The Hertie School Africa Policy Club proudly presents the 1st annual​

AFRICA POLICY
WEEK

April 8-16, 2024
Berlin, Germany / Online

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Africa Policy Week brings focus to various topics in African affairs, in particular African public policy and international affairs, in the Hertie School community and in Berlin. This will be a good opportunity for students interested in African affairs to hear from experts in specific fields and network.

Human rights and African ownership in the critical minerals scramble

Monday April 8, 17:00 (CEST)
Hertie School / Online
Panelists will discuss the linkages between human rights and African ownership of critical mineral value chains. Key questions include who has the responsibility and agency to guarantee human rights and environmental protection, and how the minerals sector contributes to wider socio-economic development and the green transition. The discussion will take into account the historical context, and include comparisons of policies and practices across countries.
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The strategic goals of Middle Powers and their rising importance in the African continent

Tuesday April 9, 17:00 (CEST)
Online
This event will dive into Africa's growing security partnerships with "middle powers." Discussions will explore what motivates these middle powers to engage with Africa, how African nations can leverage this interest for their own security benefit, and Russia's role as a potential middle power. The event will also compare the security cooperation styles of middle powers to those of established players like the US, China, and the EU.
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Strengthening public diplomacy as a powerful tool of African foreign policy

Friday April 12, 16:00 (CEST)
Online
This event delves into how African nations can leverage public diplomacy to strengthen their foreign policy. Discussions will explore using cultural policies to shed colonial views and achieve shared goals, the role of diasporas in implementing these policies, and strategies for understanding target audiences and building institutional capacity.
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Africa’s digital transformation and sovereignty in the context of geopolitical rivalry

Tuesday April 16, 16:00 (CEST)
Hertie School / Online
This event will explore how African countries are navigating the complex digital landscape, focusing on negotiation strategies, the influence of different digital governance models, risks to digital sovereignty (including data localization), and fostering an innovation ecosystem.
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The Hertie School Africa Policy Club conveys our deepest thanks to our sponsor, the ONE Campaign. Their contribution has been essential for this event and ensures Africa stays at the core of our policy conversations and activities.

About Us

The Hertie School Africa Policy Club is a student-run club at the Hertie School (Berlin, Germany) promoting informed discussions of African public policy, economics, and international affairs. Through events and publications such as The Afropolitan Blog, the club aims to create a forum for exchange on these topics at the Hertie School. The club aspires to cultivate a community sensitive to the intricacies of narratives and discourse on African politics and culture.

The Africa Policy Club’s and its members’ positions do not reflect those of the Hertie School.

You can stay up to date on our events and new blog articles by subscribing to our email list below. You can also contact us using the form to the right or by sending an email to hsafricapolicy@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!

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Human rights and African ownership in the critical minerals scramble

Monday April 8, 17:00 (CEST)
Hertie School Room 2.32 /
Online

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With the ever-increasing global demand for critical minerals, the African continent finds itself at the heart of the resources discussion. Africa is estimated to hold about 30% of the world’s critical minerals reserves including lithium, cobalt, and nickel, and many others. These minerals are crucial for the green energy transition and technological development. Some of these critical minerals are concentrated in a few countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which holds the world’s largest cobalt deposits and significant deposits of other minerals.

Taking into account the historical context, mineral extraction has not produced development benefits to its full potential in many African countries. In some cases, mineral extraction has featured different levels of violence, including civil wars and gross human rights violations (e.g., child labour). As countries and regions such as the US, EU and China put forward their critical mineral strategies and signal their interests in Africa’s mineral resources, questions on self-governance and benefits in African countries become more pertinent. This event will focus on linkages between human rights and African ownership of critical mineral value chains.

Speakers

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Dr. Patience Mususa

Senior Researcher, Nordic Africa Institute

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Juliane Kippenberg

Associate Director, Children’s Rights Department, Human Rights Watch

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David Benjamin Halstenberg

Advisor, Extractives and Development, GIZ

Moderator

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Prof. Dr. Sébastien Mena 

Professor of Organization and Governance, Hertie School

The strategic goals of Middle Powers and their rising importance in the African continent

Tuesday April 9, 17:00 (CEST)
Online

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In a time of increased discourse about the great power competition between the US and China (great powers) in Africa, the influence of the so-called ‘Middle Powers’ in the continent is widely discussed. Countries considered to be middle powers are Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others. Unlike the ‘great powers’, middle powers possess relatively smaller financial and military capabilities. They are, however, still prominent actors in certain regions of Africa due to their strategic interest to expand their geographical influence and deepen relations in specific areas including security, education, health, religion, culture, and trade.

