G7 Africa Agenda PDF
G7 Africa Agenda PDF
G7 Africa Agenda PDF
security in Africa
Lbeck, 15 April 2015
In 2014 the unprecedented outbreak of Ebola came as a shock to the world. Neither
the countries directly affected nor the international community were prepared to cope
with an epidemic of this magnitude and its far-reaching consequences. Our aim
remains to get the number of new Ebola cases across the region down to zero as
soon as possible. The crisis is testing our ability to live up to the challenges and in
particular to find regional and international responses to this crisis and possible future
ones. The human suffering of the people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and the
whole region is a constant reminder for us to reinforce our efforts to fight the
epidemic and its consequences. It has exposed the lasting impact of their history of
conflict on the resilience of the countries concerned, and thus the importance of
sustainable peace and statebuilding for the prevention of this kind of crisis. We,
therefore, welcome the initiative undertaken by Ghana, Norway and Germany in the
United Nations to elaborate a comprehensive concept to strengthen national and
multilateral systems to prevent and manage future health crises and the high-level
panel appointed by UNSG Ban Ki-Moon whose work should promote the
development of this concept.
The outbreak has underscored the need to intensify overall cooperation and
coordination, in particular at the regional/cross-border level in Africa, in order to
prevent the spread of diseases and to effectively counter epidemics and other newly
emerging types of crises. Efficient and well-established regional cooperation will
contain and mitigate negative consequences of health crises as well as
environmental and natural disasters with the potential to become crises of a global
dimension. This cooperation will also contribute to enhancing African security
structures and capacities in general.
The success of African regional cooperation depends on functioning interaction
between regional organisations under the pan-African umbrella of the African Union
and African leadership.
We, the G7 Foreign Ministers, have - in close cooperation with the African Union and
other African regional organisations (EAC, ECOWAS, IGAD) developed this
agenda to contribute to enhancing security cooperation in Africa, focussing on the
prevention of future epidemics and other newly emerging types of crises. By building
on established patterns of cooperation within the framework of these organisations,
looking at concurring initiatives in different African regions and spreading success
intensify support and capacity building (for national level) with regard to the health
sector in close collaboration with the WHO, global health partnerships and health
sector donors, while encouraging increased national sustainable investment in the
health sector to develop and improve the national capacities required by the
WHOs International Health Regulations, including laboratories and surveillance
and tracing systems
assure best possible support for international health-care workers in the field
including medical evacuation where appropriate, in the event they contract the
virus;
Beyond Ebola and the prevention of future epidemics, we regard as one crucial
lesson from Ebola the need to improve the cooperation and the capacities to respond
to new types of crises, the need to ensure local communities are robustly engaged
from the outset in combating them, and the need for sustainable peace and
statebuilding to strengthen resilience to such types of crises. This requires a better
set-up of crisis reaction management that binds together early warning mechanisms,
organisational and logistic capacities, expert resources and coordination procedures.
In this respect, we aim to:
support capacity building with governments, regional bodies, civil societies and
the private sector on crisis management and crisis communication as well as
awareness-raising;
envisage a dialogue with African partners on the results of exchanges among the
G7 on necessary and/or existing assets for the response to new types of crises.
This should include the work on identifying fields of excellence, i. a. in the science
and research sector, among the G7 to prepare for future crises;
The international conference on Ebola organised in Brussels on 3rd March stressed
the need to sustain the international mobilisation until there are zero new cases of
Ebola in the affected region, to ensure that funding for this critical activity is secured
and to plan the next steps in the fight against the virus as well as to help the affected
countries to recover. Several international meetings are already planned such as the
spring meeting of the IMF and World Bank, a conference of the UN General
Secretary in New York, an African Union conference in Malabo in July, and a new
European conference during the second semester of 2015.
help to enhance capacities in the field of border control, border management and
cross-border cooperation in line with international health regulations and ongoing
regional efforts in support of the African Peace and Security Architecture. Support
existing regional regimes and international initiatives in the field of border areas
management, such as in the AU Border Program by building on synergies, where
possible; 2
The AU Border Program focuses on border demarcation and cross border cooperation in
resource management, local cross border traffic and local cross border cooperation with
several African States under the leadership of the African Union.
intensify regional cooperation, with a focus on the rule of law, the fight against
trafficking in persons and narcotics, terrorism and against the spread of small
arms and light weapons (SALW) as well as the promotion of legal cross-border
transit, bearing in mind the overall link between security and development.
Particular efforts will be aimed at the intensification of the Sahel-Maghreb
cooperation, in accordance with UN and EU Sahel strategies and with the G5
Sahel action plan, and SALW control in the Greater Sahel region by coordinating
joint activities between donors, regional organisations including the AU and
ECOWAS and countries in the region.
We, the G7 Foreign Ministers, will remain seized on this agenda. We have tasked our
G7 Africa Directors to follow-up on the matter, in close contact with our African
partners and within the regional and organisational frameworks mentioned in this
document and in other appropriate fora. We will review progress at our next meeting.
The Rabat Process and the Khartoum Process are policy- and dialogue initiatives between
the EU and West African and East African countries dealing with migration flows, root causes
of migration, combatting human trafficking and border control cooperation.