M468 - AFRICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Students will be able not only to proactively show a thorough awareness of the pivotal role played by Africa in contemporary geopolitics, also thanks to the study of ad hoc policy documents, but also to comprehensively examine the most significant views regarding the role of Africa in the current international debate.
All topics will be addressed from both an intra-African perspective (African Union and Regional Economic Communities) and an international dimension, such as the United Nations, the European Union and other multilateral fora.
Sustainable development will be presented as a key component of African socio-economic development highlighting the role played by Agenda 2063. Particularly, students will be provided with a comprehensive overview of current and future trends in African development as a combination of the following factors: rapid technology transfer; favourable macroeconomic data; improved agricultural policies; significant decrease in inter-state armed conflicts; reduction in foreign debt; and increased and more structural foreign direct investments focused on Africa’s key priorities.
Despite the persistence of negative narratives about it, Africa is the second fastest growing macro-region in the world after Asia and in the 21st century it will be the fastest. Indeed, although it started from a backward condition at the beginning of the millennium, Africa is gaining positions in all economic sectors (trade, investment and global financial flows), which are increasingly converging on what until a few years ago was labelled the 'Lost Continent'. Because of that, the students will be provided, beyond ideological representations, a multidisciplinary and updated insight into African strategic horizons, through political and economic dynamics from international, continental and regional points of view, according to the most appropriate documentation available, although sometimes controversial.
Besides, learners will be able to realize that Africa is moving from dependence on development aid to trade-driven economic growth embedded in economic globalisation, private sector investments so that it is no longer the final destination of international aid and solidarity, but the place par excellence for global investment.
Finally, because of the impact of circular economy on the economy and on the social development of Africa, students will see how the fourth industrial revolution offers Africa the opportunity to accelerate economic transformation in productivity and growth for both domestic consumption and export. Actually, mandatory reforms, to be implemented by African leaders, will include mobilising more and better domestic resources, diversifying the economy, building adequate infrastructure and logistics networks, increasing regional economic and political integration, managing climate change and the unique urbanisation process with the strong emergence of intermediary cities. In regards of cities’ transformation, the issues of adaptation, resilience and infrastructure development will be focused too.