarEngineer vocational Training Centers, besidesInformation Technology Centers. The Addis AbabaDeclaration and the Africa India Framework forEnhanced Cooperation adopted at the end of thesecond Summit will now guide our systematicenhanced engagement with Africa in the comingyears.Demonstrating India’s continued commitment

to development in Africa, India has successfullyimplemented the Pan-African e-Network Projectincluding tele-education, tele-medicine and con-nectivity between leaders in 47 African countries.An agreement has also been signed for its imple-mentation in the 48th country, South Sudanrecently. To further strengthen these issues inAfrica, there is a provision for 22,000 new schol-arships for African Students in various academiccourses and training programmes including specialagriculture scholarships and C.V. Raman fellow-ships. India has offered more than 700 CV RamanScientific Fellowships till 2014. So far more than 150 post-doctorates from

Africa have availed the fellowships. We hope thatthis would help in building capacity for scientific research in Africa. As per India’s com-mitment to assist African countries in the field ofScience & Technology, proposals for institutionalstrengthening of identified institutions in Africaand transfer of need based technologies have alsobeen initiated. We are happy that the delegates from all the three institutes are present here andhope that they will have fruitful discussions withtheir India interlocutors. My ministry will support all these initiatives

‘India’s solidarity with Africa special’ through its “Aid to Africa” budget and has dulysecured approvals from the Cabinet to take thisvast new agenda forward. In conclusion, the cama-raderie India shares with Africa would enhancetechnical collaboration, transfer of technology andgreater participation by the young and dynamic

populations of both India and Africa. The next IndiaAfrica Forum Summit is slated for 2014 and ourendeavour will be to implement as many decisionsof the two Summits that have taken place so far aspossible and take India-Africa cooperation to a newheight by adopting mutually beneficial idea.

Where the mind is without fear...

(Remarks by External Affairs Minister S.M.

Krishna at the Unveiling Ceremony of Tagore

Portrait at the House of Poetry in Cairo, Egypt)

04/03/2012

Iam delighted to be here in Egypt. When I enteredthe hallowed district of Al Azhar, where theHouse of Poetry is located, I realised why Cairois referred to as “Umm Al Duniya”, the mother

of the world. This is the city that gave birth to somany luminaries of poetry. The House of Poetry,a heritage building, is indeed an appropriate placeto nurture that legacy.I also come from an ancient land where we

value such a heritage. Gurudev RabindranathTagore, one of India’s greatest sons, is remem-bered 70 years after his death, not only for his lyri-cal poetry, his melodious songs, his marvelousdance dramas but also his path breaking ideas asan educationist. Most importantly, GurudevTagore’s humanist philosophy believed in theessential one-ness of humanity.As we strive to preserve our distinct identities

as individuals, groups, communities and nations,it is important to recognize and celebrate our com-monalities. I quote these celebrated lines from theGitanjali :Where the mind is without fear and the head

is held high;Where knowledge is free;Where the world has not been broken upInto fragments by narrow domestic walls;Where words come out from the depth oftruth;Where tireless striving stretches its armstowards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reasonhas not lost its way into the dreary desertsand of dead habit;Where the mind is led forward by thee intoever-widening thought and actionInto that heaven of freedom, my Father, letmy country awake.As Ambassador Swaminathan has said Gurudev

Tagore visited Egypt twice, first as a 17 year old in1878 and later as a mature poet philosopher in 1926.There is an interesting anecdote from his sec-

ond visit to Cairo in 1926. On 28 November, 1926he was invited to the great Egyptian poet AhmedShawqi’s house for a lecture. Many political lead-ers attended the lecture. In fact, the Parliamentsession which was to begin at 5 P. M. was post-poned by an hour to accommodate this function.Tagore wrote in his travelogue, “I was told that

this was unprecedented and that this it could nothave been done for anyone else. This was indeeda novel way to show me their respect. I said thiswas homage paid to knowledge by politics. Thiswas possible only in the East.”I am conscious as I stand in the House of Poetry

that for the second time Tagore has been greatlyhonoured in this country. It is befitting that this istaking place during the observance of 150th birthanniversary celebrations of Gurudev Tagore inEgypt. It is also a testimony of the great friendshipenjoyed between India and Egypt.I am happy to note that the Indian Council for

Cultural Relations, which commissioned thisportrait, earned the distinction of making thisunique and lasting contribution to the House ofPoetry. I am confident that we would have moresuch cultural exchanges between our two peo-ples, which would further strengthen our bondsof friendship.