Speakers

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Senem Aydın-Düzgit

Professor of International Relations, Sabancı University

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Hubert Kinkoh

Researcher, African Peace and Security Programme, Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

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Maddalena Procopio

Senior Policy Fellow in the Africa Programme, ECFR

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Hamid Talebian

Doctoral Researcher, GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies and University of Hamburg

Moderator

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Merritt Fedzin

Master of International Affairs & Security, Hertie School

Strengthening public diplomacy as a powerful tool of African foreign policy

Friday April 12, 16:00 (CEST)
Online

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African cultures have a rich history, with some dating back to thousands of years. Many African states have leveraged this culture and their diasporas in their public diplomacy efforts to win the hearts and minds of international publics towards foreign policy objectives and economic development. Scholars have highlighted African public diplomacy practice exemplified by the pan-African movement led by African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), and Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea which helped the continent’s joint foreign policy of decolonisation (Wekesa, 2020).

More recently, some African states have had some success at nation branding and public diplomacy campaigns, e.g. Ghana’s 2019 Year of Return campaign, or South Africa taking advantage of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Also, African music is enjoying a massive boom on the international stage led notably by Afrobeats and Amapiano acts whose concerts routinely fill out entire stadiums in the world’s largest capitals. This and other forms of African culture like language, art, film and so on, have attracted economic benefits for respective countries.

Interest in African countries’ cultural policies have increased creating opportunities to strengthen the effectiveness of the continent’s public diplomacy. Despite this, scholars have argued that the continent’s public diplomacy is relatively weak and uni-directional (Antwi-Boasiako, 2022). In 2006, the African Union Assembly adopted the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance which recognised the significance of culture in development and recommended strong cultural policies as foundations. However, African countries also face a range of challenges to harnessing public diplomacy as effectively as their Western and Asian counterparts. Digital technologies offer some opportunities for cost reduction, innovation and better research to improve the continent’s public diplomacy. The question is what immediate steps need to be taken to unlock this potential.

Speakers

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H.E. Ambassador Stella Mokaya Orina

Ambassador of Kenya to the Federal Republic of Germany

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Ayeta Anne Wangusa

Executive Director, Culture and Development East Africa (CDEA)

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Prof. Dr. Adams Bodomo

Professor of African Studies, University of Vienna

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Dounia Benslimane

Cultural Operator

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Isaac Antwi-Boasiako

Assistant Lecturer (HPAL) & PhD Candidate, School of Media, TU Dublin

Moderator

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Sheila Kibughi

Master of Public Policy, Hertie School

Africa’s digital transformation and sovereignty in the context of geopolitical rivalry

Tuesday April 16, 16:00 (CEST)
Hertie School
MakerSpace Room 3.01 /
Online

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Africa boasts the fastest growing rate of internet users from 17% to 37% in the last ten years, but internet access is unequal and unaffordable for many Africans. Already the leader in mobile money, the continent is looking to also leapfrog in areas such as E-governance, Agri-Tech, and smart cities. Africa’s technology-savvy and entrepreneurial youth, the youngest in the world, will drive this digital transformation towards knowledge-based economies with more access and opportunity.

Digital infrastructure has increasingly become a new battleground in the geopolitical struggle between global powers. For Africa leaders, choosing digital infrastructure partners is increasingly about more than pure economic needs. China wins more partnerships in infrastructure (70% built) and a larger share of mobile phones (48% for Transsion alone – a Chinese manufacturer) because they are willing to customize to local African agendas and markets. Repercussions of the US-China technology decoupling are being felt: Huawei phones are not loaded with Google applications, Western donors avoid Chinese equipment, and competing ideological approaches of the US, EU and China to digital governance.

Although continual investment in Africa’s digital economy is advantageous, scholars have raised concerns about the risks associated with increasing foreign involvement in constructing fundamental components of African digital transformation, such as connectivity infrastructure, data centres, digital identify. These developments could potentially impact the continent’s agency and digital sovereignty. Careful consideration of these risks in the negotiation of digital partnerships between African stakeholders and their foreign counterparts will play a significant role to mitigate these risks.

Speakers

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Dr. Folashadé Soulé-Kohndou

Senior Research Associate, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

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Franz von Weizsäcker

Head of Programme Data-Cipation, Sector Lead Good Governance, GIZ Liaison Office for the African Union

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Iginio Gagliardone

Professor in Media Studies, University of the Witwatersrand

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Elie Mandela

Youth Engagement Lead

Moderator

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Leslie Mills

Master of Public Policy, Hertie School