November 13, 2024 | Washington DC

On November 13, 2024, the Social Science Research Council’s (SSRC) African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen), in partnership with the Wilson Center’s Africa Program, hosted a policy dialogue at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. This inaugural session of the “Trendlines and Transformations in African Democratic Governance: Lessons for 21st-Century US-Africa Relations” series brought together African and US scholars and experts to discuss political developments across Africa, exploring strategies for strengthening democracy in the region.  

Robert Litwak, Senior Vice President and Director of International Studies of the Woodrow Wilson Center, opened the session by emphasizing the shared missions of the APN and Next Gen Program and the Wilson Center’s Africa Program in fostering African expertise in US-Africa policy discussions through research and dialogue. He also framed the conversation as one that focuses on how governance trends across Africa intersect with major political events and daily civic engagements.  

Opening remarks were given by Dafna Hochman Rand, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State. She stressed the importance of rethinking the US’s approach—its ‘toolkit’—to democracy promotion strategies to address new challenges and empower local actors on the continent. She posed three critical questions to the panel: 1) How can we consider the impact of growing geopolitical competition on democracy promotion in Africa? 2) How can the US and other actors better support successful democracies in Africa? 3) How can the US modernize its tools for promoting governance?  

Cyril Obi, Program Director of the APN and Next Gen Program, followed with the program’s objective to produce high-quality research on conflict-affected countries and connect them to policy discussions and conversations. He highlighted democracy’s resilience on the continent despite the present challenges and introduced the concept of democratic dividends. An overarching question was posed: how can African people and regional bodies effectively engage in democracy promotion, and what role should the international community play in supporting this?  

Director of the Wilson Center’s Africa Program, Oge Onubogu, invited the panel to comment on the disconnect between citizen values and aspirations for democracy and the practice of democracy on the continent.  

Rawia Tawfik, a former APN fellow, and Visiting Associate Professor, Council on African Studies, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, emphasized that the wave of democratic protests in Africa often drew connections between securing fundamental freedoms through democratic governance and the management of the continent’s economies. She highlighted the difficulty of building a lasting democracy without a robust institutional framework.  

Charles Ukeje, a former APN fellow, and Professor of International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, spoke of the material base required for popular support for democracy, as well as the erosion of this material base, which has reduced the capacity of social actors at the forefront of change: the African middle class. This erosion, he asserted, is contributing to the shrinking of civic spaces across the continent.  

Latifah Kasozi Namutebi, a Wilson Center’s Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding (SVNP) Scholar and Strategic Partnership and Advocacy Officer at the Women’s International Peace Centre, Uganda, drew on the 2021 General Ugandan Election, where digital spaces were used to engage with political actors in real-time to shed light on the pivotal role technology has played in creating spaces amidst shrinking civil spaces. She emphasized the importance of not focusing solely on the rising threat of disinformation and misinformation, asserting that we can continue countering them through community efforts and fact-checking.  

Peter Lewis, Warren Weinstein Chair of African Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and former Wilson Center Africa Program fellow, highlighted Africans’ commitment to democracy, which still surpasses percentages in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.   

Oge Onubogu, Director of Wilson Center’s Africa program introduced a new line of questioning centered on new actors that are reshaping the geopolitical and strategic competition involving established and emerging international actors on the continent. Specifically posing a question to Professor Tawfik, she inquired about how the strengthening of democratic governance can be considered on the continent, given these actors’ influences.  

Professor Tawfik used Sudan and the Horn of Africa as case studies, explaining that the incursion of international and regional actors has contributed to 1) support of dictatorial regimes and 2) support of one side over another in conflicts. Professor Tawfik suggested that different countries understand these actors’ interests and exert sufficient pressure to influence their course of action. She also urged the AU to be more consistent regarding actions taken against violators of unconstitutional changes in government.   

The Director of the Wilson Center’s Africa Program then posed a question on how the toolkit for engaging the continent can be updated to represent the interests of citizens, given the fading legitimacy of RECs, to Charles Ukeje.     

Professor Ukeje described the disconnect between the commitments made by the AU and other RECs to uphold the principles of democracy over the last decade and their implementation. He highlighted West African citizens’ disconnect from ECOWAS, an institution that has become more of a club of governing elites. He suggested that ECOWAS and other RECs carry out institutional reforms, especially considering the cross-border challenges facing Africa, including banditry, violent extremism, and climate change.    

During the Q&A session, panelists emphasized shifting US support for democracy in Africa from propping up governments to empowering citizens and civil society. They highlighted the need to address systemic challenges, like election manipulation through the judiciary, and stressed the importance of involving African youth in strengthening governance. The crucial role the African private sector can play in the political space—particularly through strategic coalitions with government and business interests to foster growth, improve infrastructure, secure property rights, and align institutions to attract local and foreign businesses—was also underscored.     

A recording of the panel discussion can be found here.