(Excerpts from Media Statement by External

Affairs Minister at the Joint Press Conference

following the 6th India-Egypt Joint Commission

Meeting in Cairo)

04/03/2012

Iam delighted to be here in Cairo; this is myfirst visit to Egypt. Since my arrival, I havehad the opportunity to meet His ExcellencyField Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi,

Chairman, Supreme Council of Armed Forcesand His Excellency Dr. Kamal El Ganzoury,Prime Minister.I have just concluded very useful and produc-

tive discussions with Foreign Minister Kamel Amrand co-chaired with him the sixth session of Egypt-India Joint Commission Meeting.We reviewed the entire gamut of our bilateral

relations during the just concluded JointCommission Meeting. Foreign Minister Kamel Amrand I accepted the recommendations of four sub-committees on Trade & Economic Co-operation,Scientific & Technical Co-operation, Cultural Co-operation and Information Technology onstrengthening bilateral relations in these sectors.

We also signed four documents including anMoU on Cooperation in the field of EnvironmentProtection, Cultural Exchange Programme for theyears 2012-15, Work Plan for AgriculturalCooperation between Indian Council ofAgricultural Research and Agricultural ResearchCentre of Egypt for the year 2012-13 and a MoUbetween Egyptian Organisation forStandardisation and Bureau of Indian Standards.Yesterday, Egyptian Minister of Culture and I

unveiled a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore,renowned litterateur and the first Asian to receivethe Nobel Prize in Literature, at the House ofPoetry. I was very happy to know that Tagore is thefirst non-Arabpoet whose portrait has beeninstalled at the House of Poetry.This morning the Prime Minister of Egypt sug-

gested that a multisectoral Indian delegation withrepresentatives from both private and public sec-tors visit Egypt to focus on concrete areas of eco-nomic cooperation. I have welcomed this propos-al and requested the Egyptian side to identify spe-cific sectors of their interest so that we can takethe proposal forward. We hope that this delegationwill visit Egypt shortly for focussed and productivediscussions.

I also met His Excellency Dr. Nabil El ArabySecretary General of League of Arab States. Indiaand Arab League has been holding regular politi-cal consultations since the signing of aMemorandum of Cooperation in 2008. The firstmeeting of the High Level Joint Committee of Arab-India Cooperation Forum was held in Cairo lastweek.India has a robust cooperation arrangement

with Arab countries and particularly with ArabLeague. Arab world and India share civilisationallinks, common cultural values and political beliefsand enjoy strong economic ties. With these activ-ities, we propose to strengthen India-Arab coop-eration further.India-Egypt relations are over five millennium

years old. In modern times, our relations weresoundly founded on shared ideology and common

beliefs. India has always viewed Egypt as a stabil-ising factor in the region and in the world. Egypthas consistently played a vital role in the Non-Aligned Movement and championed the cause ofthe developing world. Our bilateral relations con-stitute a factor of peace and stability in interna-tional relations.The leaderships of our two countries maintain

close contact through regular Ministerial visits andexchanges at the highest level. Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh’s visit in 2009 for the NAM sum-mit was followed by visits of a number ofMinisterial delegations to Egypt. Our bilateraltrade of $3 billion last year is promising to grow inthe coming years. Indian investment of 2.5 billiondollars is generating employment for 30,000Egyptians. None of the Indian companies who hadinvested in Egypt have left the country after theRevolution. In fact, one more Indian factory hasbeen established in Ain Sukhna.I thanked Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel

Amr for the warm hospitality extended to me andmy delegation. I also take this opportunity to wishEgypt success in all its endeavours.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna withEgypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed KamelAli Amr, at the 6th Joint CommissionMeeting between India and Egypt inCairo on March 4.

