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From 29th to 30th September 2022, the Regional Programme for Political Dialogue in West Africa (PDWA) of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung celebrated its 30th anniversary at the Sofitel Hôtel Ivoire in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. It was an opportunity to look back and to look ahead to the years to come.
At the opening ceremony on Thursday 29th, Dr. Stefanie Brinkel, Resident Representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in Côte d’Ivoire and Director of PDWA, H.E. Ingo Herbert, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Côte d'Ivoire, and H.E. Joséphine Mayuma Kala, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission in Côte d'Ivoire, took stock of the excellent collaboration between the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and its partners in the sub-region. This was done in front of an audience of officials and various guests from Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Africa and Germany.
Afterwards, Dr. Gerhard Wahlers, Deputy Secretary General and Director of the Department for European and International Cooperation (KAS), gave a keynote speech on "The Role of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in a Changing World".
After a joint group photo, the panels took place. The first one adressed the topic: "30 years of multiparty politics in West Africa: assessment and perspectives", moderated by Dr. Holger Dix, Director of the regional programme Political Dialogue in Sub-Saharan Africa based in South Africa. From the national conferences of the early 1990s and the advent of democracy to the particular context of the beginning of this decade, the panelists drew up a list of observations and advances, while highlighting the pitfalls. They were H.E. Ambassador Joseph Youssoufou Bamba, former Minister and former Permanent Representative to the United Nations and now Executive Secretary of the PDCI-RDA in charge of External Relations (Côte d'Ivoire), Me. Paul Dodji Apevon, President of the "Forces Démocratiques pour la République" (Togo), Pr. Victor Topanou, former Minister of Justice and former Scientific Secretary of the UNESCO Chair of Human Rights and Democracy (Benin), and Christian Kattner, Secretary General of the International Democratic Union (IDU, Germany).
A short break served as a transition to the second panel which dealt with "the scholarship programme of the PDWA regional programme: insights and perspectives", with Souhadou Diasso, National Coordinator of the KAS scholarship holders in Burkina Faso as moderator, who welcomed for the occasion Pr. Samson Igor Guedgebe from the longstanding KAS partner UNESCO Chair of Human Rights and Democracy (Benin), Kodjo Awudi, former KAS scholarship holder, lawyer and former member of the National Electoral Commission (Togo), Gnamien Attoubre, President of the “Ligue Ivoirienne pour la Paix, l'Education et le Civisme” (LIPEC) and National Coordinator of the KAS scholarship holders from Côte d'Ivoire, and H.E. Seny Tonamou, scholarship holder and Member of the National Transitional Council (Guinea). Reference was made to the opportunities offered to young people in the sub-region through the PDWA scholarship programme and success stories of the network were shared.
The afternoon was marked by a symbolic tree planting ceremony by Dr. Gerard Wahlers in the KAS office in Abidjan. As a symbol a baobab tree was chosen, a tree found in almost all West African countries.
On Friday, 30th September 2022, the program started with a panel on the topic "Looking back on 30 years of PDWA: civil society's views on the lessons and implications of the PDWA programme". This panel explored the actions of civil society organisations as partners. The panelists were Ourou Bossi Tchacondoh, President of the NGO “Centre d'Observation et de Promotion de l'Etat de Droit” (Togo), Urbain Amegbedji, Director General of the “Agence Nationale pour l'Emploi” (Benin), and Dr. Moquet César Flan, Director of the “Centre de Recherche Politique d'Abidjan” (Côte d'Ivoire) and also a member of the Solution Think Tank (STT) network.
The last panel was entitled "Challenges and opportunities for the development of the West African economy". Led by Business 24 Africa journalist Elisabeth Yao (Côte d'Ivoire), the discussion focused on successful economic models as well as pitfalls and ways to overcome them, with panelists just as brilliant as the previous ones: Dr. Djinta Litaaba-Akila from the Laboratory of Agricultural Economics and Applied Macroeconomics at the University of Lomé (Togo), Mr. Jean Bernard Favi, Director General of Trade at the Ministry of Commerce (Benin), and Dr. Aliou Barry, Managing Director of “Stat View International” and member of STT (Guinea).
The celebration was closed with a speech from Dr. Stefan Friedrich, Director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Department of KAS (Germany), pertaining to strategic directions and perspectives for the PDWA programme and final remarks by Dr. Stefanie Brinkel.
Satisfaction was on everyone's lips, from the delegations of the countries represented to the officials.