7th Pécs African Studies Conference – May 19-20, 2022 – University of Pécs
POWER, GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT IN POST-COVID AFRICA
| May 19, Thursday |
Follow us on this YouTube link: https://youtu.be/IbMWa1n013o
09:30 – 10:00 Onsite registration (Library and Knowledge Centre (Tudásközpont), University of Pécs, Universitas utca 2/A.)
10:00 – 10:30 Welcome addresses (1st floor, Conference Hall)
| 10:30 – 11:15 Keynote lecture / Ian Taylor Memorial Lecture: Dr. Tim Zajontz (DE), ‘Global Africa’ in the emerging post-pandemic world order followed by a Q&A until 11:30 |
Tim Zajontz is a lecturer in International Relations and Global Political Economy at the Department of Political Science at the University of Freiburg, Germany, as well as a research fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews, UK. Dr. Zajontz’s recent research has focused on Africa’s integration into China’s Belt and Road Initiative, on infrastructure development as well as on the political economy of current African debt crises. His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Modern African Studies, Oxford Development Studies, Review of African Political Economy and the Journal of Southern African Studies.
In this first Ian Taylor Memorial Lecture, Dr. Zajontz will deal with contemporary processes of global reordering. in which Africa has increasingly gravitated towards the centre of these processes. Indeed, the pandemic has thrown into stark relief longstanding inequitable and racialised hierarchies in global affairs, with the global distribution of vaccines only being the most obvious case in point. The social and economic costs of the pandemic for African populations have been immense, as most African states have lacked adequate means to cushion the economic effects of the pandemic for ordinary citizens in the ways their Northern and Chinese counterparts could. Skyrocketing global food prices and absent wheat imports from Ukraine now further exacerbate social crises across the continent. The pandemic has also further driven up sovereign debt levels in Africa and caused debt distress in countries, such as Kenya and Zambia, which have turned to the International Monetary Fund for help, after amassing billions in external debt in the 2010s.
He will argue that notwithstanding these sobering developments, the strategic importance of Africa in the global arena has actually grown during the pandemic. Both COVID-19 and Russia’s war on Ukraine have shown plainly how (inter)dependent the world (including the Western world) has become on China. The, at times alarmist, political reaction in Brussels, Washington and other Western capitals has been marked by the conviction that the West needs to take back control over certain value chains and contain China’s influence in the Global South. Africa has thereby become the centre of attention. The continent is home to strategic resources that are indispensable for the transformation towards carbon neutrality. At the same time, Western governments seem no longer willing to leave growing African consumer and infrastructure markets to China. In the highly volatile current conjuncture, it seems apt to direct analytical attention towards the role of ‘Global Africa’ within the emerging post-pandemic global order.
11:30 – 12:50 Panel 1
Chair: István Tarrósy (HU)
Governance and Political Perspectives
11:30 – 11:45 Mohamed Salih (SD-NL), State Power Abuse and Governance deficit During COVID-19? Prospects for Post-COVID-19 Development Practice
11:45 – 12:00 Hajer Trabelsi (TN), Post-COVID Africa : A Tale of Challenges and Opportunities
12:00 – 12:15 László Csicsmann (HU), Arab Spring 2.0 in North Africa. The Impact of the Pandemic on the Political Transformation Process
12:15 – 12:30 István Tarrósy (HU), Tanzanian Political Communication During and After the Pandemic
12:30 – 12:50 Q&A debate
12:50 – 14:00 buffet lunch
14:00 – 15:00 Panel 2
Chair: György Iván Neszmélyi (HU)
Human Security Perspectives
14:00 – 14:15 Rashed Daher (EG-HU), Food Security in the Middle East in the Shadow of the War in Ukraine
