Equal goals, unequal alliance

In Africa there are increasing concerns that Europeans and Africans still cannot work on an equal footing in research partnerships, says Munyaradzi Makoni.

In 2007, the Joint Africa-EU Strategy was launched to provide a long-term framework for relations between the African Union and the European Union. The framework was supposed to lift EU-African partnerships to the level of cooperation between equals, rather than donation of European aid to needy African countries.

The EU and its African partners selected a variety of areas of science, such as space science and ICT, where they would aim to improve cooperation. The partnership deal also included work on policy improvement and the requirement of African partners to develop better regulatory frameworks to support research in their countries.