‘Egypt a stabilising factor in the world’

‘India, Africa have common resolve’

(Inaugural Address by Minister of State for

External Affairs Preneet Kaur at the 8th CII

EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project

Partnership “Creating Possibilities; Delivering

Values” 2012 in New Delhi)

19/04/2012

Iam delighted to participate at this inauguralsession on “India–Africa: Partners inProgress” of the 8th CII EXIM Bank Conclaveon India-Africa Project Partnership, 2012

“Creating Possibilities; Delivering Values”. I welcome you all the Ministers and delegates whohave come from Africa. Your visit and participation in this conclave makes it moremeaningful. I am also delighted to welcome theyoung parliamentarians, Journalists andSecretary Generals of various African Chambersof Commerce and Industry.

Your presence here, Excellencies, is an affirmation of our common resolve and sharedvision. I am happy that your visit to India takesplace at the time of 8th CII-EXIM Bank Conclaveon India-Africa Project Partnership, 2012. Indiahas institutionalised its partnership with Africato deal with the common challenges of develop-ment in the 21st Century under the rubric of the India-Africa Forum Summits. The IAFS process has provided a new direc-

tion for greater collaboration in the areas oftechnology transfer, economic cooperation andcapacity building. In fact the tripod on whichthe India-Africa relationship stands today withthe resonance of South-South cooperation isthat of technology, investment and training.Recognising the trends towards regional inte-

gration in Africa we have created a three-tieredcooperation at the Pan-African, regional andbilateral levels with Africa. Under the decisions

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L YDOCUMENTS


LOOKING AHEAD A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


emphasis on nurturing human resources, build-ing African capacities and enhance value addi-tion and processing of African resources andcommodities is unfailing. We are committed to work with Africa for

fulfilling its developmental aspirations and weknow both the pain and the pleasure of the processes of development in a democraticframework for multi-cultural and pluralistic societies.

We believe that such a vast canvas needsmulti-faceted attention and that is why myMinistry, which largely provides the budget formany of these activities, has tried to bringtogether various important groups of our Africanfriends to also have associated with the India-Africa conclave. This manifests our desire to dobusiness with Africa with a human face.I wish you a pleasant stay in India and fruit-

ful deliberations.

IAFS process, India would be establishing morethan 100 capacity building institutions in Africa.There is also a provision for 22,000 scholarshipsfor African students in various academic cours-es and training programmes including SpecialAgriculture Scholarships and C. V. RamanScientific fellowships. Besides, we intend toorganise several workshops and conferences. Inthe last 6 months we have already organised 15 workshops or Conferences including theIndia-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference, India-Africa Science and Technology MinistersConference, and a conference to enhance eco-nomic partnership.At the Second India-Africa Forum Summit,

held in Addis Ababa in May 2011, a series of newinitiatives were announced with regard to estab-lishment of various capacity building institutionswhich includes India-Africa Food ProcessingCluster; India-Africa integrated Textile Cluster;India- Africa Centre for Medium Range WeatherForecasting; India-Africa University for Life andEarth Sciences; India-Africa Institute ofAgriculture and Rural Development, etc. These will be established at PAN-African level

and the location of these institutions will bedecided by the African Union. We are also setting up 32 institutions at regional level andapproximately 40 Institutions at Bilateral level.I hope this will support the endeavour to achieve

millennium development goals in Africa.India has a large exposure through the Lines

of Credit in Africa. During the Second India-Africa Forum Summit in May 2011, the PrimeMinister of India announced the availability ofLine of Credit of $5 billion in the next 3 years.These Lines of Credit will support the develop-ment of infrastructure and expansion of indus-tries and encourage the private sector to investin Africa and the like.It gives me pleasure to share with you that

our capacity building training programmesunder the framework of IAFS-I & II have beenwidely appreciated by our African partners. We

have already conducted more than 50 specialTraining programmes so far which have beenattended by more than 1000 participants from 43African Countries.While India today stands as an important

