Conference on civil society, governance and integration in Africa

CONFERENCE ON CIVIL SOCIETY, GOVERNANCE AND INTEGRATION IN AFRICA,
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

Monday, November 28 to Wednesday November 30, 2005

CALL FOR PAPERS

Three pan-African research organisations-the Pan-African Strategic and
Policy Research Group(PANAFSTRAG); the Development Policy Management
Forum (DPMF) and the African Association of Political Science
(AAPS)-hereby announce the holding of a joint Conference on Civil
Society, Governance and Integration in Africa in December 2005. The
venue of the Conference is Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In view of the nearly pan-African phenomenon of domestication and
assimilation of civil society into a 'new globalisation' corporatist
framework dominated by the state and capital, there is a compelling
need to critically interrogate the role of civil society in the
struggle for good government/governance and a people-driven/popular
integration process after the 'second wave' of electoral democracies.
We need not exaggerate the role of civil society in these enterprises
because whilst the ethical and normative functions of civil society
are important, the empirical reality that subsists calls for a
realistic explication and understanding of the role, nature, character
and finality of the engagement between the state and society in the
quest for the continent's development through good
government/governance and regional integration.

There is a gap between theory and praxis with regard to CSOs in
Africa. Consequently analysts of African civil societies are called
upon to interrogate the democratic credentials (procedural and
substantive) of key CSOs by paying close attention to contexts,
conjunctures and crossroads. In other words, if it is true that
without 'politics from below' there is little redemption in 'politics
from above', where are the concerned and activist civil society groups
that are expected to push the state from below to continue to open up
the political space? How would they fulfill the aim of ensuring "the
full participation of all sections of (the) societies in the process
of developmental regionalism"?

Furthermore, to the extent that many an African country has seemingly
assigned itself the task of consolidating and deepening its emergent
political pluralism and democratic governance, CSOs are expected to
play an even more critical role. This role has to be interrogated and
evaluated within the continuum of facilitation of, and obstacle to,
the continent's development process. Case studies and
country-specific/sub-regional analyses appear important in this
respect.

More recently, with the primacy given to regional cooperation and
integration by African governments and the African Union (AU),
creating space for civil society by interacting with CSOs, through
forums such as the ECOSOC and the CSO Forum, has become a virtual
article of faith. An enduring, stable and self-reliant state needs
focused, transparent, accountable and professionally-run CSOs to build
both vertical and horizontal integration at all levels within and
between states.

Several questions are posed. Can CSOs develop an Africa Agenda which
would combine both NEPAD and theLagos Plan of Action (LPA), the one
largely external-induced, the other essentially internally-driven? How
do the state and CSOs apprehend and comprehend the dynamics of
integration in Africa? How far, for instance, has the ECOWAS moved
away from its description in 1990 by a notable student of African
Integration as one lacking "a group or a popular dynamic supporting
integration" as well as one in which "pressure groups for the
mobilization of public opinion in the direction of the community are
almost totally non-existent"? How can civil society participation be
strengthened such that it could contribute to the social and political
legitimacy of regional integration? Why is there always a palpable
de-linkage between, on the one hand, national policies and development
programmes and, on the other, sub-regional/regional economic
cooperation such that national needs and priorities are often promoted
(however well or badly these are done) at the expense of the
collective interest of African development? Because good
government/governance is too important to be left only in the hands of
state elites and government officials, how can CSOs and other
non-state actors intensify political struggle to make governance a
process that goes beyond making capitalism a universal resource and
western liberal democracy, the so-called 'universal governance
system'?

Sub-themes for reflection include the following:

Civil Society, Governance and Integration: Theoretical Perspectives
Civil Society, Governance and Integration in Africa: Exploring the
multiple dimensions of an interface – trade (formal and informal),
movement of people, borders, language and culture.
Civil Society, Governance and Integration in Africa: A Historical Exegesis
Is there an African Civil Society?
The Post-Colonial/Post-Adjustment State and Regional Integration in Africa?
Sub-Regional/Regional Organisations and Popular Social Engineering in Africa
The State, Conflict Resolution, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and
Regional Integration.
The ECOSOC, CSOs and Integration in Africa
Sub-Regional Organisations and the African Union (AU)
The African Peer Review Mechanism and Supra-National Governance in Africa.

All interested researchers, activists and public servants across the
African continent are hereby invited to send,not later than Wednesday
August 31 2005, a one-page abstract on any of the foregoing sub-themes
to the following trio:

Abdalla Bujra: [email protected]
Ishola Williams: [email protected]
Adekunle Amuwo: [email protected]

Abstracts received after this date will not be entertained.

Those selected will be notified by Monday, September 12 2005.
Full-length papers, not more than 20 pages, should reach the trio
latest by Monday, October 31 2005. No late papers will feature on our
programme.

For further information, please contact Professor Abdalla Bujra,
Executive Director, Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF), Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia. Tel: 251-1-515410/443197; Fax: 251-1-515410/514416;
alternate email: [email protected]