Who are we?
The JAGA: an initiative of the Alliance for Rebuilding Governance in Africa (ARGA). The decision to hold the Annual African Governance Days (Journées Annuelles sur la Gouvernance en Afrique - JAGA was taken at a time when most African countries had already experienced a half-century of independence and when the ‘Arab spring’, post-electoral crises and recurrent economic problems in Africa were reminding us of two things: the fragility of post-colonial nation-States and their democratic processes and the persistent dependence and extroversion of their economies. ARGA’s goal is to engender a durable space for forward-looking reflection and joint initiatives to enlighten and support an ambitious African development movement, ‘Africa Horizon 2060: Africa Takes Control of its Destiny’, to be implemented in the coming decades. The purpose of the AAGD is to reflect on the perimeters and means of constructing a governance project in Africa that the continent can use as a basis for developing its economy and strengthening its position in the world between now and the year 2060.
The Alliance for Rebuilding Governance in Africa brings together African and non-African actors committed to both thinking and acting, people committed to promoting—in Africa and across the world—a dialogue on the management of public affairs in Africa. Since 2003, the Alliance has been actively involved in the ‘Dialogues on governance in Africa: Decentralisation and regional integration’ network. This network was created in 1999 at the initiative of a number of well-known Africans, most of whom had held leadership positions in their countries and had noted—from within African society—how Africans themselves had no control of the processes working to change African societies and the world at large. This was because the inadequate means of governance—that had been imported from non-African countries voluntarily or by force—were unsuited to meeting the needs of Africans and further weakened Africa’s capacity to meet the challenges of globalisation.
