Shaping the ‘Canadian way’ in Africa

OTTAWA—I remember quite clearly one fall morning several years before I retired from Global Affairs Canada when I joined other staff at a roundtable coffee-and-muffins breakfast with the deputy minister responsible for international development. I was the last to speak. I described my responsibilities for trade in 25 countries in West and Central Africa. “My sympathies,” he said and smiled. Perplexed, I asked why. “Well, promoting Canadian trade in Africa must be a pretty tough job. There can’t be much going on.” Given that the deputy minister had a reputation as a strong player in government, I was surprised by his remarks. I proceeded to inform him about the reality of my work: on my desk was $800-million worth of pending contracts—mining and pipeline projects and the sale of aircraft. I told him our trade offices in the field were working flat out. He was astonished. This illustrates the dichotomy of the Canadian view of Africa: there are people in positions of authority who presume the continent is the same as it was decades ago, and that policy prescriptions should not change. For Canada, the conundrum lies in deciding which Africa our government wants to cultivate: the emerging Africa of free enterprise or the “dependent” Africa, relying on development funds to sustain its economy. Of the $5.4-billion offered in Canadian official development assistance in 2016, nearly half went to Africa: $400-million to a range of sub-Saharan countries; $190-million to Ethiopia; about $130-million each to Mali, Tanzania, and Ghana; Nigeria received $105-million. Could we be investing that money more effectively? While there remain substantial challenges to development in Africa, including related to governance, infrastructure, training, education, and conflict, there are several positive indicators that should lead Canada to join in the growing international interest in the continent’s economy. According to a 2016 report from the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., the three key advantages Africa offers are substantial: a young population, compared with the trend to aging in much of Asia and Europe; the move towards greater urbanization, where the levels of productivity are far higher than in the countryside; and the rapid adaptation of technology, from the workplace to the proliferation of smartphones. As Africa grows, there will be a demand for more effective infrastructure; spending on bridges, roads, ports, pipelines, and airports is already growing at a rate of 3.5 per cent per year. Canada is well placed to take advantage of these changes; our expertise in building bridges, roads, and ports is recognized globally. In aerospace, Bombardier has established maintenance hubs in Morocco and South Africa; its Q400 has proved popular, as there are many trips between cities in Africa of 600 nautical miles (1,200 kilometres) or less. And Canada is welcomed in Africa as an investor. This is one of the interesting byproducts of being a country small in population but rich in expertise. Canadian companies that go to Africa have had to rely on training local talent, rather than shipping in expatriates, as China has done in the recent past. What is known as the “Canadian way”—training and promoting Africans—grew completely out of necessity, but has engendered a great deal of goodwill for Canada. The Trudeau government has promoted alternative energy companies as the answer to dependence on petroleum-based energy sources. This strategy may prove timely, in an Africa leaping from one stage of technological development to another. There is no need for telephone wires if cellular phones dominate. Canada has dozens of trade and development officers in Africa; working together, they could focus on combining development objectives with trade tools to focus on Canada’s inherent skills: trade expertise, good governance, investment, and education. Global Affairs Canada is in the process of developing a new trade and development strategy for Africa. While it has not yet been made public, there are some indications as to what it may contain. A November 2017 working paper by researchers with Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs says: “There are opportunities to better link trade and development strategies, both in areas of current strength (e.g. agriculture and agri-food) and especially from a forward-looking perspective with regards to high-tech, high-value added and ‘sunrise’ sectors (e.g. clean technologies), in a…‘win-win-win’ for development impact, Canada’s international priorities, and future trade and investment diversification.” If Canadians want to be truly innovative, we have to put aside the separation of development and trade in Africa. If the new direction and thirst for innovation is any indication, the government is at last recognizing the two are not mutually exclusive. Andrew Caddell retired last year from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, for which he first published a longer version of this piece. He is also a principal of QIT Canada. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com. The Hill Times

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Shaping the ‘Canadian way’ in Africa

If Canadians want to be innovative, they have to realize development and trade are not mutually exclusive.

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