Cristina Gallach, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: "We must put African issues on the Spanish agenda"

"We need to get more and more used to analysts digging into the situation in Africa, and showing us where the trends are going to help us move more intensively and with greater commitment to the continent. With these words, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Cristina Gallach, began the presentation of the report that Fundación Alternativas has dedicated to the African continent, "Africa 2020". The Foundation's main objective in producing the yearbook has been to go beyond the way in which Spain reports on Africa and avoid focusing the debate on the continent on this 'North-South' dichotomy.

By 2019, several African economies had emerged as the ones with the highest economic growth in the world, but the coronavirus pandemic slowed down development and has meant a change in the trend of progress in the region. In March the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) noted the fall in African economic growth from 3.2% to 1.8 % for this year.

Although some of the consequences of the pandemic are already being reflected in the African countries, the long-term consequences have yet to be seen and that is why the report presented by the Fundación Alternativas: "Africa 2020 Report" has attempted not to focus on the direct consequences of the COVID-19, although it has a significant presence in the chapters. The Secretary of State stressed the need to "put African issues on the Spanish political agenda" and urged civil society to join the various initiatives to promote prosperity on the African continent.

On the impact of the COVID-19 on the continent, Gallach stressed that it will "affect" the economic and social situation in Africa, and therefore "designing a foreign policy to accompany the pandemic will be fundamental". For the post-COVID stage, Gallach announced a "strategy" for development cooperation, "agreed" with civil society and NGOs", taking into account the large Spanish presence on the continent. Gallach also pointed out the important Spanish role in "the fishing sector, in countries such as Namibia, Senegal or East Africa", and above all, its political will to "articulate a coordinated action to firmly support Spanish companies in order to contribute positively to our economic and social fabric".

Spain's commitment to the continent has been reflected in the recent trips made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, who "has just visited Libya, after four years without a Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs there, to support the ceasefire", said Gallach, although she pointed out the need to strengthen the presence in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa "to promote sustainable development in these territories".

Along with Gallach, the report was presented by the Foundation's Executive Vice-president, Diego López Garrido, who highlighted the role of Africa as a political subject with its own personality where the ecological transition and the digital revolution are fundamental". Also taking part in the presentation webinar were: José Segura Clavell, director of Casa África; Pedro Martínez- Avial, director of Casa Árabe; Elsa Aimé González, coordinator of the Sub-Saharan Africa Panel of Fundación Alternativas; Laura Carratalá Díez, expert in pan-African affairs at the European External Action Service; and Enrica Picco, international lawyer and researcher, co-author of the chapter of the Africa 2020 Report.

Directed by Aimé González and Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal, coordinator of the Middle East and North Africa Panel of the Fundación Alternativas, the report brings together experts from the continent in different fields: political, economic, social and cultural. Divided into eleven chapters, the report sets out the general lines of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa through a set of multidisciplinary texts that attempt to look at regional and international interconnections, and "see how the continent is progressing beyond the generalised vision", said Itxaso Domínguez during the presentation of the report to the media.

Relations between the Maghreb and Africa, feminist activism in Africa, climate change and conflict in sub-Saharan Africa and EU-Africa economic relations are some of the titles that make up the yearbook that has sought to bring issues that do not have as much room for public debate. For example, the monograph dedicated to "Artivism", by researcher Sebastián Ruiz Cabrera, doctor and professor of international relations, entitled: "Political resistances in Africa through art. A way of expressing current social activism", focuses on how social protests have changed in recent years, through new initiatives that have been successful, such as the one that brought about the end of the civil war in Liberia in 2003 known as the "Sex Strike" or how in countries such as Tanzania, Kenya or Sudan they use music, poetry or murals to get around the repressive measures of governments and show their discontent..

Or the one by Irene Fernández-Molina and Erica Picco on the forgotten conflicts in Western Sahara and the Central African Republic. "Although these are two very different conflicts, they have points in common", points out Fernández Molina, who points out that the forgetting of these conflicts by the international community is not so much in the interventions, since in both there have been and are missions from the United Nations and other organisations, but in "the conversion of the crisis into a routine", which causes an entrenchment that makes it difficult to resolve.

It remains to be seen what new challenges the pandemic will bring to the African continent, which, as the authors of the report point out, has not meant the creation of new negative trends, but rather is serving to intensify those already present such as the vulnerability of citizens and the increase in authoritarian practices.​​​​​​​