partner with Africa we have realised that theworld is changing rapidly. At this conclave weaim at creating a new understanding in the fastchanging global economy and realise that weamong the developing countries, must notdepend only on traditional markets but mustdevelop new markets as well and I am happy tonote that India’s trade with Africa has increasedby more than 35 percent during 2010-11 from theprevious year. This CII Conclave “CreatingPossibilities; Delivering Values” aims at enhanc-ing an understanding, recognising the new con-ditions and the emerging opportunities so thatour partnership and engagement becomes morefruitful.India’s economic growth and investment in

education, human resource development, infras-tructure and service sector has brought forthimmense opportunities for modern India. Webelieve that this experience is a basis for shar-ing with Africa and for creating opportunities forcooperation and business partnerships. I am happy to state that the initiative taken

by India for the PAN-African e-network projectis functional in 47 African Countries and providing tele-medicine and tele-education facilities.Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, it

is matter of immense pride for us that we havejust launched the India-Africa Business Counciland convened the first meeting of Council. ThisCouncil will facilitate and enhance our businessengagements. We have also concluded theSecond India-Africa Trade Ministers meetingwhich has provided a unique platform toenhance our Business engagement. I am confident that these initiatives which

recognise the development cooperation betweenIndia and Africa would have a positive impact onour societies and people to people contact. Iwould urge that the measures that we have out-lined will lead to the development of strongerpartnership, evolution of new areas of trade andinvestment and endeavour to enhance econom-ic partnership between India and Africa.Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have

briefly touched upon the areas of cooperationthat we undertake with Africa through the processes of the India Africa Summits. Our

INDIA WILL BE ESTABLISHING MORETHAN 100 CAPACITY BUILDINGINSTITUTIONS. THERE IS ALSO A PROVISION FOR 22,000 SCHOLARSHIPS

(Statement to the press by President Pratibha

Devisingh Patil at the conclusion of meeting

with President of Seychelles at Victoria, Mahe)

30/04/2012

Iam, indeed, very happy to be in Seychelles. Mydelegation and I are deeply touched by thewarmth of the reception, and the generoushospitality accorded to us by the Government

and the people of Seychelles. I bring greetingsand good wishes from the people of India to thefriendly people of Seychelles.This is my first visit to Seychelles, a country

of amazing natural beauty. I feel privileged to behere at the invitation of President James AlixMichel whose State visit to India in June 2010 waspath breaking in our bilateral relations. My visitto Seychelles is to re-emphasize the strongfriendship that exists between our two coun-tries, which share the Indian Ocean and alongwith it, cultural affinities and ties of history.Today, this relationship is vibrant, wide-rang-ing, multi-dimensional and mutually beneficial.My visit to Seychelles reaffirms our commoncommitment to take our relations to new heights.My meeting with His Excellency President

James Alix Michel was very fruitful. I have alsohad a useful meeting with His Excellency theVice President and the Cabinet Ministers ofSeychelles. We have noted with satisfaction thatIndia and Seychelles have, over the past fewdecades, developed a strong and mutually ben-

eficial cooperation at both bilateral and region-al levels. Given the progress in the relationship,both sides expressed the desire to work togeth-er towards elevating the bilateral relations to astrategic partnership for mutual benefit.While expressing satisfaction over the pre-

sent state of our economic-commercial relations,we agreed that considerable opportunities stillexist for further expansion, particularly in theareas of trade and economic cooperation. I amhappy to state that a business delegation hasjoined me from India to explore business oppor-tunities in Seychelles. My participation in theBusiness Forum Meet last evening in Seychelleswas very encouraging. I am confident that thisinteraction will further push bilateral relationsin the economic and commercial fields.We have agreed to further enhance exchanges

in the fields of higher education, manpower devel-opment, health, Information and CommunicationsTechnology, Science and Technology, hydro-graphic surveys, monorail, tourism, hospitality andculture. In fact, the signing of the MoU on Co-operation in the field of Youth Affairs and Sports,will go a long way in enhancing people-to-peopleexchanges also. India would always be a trusteddevelopment partner of Seychelles. In tune withthis commitment, I was happy to inform PresidentMichel of India’s financial package of a Line ofCredit of $50 million and a grant of $25 million forSeychelles.We expressed satisfaction at the present level

of bilateral cooperation in the defence and secu-

‘India a trusted partner of Seychelles’

