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Online course

Ten sponsored places are available for applicants for this course that intends to strengthen civil society's understanding of and engagement with Global South nations whose presence is growing in Africa

Administered by: Tuliwaza Programme – Emerging Powers Project

Based at: Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice

The Emerging Powers programme based at Fahamu is offering a 10-day online course analyzing the footprint of Africa’s engagements with emerging powers from the Global South. The course provides a unique opportunity for civil society practitioners (in particular activists, community-based leaders, undergraduate and postgraduate students, commentators, journalists and trade unionists) to unpack and debate the nature of the relationship between Africa’s regional economic communities and key actors from the Global South. The course is designed to provide insights into the linkages and influences these emerging powers have had on the ‘Africa rising’ narrative and the continent’s integration into the international system.

Undoubtedly, the rise of Southern actors (such as Brazil, China, India, the Gulf States, South Korea, and Turkey) has unleashed a new wave of research and media inquiries into the impact that these actors are having on continental processes, especially on intra-regional trade, natural resource governance, social development, nepotism and corruption, environmental concerns related to infrastructure projects and extractive industries as well as the pending effect on Africa’s development prospects and public diplomacy. While African governments have enjoyed a more than robust and warm engagement with some of the actors, African civil society groups have found themselves at the margins of trying to shape the debate and actually play a monitoring role. This has led to differentiated responses and reactions by civil society actors in trying to serve the interests of their constituencies in formulating a sustained response in holding these actors and respective African governments accountable and transparent about the nature of the footprint of the emerging powers in the continent’s external engagements. As a contribution to empowering civil society actors in gaining the appropriate knowledge and developing the necessary tools to articulate an informed perspective on the emerging powers in Africa and the corresponding impact, this 10-day course is aimed at building the following competencies:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

• To be able to define, discuss and compare the relationship between the various Emerging Powers and African governments in respective sub-regional settings;
• To distinguish the political, social and economic footprint of the Emerging Powers in Africa’s landscape.
• To gauge the strengths and weaknesses of Africa’s relationship with the Emerging Powers.
• To understand what factors and issues shape Africa’s engagement with the emerging powers and vice versa?
• To assess the impact the emerging powers have for Africa’s broader external engagements with traditional actors and global processes?
• To evaluate whether African states can formulate a regional or continental response to their engagement with the Emerging Powers?
• To critically evaluate the impact of the Emerging Powers on Africa’s identity in global politics.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• To understand how civil society actors and social justice movements can apply the knowledge on the Emerging powers to their specific needs.
• To develop monitoring and evaluation strategies on the engagement between African governments and the Emerging Powers.
• To formulate a critical knowledge base on the behaviour of the emerging Powers in Africa.

JUDGMENT AND APPROACH

• To strengthen a track two civil society platform on the emerging powers in Africa;
• To advance online debates, advocacy campaigns, and developing coalitions and partnerships across the spectrum based on collaborative research projects, joint programmes of action and lobbying interventions.
• To host and develop more people focused forums as alternative platforms to the BRICS Summit, the Forum on China-Africa Forum, World Economic Forum, and the India-Africa Forum Summit.
• To garner the necessary knowledge tools to engage with regional economic communities and the African Union around a CSO policy response to Africa’s interactions with the Emerging Powers.

This is an interactive online course, which will be conducted via live Google Hangout video calls and emails between the faculty and participants.
The last three days are devoted to an assignment that will involve designing an advocacy plan for policy engagement on the Emerging Powers. It is intended that the product of this assignment will be something that you and your organisation can use in the future to help guide your campaigning work. You will be guided throughout the course by an online course tutor.

Find the course outline here

HOW TO APPLY

There are 10 sponsored places available on this course.
The current deadline for this round of applications is 25th July 2014.

Applicants should send an up-to-date CV of not more than 3 pages and a motivation letter outlining their interest in this programme and the Emerging Powers in Africa discourse and the benefit their being part of this programme will add to your organization.

Applications should be sent to [email][email protected]

For further information please contact

Sanusha Naidu Email: [email][email protected]
Or
Edwin Rwigi Email: [email][email protected]

* Fahamu (www.fahamu.org) is committed to serving the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change and that promote and protect human rights. Fahamu has extensive experience in distance learning for human rights organisations.

The course will be conducted online via Google +Hangouts. Kindly look through this pdf guide on how to use it.