1. “The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:
Going Forward in Critical Debates of Africa
& West Africa's Aviation Sector (3)
By E.K.Bensah Jr
Saturday 30 June was be exactly four weeks since the twin crashes of 3 and 4 June, and there's no
gainsaying the Ghanaian populace continue to wait with baited breath to hear what the findings are.
In the past three weeks, I sought to contribute to what would have been an ongoing debate about Africa
and West Africa's aviation sector. Even if this goes nowhere in terms of influencing someone,
somewhere, about the necessity of Africa protecting and preserving its policy space with respect to its
skies, I believe it can go some small way in contributing to the important debate of defending what
might be considered a nebulous, albeit important, aspect of Africa's development.
Let's make no bones about this: we need neither a Western country nor a UN agency; NEPAD; nor the
AU to tell us about the critical importance of the aviation sector to Africa's development. The principal
reason why any international body like the AU, NEPAD, or the UN might want to remind us is simply so
Africans can take the bull by the horns and create their destiny about the “open skies” policy the
Yamoussoukro Decision seeks to advocate.
African Common Civil Aviation Policy
For the AU, it is about an African Common Civil Aviation Policy(AFCAP). This seeks to be “an overarching
framework document that enlists and consolidates the political commitment of African states to work
together through an agreed-roadmap with the purpose of positioning Africa's air transport in the global
economy.”
For national policy decision-makers in, say, Ghana, the idea is for them to use AFCAP as “a guide for the
development of national and regional policies thereby fostering harmonisation.” Secondly, AFCAP is
supposed to enable Africa “to respond to the intricacies of globalisation by forging a paradigm shift in
focus, from national to common regional market; from inter-state to intra-African operations; from
regional competition to global competition.”
Put simply, for the framers of the AFCAP, the idea is for Africa to have a “safe, secure and efficient
aviation industry...” which is crucial “in the support of business, trade, tourism, cultural, and social
activities which significantly contribute to Africa's economic growth and prosperity.”
Supporting AFRAA for Africa's Skies
In order for this to happen, it is clear that much support must be given to advocacy organisations like
AFRAA that have been campaigning for Joint Fuel Purchases; ban on EU's blacklisted airlines; a
recognition of the threat of the flight of highly-skilled and professional manpower from the African
airline industry; as well as the reaffirmation of the importance and leading role of ICAO in addressing
aviation emissions.
Even before this, however, there are some encouraging developments by African policy-makers under
the AU/AfDB/UNECA-sponsored Programme of Infrastructure and Development in Africa(PIDA) that
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2. merit scrutiny.
The first is a “Single African Sky phase 1” programme. It is a continental project that will cost some
USD275 million. It seeks to create a high-level, satellite-based air navigation system for the African
continent. Secondly, there is a continental project – entitled the Yamoussoukro Decision
Implementation – that seeks to accelerate the YD implementation by identifying countries ready to fully
implement it, as well as discussing and agreeing with both their governments and airlines to launch a
voluntary club on full membership basis. Finally, there is a “West Africa Air Transport” programme. This
will cost some USD420m, and will aim to increase air transport service levels in West Africa, which are
currently limited by the lack of a regional air hub.
Going forward in Africa's aviation sector
There are no easy solutions to the challenge of facilitating an open-skies policy for Africa. This does not
mean that we should not try to do something about it. There already exists the YD, which has been in
operation since 2002. Other institutions, such as AFCAC, and BAGOSOO exist to help resolve the
challenge. Africa is fortunate to have organisations, such as AFRAA, that have transformed themselves
into virtual advocacy organisations for the African airline industry. There is, however, more that can be
done.
First, citizens and the media must continue to put pressure on government in general, and the transport
ministry in particular to provide feasibility studies, and details on re-location. Second, and most
importantly, the report must be timely. By the week of 7 July, the report should be ready. Failing which,
citizens ought to advise themselves. Finally, if it does not exist already, there needs to be established a
network of journalists writing about infrastructure and the transport sector.
As the Ghana Journalist Association Media Awards comes up very soon, one wonders whether the GJA
will have the testicular fortitude it often seems to lack to encourage entries about the sector-proper. We
don’t want to go the way of the elusive ICT journalism category back in 2009, which has been dropped in
subsequent GJA awards!
In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42 nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and
discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a
Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org).
Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives
worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many
others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: 0268.687.653.