LOOKING AHEAD A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y


rity areas, especially in the context of combatingpiracy in the Indian Ocean region. Piracy in theregion adversely impacts on us all. India reiter-ated its commitment to provide assistance toSeychelles in the defence sector, including train-ing and deputation of experts. We have seen thesigning today of an MoU on co-operation ontraining of police personnel.I express my gratitude to the Government of

the Republic of Seychelles for its valued supporton regional and global issues of crucial impor-tance to India. Seychelles has consistently sup-ported India’s candidature for a permanentmembership in an expanded United NationsSecurity Council. The re-entry of Seychelles as

a member of the IOR-ARC will further make theorganization more representative and I hopeSeychelles will benefit from it.I am privileged to have been given the oppor-

tunity to address the Special Session of theNational Assembly of Seychelles. It will be soonafter this, and I am looking forward to it. India iskeen to enhance parliamentary exchangesbetween our two countries. I am happy thatapart from a Minister, two Members ofParliament are also with me to be part of this his-toric moment.I have invited President James Alix Michel to

visit India, which he has accepted. The visit willtake place on mutually convenient dates.

‘Parliaments help build bridges’

(Address by President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh

Patil to the National Assembly of Seychelles

in Victoria)

30/04/2012

Ibring to you warm greetings, good wishes andbest regards from the people of India, from theMembers of the Indian Parliament, and fromthe Government of India. I am honoured to have

the privilege to address this special session of theNational Assembly of Seychelles, the pillar ofdemocracy of your beautiful country.I am fascinated by the unique splendour of this

paradise island. I am deeply touched by the warmwelcome extended to me and my delegation by thefriendly people of Seychelles.Our peoples and our countries are connected

by the Indian Ocean, the trade winds and the mon-soon. The bonds between us are rich and infusedwith history. We share a common legacy of colo-nialism and a struggle to free our nations. India’sstruggle for freedom was a unique movement fordemocracy, justice and equality. It was led byMahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation — animportant bridge between India and the Africancontinent. It was the cradle of Africa that turnedthe barrister into a Mahatma, who remains thesymbol of peace and, non-violence as also hope all

over the world as it strives for global stability andsecurity.India and Seychelles are two vibrant democra-

cies that share common values like expression ofpopular will, respect for liberty and human rights,adult suffrage, rule of law and equality. India’sexperience has shown to the world how develop-ment can be addressed within the constitutionaland democratic frameworks; how aspirations ofmillions can flourish in a pluralistic society andhow diversity can be unifying as well. Democracyin India has remained strong and peoples’ faith inthe system has remained alive and vibrant, asreflected in huge turnouts in all stages of elec-tions to our Parliament and state assemblies.We, in India, have great admiration for

Seychelles’s strong democratic traditions, for itseconomic reforms, for the impressive human andsocial development indicators it has attained. In ademocracy, Parliaments are the forums to under-stand and address people’s aspirations and theirdevelopmental needs, and to focus on variousaspects of governance, which impact on the well-being of the people. We also believe thatParliaments can play a role in building greaterunderstanding between the peoples of differentcountries. India would like to increase coopera-tion between our two Parliaments, and thereshould be more exchange of visits between theMembers of Parliaments. With this aim in view we

invited young MPs from African countries formutually beneficial interactions with their Indiancounterparts last month. I am happy that one ofthe young lady MPs from Seychelles had partici-pated in the programme. I am happy that MPsfrom India are with me during this visit. We wouldlike to continue such interactions.India and Seychelles enjoy close relations. The

links between our two countries extend to everyaspect of human life, be it social, economic, cul-tural, intellectual or political. Our relations arecharacterized by regular high level visits and polit-ical consultation, both at the highest and officiallevels. President Michel’s State visit to India inJune 2010 was historic as were his visits in 2011 and2012. He has been instrumental in building up therelationship between our two countries over theyears. These visits have strengthened co-operation in