14:15 – 14:30 Amadou Liman Boukari (NE), The Impacts Caused by COVID-19 in the Movement of People and Their Property in the Liptako-Gourma Area, 2020-22
14:30 – 14:45 Dániel Solymári (HU) & Ráhel Czirják (HU), Comprehensive Research Study in Nairobi’s Largest Slum
14:45 – 15:00 Q&A debate
15:00 – 16:00 Panel 3
Chair: Viktor Marsai (HU)
Historical Perspectives
15:00 – 15:15 Marcia Schenck (DE), Aiding Freedom Fighters? The Organization of African Unity’s refugee Convention of 1969 in the Making
15:15 – 15:30 Gábor Búr (HU), Timur and His Squad: The Wagner Group in Africa
15:30 – 15:45 Diana Sfetlana Stoica (RO), Decoloniality in Danger or Boosted? A Critical Perspective on ECOWAS Actions in the Post-COVID Perspective
15:45 – 16:00 Ádám Mayer (HU), The Reception of Hungarian and Eastern European Economic Theory in Cold War Era Nigeria
16:00 – 16:15 Q&A debate
16:15 – 16:30 coffee break
16:30 – 18:15 Panel 4
Chair: Dániel Solymári (HU)
Trade, Security and Development Perspectives
16:30 – 16:45 Ágnes Zsuzsa Hrabovszki (HU) & György Iván Neszmélyi (HU), Terrorism on the Rise – What Can WCA Countries Do to Combat Difficulties with International Trade
16:45 – 17:00 Viktor Marsai (HU), From South-Asia to Africa – The Conceptual Framework of the Deployment of the Hungarian Defense Forces in the Sahel
17:00 – 17:15 Balázs Szent-Iványi (UK-HU), Practicing What They Preach? Development NGOs and the EU’s Emergency Trust Fund for Africa
17:15 – 17:30 Zsolt Molnár (HU), International Volunteering’s Role and Responsibility in Humanitarian Development in Africa
17:30 – 17:45 Beáta Paragi (HU), Hungary Helps in Africa
17:45 – 18:15 Q&A debate
The Thursday evening programme is part of the Africa Days of the
International Seasons 2022 of the University of Pécs.
| May 20, Friday |
Follow us on this YouTube link: https://youtu.be/ajsKc4YaC5g
09:00 – 10:00 Panel 5
Chair: István Tarrósy (HU)
Peace, Migration and New Partners Perspectives
09:00 – 09:15 Zoltán Vörös (HU), China’s Participation in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan
09:15 – 09:30 Katerina Zenkova Rudincova (CZ), Somaliland in Searching for New Partners
09:30 – 09:45 Edwin Gimode (KE), Factors Fuelling the Somali Conflict and the Nature of International Intervention 1919–2021
09:45 – 10:00 Ahmed Abduletif Abdulkadr (ETH) & Mekonnen Sharew Tebeje (ETH), Protective Frameworks and Their Effects on the Socio-Economy of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ethiopia: The Case of the Afar Region
10:00 – 10:15 Q&A debate
10:15 – 12:00 Panel 6
Chair: Zoltán Vörös (HU)
Climate, Sustainability, Inclusion, Migration – Kenyan, Ethiopian and Ghanian Perspectives
10:15 – 10:30 Gabriella Hideg (HU), Cultural Adaptation of International Sportsmanship in Kenya
10:30 – 10:45 Alice Wakio Mwangeka (KE), Determination of Causes of Home-Based Deliveries Among Expectant Women in Taita Taveta County, Kenya
10:45 – 11:00 Norman Kiogora (KE) & Fridah Kiambati (KE), Inclusivity of Persons with Disabilities in Kenya Socio-Economic Processes: Legal Framework and Its Implementation Status
11:00 – 11:15 Klaudia Tóth (HU), What Does Climate Change Mean for Sub-Saharan Africa?
11:15 – 11:30 Áron Vaskó (HU) & György Iván Neszmélyi (HU), Challenges of Sustainable Economy in Northern Ghana Focusing on the Impacts of Seed Trade on the Decline of Indigenous Crops
11:30 – 11:45 Solomon M. Gofie (ETH), The “Management” of Outmigration and the Dynamics of Extra-Regional Involvement in the Horn of Africa
11:45 – 12:00 Q&A debate
12:00 – 12:15 Closing remarks
12:15 – 13:00 buffet lunch
The Friday evening programme is also part of the Africa Days of the
International Seasons 2022 of the University of Pécs.
21:00 – Afro Groovy Party
Szabadkikötő (7626 Pécs, Király utca 64.)
Jean Christophe Giraud, director of the Alliance Française of Pécs has lived for 10 years in New Caledonia. On this multicultural island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he fell in love with African music and from that time collects discs and always tries to discover new sounds. He will play music from all across the continent from old school classics to the latest trends.
Bon voyage !
