INSTITUTIONS INITIATING THE AROA
Enda Tiers Monde, Council for the Development of Social Science Research (CODESRIA), Third World Forum (FTM), International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Institute for African Futures (IFA), African Women’s Association for Research and Development (AFARD), Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, Legacy Africa, Pan African Institute for Development / West Africa and Sahel (IPD-AOS), West African Think Tank (WATHI), TRUSTAFRICA, Alliance for Rebuilding Governance in Africa (ARGA)
THE ALTERNATIVE REPORT ON AFRICA (AROA)
The RASA is a new and essential initiative of renowned African and international institutions (Enda Tiers Monde, Third World Forum, CODESRIA, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), AFARD, Institute for African Futures (IFA), Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, LEGS AFRICA, Alliance pour la Refondation de la Gouvernance en Afrique (ARGA), West Africa Think tank (WATHI), etc).
Faced with the kaleidoscope of reports on Africa ranking the countries of the continent according to exogenous and neo-liberal criteria and indicators (Doing Business, World Bank, IMF), the Alternative Report on Africa (RASA) aims at the ideological and epistemological reversal of analyses on the continent, the deepening and diversification of issues and areas addressed, and the measurement of indicators of progress and sovereignty of Africans. Also carried by high-level African personalities and scientists, this initiative will elaborate reports that truly reflect the sensibility and the experience of Africans in the different environments.
Its objective is to contribute, in a decisive way, to the consolidation of the transformations at work in the African societies and institutions towards autonomy and sovereignty. It is a question of making visible the dynamics and mutations at work on the continent, in particular those which are carried by the Africans in their majority and their diversity. RASA wants to make visible and strengthen the real societal transformations that are irrigated by a spirit of self-determination, and capacities of innovation and conquest of their autonomy which are not sufficiently reflected in reports on Africa and their instruments.
Thus, the debates and spaces for defining strategy or policies will be fed and enriched by endogenous knowledge that makes sense to Africans. This knowledge will be produced on a credible basis and will value African innovations and empowerment.
RASA is also a response to the lack of foresight capacity of African institutions and actors who are driving the dynamics of the continent. It will inform African projections of the future in the context of a return to long-term planning at national and continental levels. The RASA will be an instrument for measuring the progress of long-term plans and the shortcomings in the direction of sovereignty of these projections towards the future.