all fields. India would like to continue as an impor-tant partner of Seychelles in its development pro-cess. We are now entering a new phase ofincreased bilateral relationship. There is so muchto gain and benefit through mutual help andunderstanding. Let us expand cooperation in areassuch as economic and commercial, tourism includ-ing eco-tourism, and environment, apart from theexisting cooperation in defence and security, edu-cation, health and human resource development.Seychelles has ethnic links with three conti-

nents — Asia, Africa and Europe. It is uniquelyplaced to play a role in our efforts to achieve bet-ter integration of our policies with Africa. There isnothing metaphorical when we say that the tradewinds take us to Africa via Seychelles. Shared val-ues have enabled our two countries to have a com-mon vision and common goals in our bilateral andmultilateral ties. As members of the NAM, UnitedNations, Commonwealth and IOR-ARC, both thecountries have played an important and coopera-tive role in these multilateral bodies. We havemaintained close cooperation in multilateral foramindful of each other’s vital interests and consid-ering them as our own.Peace and security has always remained the

primary pre-condition for development. Attainableand Sustainable peace can only be achieved bycurbing the acts of violence, conflicts and terror-ism. There is a common need to be vigilant againstthis common threat. I would like to thank the peo-ple of Seychelles for their principled and consis-tent support to India on the issue of terrorism.The fight against terrorism has to be comprehen-sive and sustained, and for that we need to isolate

the elements who instigate, support or assist ter-rorism, in any form, as much as those who perpe-trate it. The issue of terrorism has been mademore complex with the challenge posed by piracy. The issue of piracy, though not new, has

brought a new dimension to the threat it posed tothe peaceful Indian Ocean. This is affecting Indiaas well as Seychelles, and many other countries bythreatening security of our sea-lanes of trade andcommunication. India acknowledges the immensecourage and conviction demonstrated bySeychelles in tackling the problem of piracy.India would continue to extend cooperation to

Seychelles in the fight against piracy as has beenthe case during the last few years. Indian navalships make regular visits to Seychelles to safe-guard the Exclusive Economic Zone of Seychelles.We are living in an era in which most global prob-lems and their solutions pertain to developingnations like ours and it is the demand of our timethat our global institutions reflect this reality.There is a need to expand the UN Security

Council to make it more representative and effec-tive to address challenges of the 21st Century. Inthis context, I would like to convey our sincereappreciation for the support of the Government ofSeychelles to India’s candidature for the perma-nent membership of UN Security Council.Hon’ble Speaker, once again may I express

my gratitude to you for having given me thisopportunity to share my thoughts with theHonourable members of the National Assemblyof Seychelles. It was, indeed, a great privilegeand rare honour for me. I wish the very best toevery one of you. May God bless your countryand all the inhabitants, with ever increasing pros-perity, success and glory.

(Left) President Pratibha Devisingh Patilwith the Seychelles’ President James AlixMichel on April 30.


�� GURJIT SINGH is Additional Secretary (East and Southern Africa), Ministry of External Affairs, NewDelhi. He was India’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and the Ambassador of India toEthiopia at the time of the First India-Africa Forum Summit.

�� SANJUKTA BANERJI BHATTACHARYA is Professor of International Relations at the Department ofInternational Relations, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. She taught History at Delhi University andGargi College before joining Jadavpur University. She has written three books and has published over 50articles in national and international journals and edited volumes to her credit. She has also received theprestigious Fulbright Fellowship twice, in 1987 and 2004. Her academic interests include foreign rela-tions, Third World studies, conflict resolution and American Studies.

�� MANISH CHAND is Editor of Africa Quarterly, a journal focused on India-Africa relations and Africanissues. He is Senior Editor with IANS, a leading Indian media company. He has written widely on inter-national issues and presented papers on the African resurgence and the rise of emerging powers in theAfrican continent.

