Feature - South African Institute of International Affairs

EARN publication: Beyond Development Aid

11 November 2010

We are pleased to announce the EARN publication on which SAIIA has been collaborating on for the past year. The publication is being distributed over the next few days to a wide range of actors, in Europe and Africa.

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The 2010 G-20 Seoul summit

The 2010 G-20 Seoul Summit

The G20 group of developed and developing countries held its much-anticipated summit in Seoul last week. Since the June 2010 Toronto G20 summit acrimony over global macroeconomic imbalances spilled over into the so-called ‘currency wars’, incorporating US criticism over China’s currency peg to the US dollar, and culminating in the United States Federal Reserve Board’s recent decision to pump approximately $600 billion into the US economy. This decision has major implications for developing countries with flexible currencies, such as South Africa, which now confront a ‘wall of capital’ exiting low growth, low yield markets in the US and Europe in search of high yield, with attendant consequences in terms of currency appreciation, diminished exports and therefore economic growth.

This issue was always going to dominate the Seoul summit, and so it proved to be. Equally predictable the leaders did not come up with substantive agreement for resolving it. However, it should not obscure the broader milestones the summit managed to achieve: for the first time a developing country (South Korea) hosted the G20 Heads of State summit; a new development approach was announced (the ‘Seoul consensus’); a breakthrough was made on reforming the International Monetary Fund’s board; and tighter capital adequacy rules for banks were solidified through the Basle 3 process. These achievements highlight the fact that whilst it will be difficult to achieve breakthroughs on the sensitive issues of domestic macroeconomic management, the G20 remains the only game in town for reforming less sensitive microeconomic management and institutions of global economic governance. In short, the G20 train remains on the tracks, but now has to navigate a major obstacle in its path in the form of macroeconomic imbalances.

For a more detailed analysis of outcomes of the summit, see article here.

'Seminar Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation', 18-19 November 2010

'Seminar Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation', 18-19 November 2010

The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the Institute for African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, co-organised a conference on FOCAC and Sino-African relations on 18-19 November 2010. The aim of the conference was to provide a forum for leading African and Chinese scholars to present research findings involved in critical areas of Africa-China relations and discuss in a closed setting key issues, perspectives and problems experienced in the course of such research.

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The relationship between South Africa and the Emerging Global Powers

02 November 2010

On Monday evening, 1 November 2010, SAIIA was privileged to host Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane (see her biography here), South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, as a special guest who addressed a packed audience at SAIIA at Jan Smuts House in Johannesburg.

In her speech, the Minister outlined South Africa’s international relations platform and global strategy, through President Jacob Zuma’s Administration changing the department’s name from the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. She stressed that South Africa had affirmed a better understanding of itself as a country and a global player, situating itself within the complex character of the world we live in today.

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane clearly articulated the impact of the rise of emerging powers to create new found optimism amongst developing countries, and the opportunities resulting from geopolitical shifts and the rise of these powers on the global stage.

Speaking in relation to south-south cooperation, she emphasised “…we see the formation of the IBSA and our membership of that body as a mechanism not only for enhancing our trilateral partnership with India and Brazil, but also as an important pillar for strengthening the muscle of the South in global affairs”.

As a key member of IBSA, South Africa has been developing strategic relations with its partners in that grouping, namely India and Brazil, as well as with emerging global powers, China and Russia. Recent state visits by President Zuma have reflected the importance attached to these relationships from the side of the South African government. At both bilateral and multilateral levels South Africa is seeking to work with these governments on political and trade issues, global governance reform and climate change, and the advancement of the African agenda.

The minister praised the role SAIIA plays in South African and African civil society, in facilitating independent research and analysis on these and other vital issues. She closed by mentioning the institute’s ongoing relevance and importance, and by thanking the institute for its contribution: “SAIIA, as a non-state actor, is an invaluable partner. We are pleased that you have been visibly active in our activities, including the consultation we organised recently on the Discussion Document on our White Paper”.

Aid, Governance and Development: Thoughts from Michela Wrong, Author of “It’s Our Turn to Eat”

27 October 2010

Michela Wrong delivered the following talk at a symposium on “Aid, Governance and Development in Africa” organised by the University of Nairobi’s Institute for Development Studies in Kenya on 30 September 2010.

“I’ve now written three non-fiction books about Africa. What I’ve discovered is that, ironically and frustratingly, the most interesting things about a society you often learn after your book has come out. This has never been truer than with “It’s Our Turn to Eat. The story of a Kenyan Whistleblower”, which tells the story of anti-corruption czar John Githongo.

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Climate Change and Trade: The Challenges for Southern Africa

12 August 2010

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The long-awaited Copenhagen summit on climate change gave to the world a broad political agreement, but without any teeth. Meanwhile concerns over the climate change agenda finding its way into the multilateral trading system are growing, at a time when the trading system is struggling to find its own feet.

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Critical Thinking Forum

07 May 2010

SAIIA and the Mail and Guardian newspaper recently hosted a critical thinking forum on South African trade, industrial and exchange rate policies, where Treasury DG Lesetja Kganyago gave the keynote speech. They also launched an op-eds series on trade reform in the Mail and Guardian:

The 14th AU Summit

05 February 2010

The 14th African Union Summit took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 31 January to 2 February 2010. Its theme was “Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development”. At the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Forum, held just before the Summit, South Africa presented its second report on the country's implementation of the APRM.

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