01.12.2023 / Publications
Authors: Stefan Cibian, Andrei Vereștiuc, Remus Ionuț Stîngaciu
2023 finds Romania and African countries in a complicated world undergoing multiple waves of transformation. Climate change, digitalization, hybrid security threats, and increasing violence affect Romania alongside its African, European Union (EU), and transatlantic partners.
In the past decades, Romania made insufficient efforts to establish and maintain diplomatic, economic, cultural, and development relations with African states. Despite solid historical ties, Romania’s engagement with the continent has been sporadic and inconsistent, leaving the potential for collaboration and growth untapped. While the importance of African countries in global affairs is growing, in an increasingly volatile multilateral context, Romania can no longer afford not to prioritize African countries in its relations and policies.
This policy brief1 aims to articulate a set of recommendations for a more powerful engagement between Romania and the African continent. To do so, the policy brief reviews the main characteristics of Romania’s relations with African countries, including political, economic, development relations and analyzes civil society and academic actors’ engagement2 with African societies.
Recommendations for Romania’s Strategy towards African countries:
Given its resources, population dynamics, and vulnerabilities, Africa is a crucial region for current and future international efforts to counter emerging global challenges. As such, our key recommendation is that the African continent should be seen as a main priority for Romania, alongside the EU and NATO. Given the above analysis, the following subsequent recommendations can be articulated:
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Global transformation and unpredictability must be met with strategic thinking and foresight.
To follow current global trends and address their implications, Romania’s Parliament, Presidency, CSAT, Government, and intelligence services must streamline strategic thinking and foresight at all levels of public management, within the business sector, and in local communities. Given the EU’s and NATO’s global perspectives, it is no longer sufficient for Romania to state the EU and NATO as main priorities – as it is already a member of these organizations. Being a member of both organizations urges Romania to build a global vision and rebuild, strengthen, and invest significantly in its ability to understand today’s world.
- Given its resources, population dynamics, and vulnerabilities, Africa is a key region in the world’s efforts to counter emerging global challenges; as such, it should be seen as a key priority for Romania.
The Romanian President should visit African countries regularly.
Given Russia’s war against Ukraine and the esteem African countries hold for former-communist countries, the Romanian President should share Romania’s perspective on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NATIONAL AUTHORITIES
- Reposition Africa as a core priority of Romania’s foreign policy. Continuously develop a strategy that substantiates that priority and allocate the appropriate budget for its implementation.
While Romania’s relations with African countries have a historical dimension, reconnecting meaningfully today necessitates doing research and learning from the past and the present. Therefore, Romania should articulate a core strategic aim of enhancing its ability to learn (in all sectors) from its own history and from African societies.
- Learn and share learnings. A partnership based on learning is one where both parties are recognized and appreciated.
Value current relations and support their development. Mapping and nurturing meaningful relationships that rely on trust is the basis for successful foreign, development, security, trade, and investment policies. Romania should start by consolidating its relations with the African countries represented in Romania and those where it has a representation, alongside the countries of interest for the business sector, civil society, universities, development actors, and media.
- Romania should further enhance its presence on the African continent while re-thinking the current model of diplomatic mission, providing adequate staffing and budgets.
Romania should allow itself to innovate in strengthening diplomatic, economic, development, cultural, educational, and societal relations. Its past experiences as it belongs to a volatile world region equips Romanian actors – public and private – with perspectives and lessons learned that are a good basis for innovation. The Romanian Government should provide mechanisms and allocate resources to nurture innovative practices and translate them at a systemic level.
KEY STRATEGIC AREAS
(that could be considered while developing Romania`s strategy with African countries)
Above all, such a strategy should be done in close partnership with African countries and Romanian actors engaged in relations with African actors. Furthermore, Romania should strengthen its capacity to make sense of past and present relations with African countries – at all levels, public, private, civil society, academic, media, etc. – through an enhanced dialogue with African partners, including African diaspora in Romania, former alums, and local actors engaged in relations with African societies.
- Develop tailored partnerships with each African country, appreciating the differences on the continent. Such an aim entails a whole-of-society approach to foreign policy, valuing existing relationships and building new ones.
Include joint foresight and strategic dialogues as a basis for reconnecting to African countries. Thinking together offers a powerful foundation for building trust, in a world where uncertainty becomes the norm. Such an approach would enable Romania to better understand evolving perspectives of African partner countries and communicate better.
- Prioritize people-to-people relations as they are long-lasting. That is a key lesion of the earlier relations with African countries (i.e., scholarships, exchanges, etc.). Stimulate the development of and fund models for people-to-people relations that make sense, are tested in practice, and prove functional.
Assess and transform curricula within Romanian schools on international relations and foreign policy, including curricula regarding African countries, so that the Romanian population understands not just the geography and history of the continent but also its cultural diversity and current security and sustainability assets and challenges.
- Consolidate foreign, trade, and development policies and institutions so that the diplomatic missions can play a much more assumed role in trade and development relations.
Place people-to-people relations as the basis for external trade and development relations as that generates the most sustainable types of engagement based on trust and long-lasting partnerships.
- Generate and implement mechanisms for institutional support for civil society, universities, schools, and companies to enhance their relations with African actors.
Adapt the visa regimes and consular relations to such policy objectives.
Strengthen Romania’s voice in EU’s relations with Africa by bringing an informed and authentic perspective, much needed for EU’s capacity to transform its partnership with the African continent.
- Organize and fund annual events enabling African and Romanian actors to learn about each other and build partnerships.
Strengthen the capacity of the Presidency, the Parliament, and the Government, including the MFA and other relevant ministries, civil society, universities, and businesses for connecting to African countries.
- Develop a strategic and foresight Council on Romania’s relations with African countries.
Bring in the composition of the Council representatives of civil society, including African diaspora organizations, media, the academic sector, the business sector, and the above institutions, as a constant institutional mechanism for assessing the development of Romania’s relations with African countries and generate proposals for further engagement.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES, CIVIL SOCIETY, AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES
- Local communities are key to the future of diplomatic relations.
The depth of partnerships that already exist among local communities from Romania and African countries substantiate traditional diplomatic relations while currently not being considered in articulating foreign policy. Romania’s foreign policy should depart from and support the existing connections between Romanian communities and actors and African counterparts. Municipalities should also play a role in deepening these relationships.
- In an era of global challenges affecting local communities, local actors are best positioned to address the challenges they face by connecting with communities they can learn from.
Therefore, there is a need for mechanisms that connect local communities in Romania with those in various African countries, where such communities can learn from each other how to address the sustainability challenges they face.
Footnotes
- The policy brief is developed by the Center for Global Affairs and Postdevelopment of the Făgăraș Research Institute in partnership with ARCADIA – the Romanian Association for International Cooperation and Development, and FOND Romania.
- The analysis of Romanian non-governmental and academic actors’ engagement with African societies relies on a questionnaire applied between Nov. 2022 – March 2023, that generated 20 responses.
Departments: Policy Analysis and Outreach Department, Research Department, Center on Global Affairs and Post Development
Regions: Africa, Global, Romania
Themes: Civil Society, Democracy and Democratization, Sustainable Development Goals, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, International Development