�� SHUBHRA PARMAR is a Research Scholar and Assistant Professor of Political Science in DelhiUniversity. She has done M.Phil. from the Delhi University on ‘Regional Economic Integration in Africa:A case study of SADC’. Presently, she is pursuing Ph.D. from African Studies, Delhi University on ‘EthnicConflict induced Displacement and Women in Africa: A Case Study of Rwanda’. Her main research andwriting interests include contemporary African women issues, African feminism, and women empower-ment.

Contributors

Africa Quarterly, published since 1961, is devoted to the study and objective analyses of African affairsand issues related to India-Africa relations. Contributions are invited from outstanding writers, expertsand specialists in India, Africa and other countries on various political, economic, social-cultural, literary,philosophical and other themes pertaining to African affairs and India-Africa relations. Preference willbe given to those articles which deal succinctly with issues that are both important and clearly defined.Articles which are purely narrative and descriptive and lacking in analytical content are not likely to beaccepted. Contributions should be in a clear, concise, readable style and written in English.

Articles submitted to Africa Quarterly should be original contributions and should not be under con-sideration by any other publication at the same time. The Editor is responsible for the selection and accep-tance of articles, but responsibility for errors of facts and opinions expressed in them rests with authors.Manuscripts submitted should be accompanied with a statement that the same has not been submit-ted/accepted for publication elsewhere. Copyright of articles published in the Africa Quarterly will beretained by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Manuscripts submitted to Africa Quarterly should be typed double space on one side of the paper andtwo copies should be sent. A diskette (3 ½” ) MS-Dos compatible, and e-mail as an attachment should besent along with the two hard copies. Authors should clearly indicate their full name, address, e-mail, aca-demic status and current institutional affiliation. A brief biographical note (one paragraph) about the writ-er may also be sent.

The length of the article should not normally exceed 7,000 to 8,000 words, or 20 to 25 ( A-4 size) typedpages in manuscript. Titles should be kept as brief as possible.

Footnote numbering should be clearly marked and consecutively numbered in the text and notes placedat the end of the article and not at the bottom of the relevant page. Tables (including graphs, maps, fig-ures) must be submitted in a form suitable for reproduction on a separate sheet of paper and not with-in the text. Each table should have a clear descriptive title and mention where it is to be placed in the arti-cle. Place all footnotes in a table at the end of the article. Reference numbers within the text should beplaced after the punctuation mark.

Footnote style: In the case of books, the author, title of the book, place of publication, publisher, dateof publication and page numbers should be given in that order, e.g. Basil Davidson, ‘The Blackman’s Burden:Africa and the Curse of the Nation State’, London, James Curry, 1992, pp. 15-22.

In the case of articles, the author, title of article, name of the journal, volume and issue number inbrackets, the year and the page numbers should be given in that order.

In addition to major articles and research papers, Africa Quarterly also publishes short articles in thesection titled News & Events. They may not exceed 2,000 words in length. Contributions of short storiesand poems are also welcome.

Contributors to Africa Quarterly are entitled to two copies of the issue in which their article appearsin addition to a modest honorarium. Contributors of major articles accepted for publication will receiveup to a maximum of `4,000.

Contributions may be sent by post to:The EditorAfrica QuarterlyIndian Council for Cultural RelationsAzad BhavanIndraprastha EstateNew Delhi-110 002

Contributions may be e-mailed to:[email protected]

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A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L YA F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y

Indian Council for Cultural RelationsAzad Bhavan

Indraprastha EstateNew Delhi — 110 002

E-mail: [email protected] with the Registrar of Newspapers of India

Regd No. 14380/61

africaVolume 52, No. 1

February — April 2012

II N D I A NN D I A N CC O U N C I LO U N C I L F O RF O R CC U L T U R A LU L T U R A L RR E L A T I O N SE L A T I O N S

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l FUTURE TRAJECTORY: MAPPING NEW PATHWAYSl INFRASTRUCTURE: BUILDING THE FUTUREl SYNERGY: BUILDING BUSINESS FOR RESURGENCEl NEW FRONTIERS: WOMEN POWER, THE RWANDA WAY

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