African Consensus is an economic paradigm proposed in 2011 for sustainable development in Africa. It is built on practical experiences across the African continent together with shared experiences from other regions facing similar challenges. It merges existing efforts of civil society in such areas as renewable energy, community finance and empowerment, organic agriculture and water resource management, environmental and endangered species protection. It couples these with the pragmatic experiences of business and finance in an attempt to scale these efforts into viable economic models. Seeking a pragmatic path for development, it emphasizes the importance of heritage, cultural and identity protection with the need for economic advancement.
African Consensus Forum
The African Consensus Forum is proposed as an annual event, chaired by Tanzania's president Jakaya Kikwete, to convene stakeholders from civil society, government, business and finance. It is intended to address major challenges of development and present a range of concrete experiences, as well as to outline practical solutions that are economically viable and scalable. The annual meeting will initially be held in Dar Es Salaam with plans for breakout meetings alternating in the five regional zones during the year.
African Consensus Crisis Prevention Center
The African Consensus Crisis Prevention Center is an anticipated outcome of the Africa Consensus Forum to address crises of violence, which may arise over allocation of resources and resource benefits. African Consensus Forum will seek to anticipate crisis situations and offer a second track dialogue process toward economic solutions to prevent crisis. The center's work will be hosted by the secretariat. It should coordinate efforts with those initiatives ongoing in the African Union, and other initiatives active on the continent.
History
The African Consensus concept emerged during the 2011 World Social Forum held in Dakar, Senegal. Drafting of the African Consensus Resolution was undertaken by NGO leaders working throughout the event (late January and throughout February 2011). Key spokespersons of the process were West African celebrity rapper Didier Awadi who is known for his outspoken activism, and Alioune Tine who has been a peace mediator in both Darfur and Ivory Coast. Leaders of the African branch of the World Social Forum were also deeply involved in the process.
Laurence Brahm was invited by these activists to help articulate the concepts and draft the original African Consensus Declaration that was tabled before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) NGO Forum two months later. The African Consensus Declaration was adopted by the ACHPR Forum in Gambia, in April 2011.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa picked up on the ideas in the declaration and held a drafting session in October 2011 to draft a document called "African Consensus Statement to Rio+20". It was presented at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) during the conference summer 2012, incorporating the vision into the ideas of inclusive sustainability promoted by the UN system. The two documents – African Consensus Declaration and the African Consensus Statement to Rio+20 – underpin the economic paradigm by building a body of internationally recognized documentation.
In summer 2014, Tanzania's president Jakaya Kikwete summoned Laurence Brahm (the original drafter of the African Consensus Declaration) together with John Masuka (Tanzania's "father of inclusive finance") to the northern State House in Dodoma. There President Kikwete explained his own intention to convene the African Consensus Forum as a multi-stakeholder process between civil society, business-finance and government. Kikwete was one of the original conveners of the Helsinki Process, in his previous role as Tanzania's foreign minister. The Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy calls for multi-stakeholder participation in resolving political and leadership challenges. By convening the African Consensus Forum as an extension of the Helsinki Process, Kikwete extended that process from the realm of governance to economics. The Uongozi Institute, a leadership organization that is an outcome of the original Helsinki Process, is the body where the African Consensus Institute is to be located. Expectations are for the African Consensus to convene each year in early December.