IEEI

Europe Africa Research Network

EARN is an initiative from a group of African and European Institutes, Centres and Networks aiming to contribute to the EU-Africa Political Dialogue. It was launched in Lisbon, at the eve of the 2nd European Union-Africa Summit of Heads of State and Government and its governance bodies decided in Brussels on April 2008.

The Vision of the network is of an effective political dialogue between Europe and Africa to help increase relations, to face common challenges and to foster peaceful and sustainable development in both continents. Its Mission is to contribute to these goals by strengthening Euro-African partnerships among non-governmental actors, through networking, joint activities and development of knowledge and institutional capacities. Objectives are set around political dialogue on common concerns which arise from bilateral relations as well as from global or local challenges on various fields.

The added-value of EARN results not only from its goals, composition and outputs, but also from its focus and approach. Focus is on challenges that affect both continents, in order to increase reciprocal awareness of realities and to foster debate on common concerns and possible answers, avoiding donor-recipient or recipient-donor attitudes. Approach is policy-oriented in order to inform the public opinion and the decision-makers on analysis and proposals from non-governmental actors.

EARN intends to bring added value on pooling and fostering policy research capacities, dialogue and partnership between European and African non-governmental research institutions on issues relating to EU-Africa relations. While EARN has significant academic credentials, it is more than an exercise in simply sharing knowledge between Africa and Europe. Strategically timed policy events and briefs will ensure that decision makers and other stakeholders on both continents will benefit from knowledge generated from on-going research by EARN. This will be undertaken collectively as a whole, through EARN’s working groups, and also its individual members.

By bringing different actors (think tanks, development organisations, academic institutes), and perspectives/expertise (e.g. security, development, migration, environment, trade and regional integration) into the political dialogue, discussion and analysis about issues of common concern, EARN asserts its added-value in promoting a cross-cutting and holistic approach.

 

EARN Structure:

EARN members have decided to organise activities around five key themes (that also correspond to priorities in the joint Africa-EU Strategy) discussed in working groups:

1. Peace& Security

   Leader: Centre for Policy Research and Dialogue (CPRD - Addis Ababa)

   Co-leader: European Association of Development and Training Institutes (EADI - Bonn)

2. Governance & Human Rights

   Leader: Royal Institute of International Affairs/Chatham House (RIIA – London)

   Co-leader:Centre for International Strategic Studies (CEEI - Maputo)

3. Trade&Regional Integration

   Leader: European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM- Maastricht)

   Co-leader: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs-(NIIA - Lagos)

4. Poverty reduction & Development

   Leader: Action for Rural Development and Environment (ADRA - Luanda)

   Co-leader Nordic Africa Institute (NAI - Uppsala)

5. Overall EU-Africa partnership and global issues (including cross-cutting issues like climate change, migration, new actors/economies, among others)

   Under the responsibility and co-ordination of the chair institutions of the Steering Committee: IEEI, ECDPM and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)

 

DOCUMENTS:

EARN Mission Statement

Membership Criteria for EARN

Roles for EARN Structures

 

Activities:

EARN Meeting, April 2008, Brussels

On the initiative of IEEI and ECDPM a meeting has been organised on the 2nd of April in Brussels to discuss the future work and internal organisation of the Europe-Africa Research Network EARN. The meeting was attended by over 20 policy research institutes and networks from Africa and Europe.

Programme of the meeting / Participants

EARN Meeting on the progress in the implementation of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy a year after, December 2008, London

EARN organised a public event on 12th December 2008 in London, hosted by RIIA (Chatham House), on the progress in the implementation of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy a year after its adoption in Lisbon. This half-day discussion addressed two main questions: This roundtable will address two questions: What common concerns arise from the ongoing global financial and economic crisis for the EU-Africa Partnership? What major achievements and constraints for implementing the Action Plan? This provided an opportunity to bring together researchers from Europe and Africa and make an independent assessment and analysis of EU-Africa common concerns and partnership.

Programme of the meeting / biographic notes of speakers / powerpoint presentations 1 and 2

Special Number of “Estratégia”

IEEI elaborated a small publication that aimed at identifying and analysing the global challenges that impact on Europe-Africa Relations in each of the EARN thematic issues. This number of the IEEI publication “Estratégia” is available here.

Forthcoming Activities in 2009

• IEEI is elaborating, in collaboration of the co-chairs and the Coordination Team, the Terms of Reference for the EARN Political Dialogue on Common Concerns, which is due to be published in the first semester 2010.
• IEEI will organise and finance, until the end of 2009, a meeting of WG5 (Global Issues), partly in preparation of the International Conference to be held in 2010. The debates will be structured around the defined themes for the EARN Political Dialogue Report on Common Concerns.
• The Nigeria Institute for International Affairs (NIIA) and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) as co-chairs of the EARN working group on Trade, together with one of the key members, the South Africa Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), will hold a session at the annual UNECA/AfDB African Economic Conference (AEC 2009, to be held in Addis Ababa in November 11-13, 2009) to reflect on the challenges Africa faces in strengthening and coordinating its regional integration processes. Looking at both endogenous forces and external factors, the 3 papers identify a way forward to promote a coherent pro-development integration in Africa.
• IEEI will organise and finance a meeting of WG1 (Peace & Security), to take place in November 2009, in Lisbon. This meeting will be held in collaboration with a session organised by Eurodefence Portugal and the Diplomatic Institute, on the Portuguese contribution to the EU-Africa Partnership on Peace and Security. The timing of this meeting was defined taking into account the mid-term review of the EU-Africa Partnership in October 2009.
 

Further information on the process of EARN will be soon available on a new website.

 

Contact EARN - E-Mail addresses: ECDPM / IEEI / ECDPM