Beitrag vom 20.04.2016

Robert Kappel:

Germany’s New Africa Policy: Time for a Change?

There has been much talk about the African miracle. Various newspapers, consultancy firms, and lobby groups have all reported that Africa is on the move, while others have claimed that Africa is on the rise; even the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has stated that ‘Africa is a continent of opportunities’ (BMZ 2014).

What does the rise of Africa mean for Germany’s Africa policy? How should Germany act? How should German policy deal with aid fatigue and the lack of success of
development aid? How should Germany evaluate the rise of China and India in Africa, as well as that of other middle powers, like Turkey, Korea, and Brazil? How much is
Germany in need of a new Africa policy?

The paper will attempt to appraise Germany’s changing Africa policy by examining, on the one hand, German ministries’ documents regarding German Africa policy and
foreign policy and, on the other hand, the latest research documents that analyze and evaluate the political and economic changes going on in Africa, in African subregions,
and in individual African countries. These findings will then be compared with actual decisions made by the German government and various ministries. The paper will also
try to identify main approaches for a new German Africa policy.

The German debate on a new African policy is currently in a period of reorientation. On the one hand, German business sees the African continent as growing industrially
and as having vast potential. On the other hand, only a few German companies are presently investing in Africa due to the fragile and volatile situations in many of the
countries there. German development aid is of major importance. Germany contributes USD 1.2 billion in development aid and employs about 2,000 experts in 32 sub-Saharan African countries (BMZ 2014), making it one of the leading economic partners of many African countries. In addition, the German government maintains economic and political ties with numerous nations and recently published its new Africa policy guidelines – a document that is very much in line with traditional concepts of development cooperation (Federal Government 2014; AA 2011; BMZ 2014). Meanwhile, German troops are actively participating in UN missions, and many German universities and research institutes continue to cooperate with African institutions.

I am going to summarize the main arguments of the German government’s Africa policy documents and attempt to show how they reflect Africa’s economic realities. This paper will continue as follows: Section 2 evaluates the ‘Africa on the rise’ hypothesis. Section 3 examines German interests in Africa and Germany’s Africa policy, analyzing some of the major documents – especially the new ‘Federal Government Policy Guidelines for Africa’ (‘Afrikapolitische Leitlinien der Bundesregierung’). Section 4 questions Germany’s Africa policy, while section 5 looks at the degree to which Germany’s Africa policy is embedded in its new foreign policy agenda. Section 6 formulates some hypotheses to account for why Germany’s Africa policy lacks coherency and only partly reflects the entire range of Africa’s political and economic dynamics.

Download:
https://graensengrenzen.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/sd_kappel.pdf (S. 629)