France’s policy towards Africa which has been biased towards Francophone Africa will change as part of new commitments made to the continent as a whole, according to Diane Binder, Member of the French Presidential Advisory Council for Africa.
During discussions with members of the media, Binder stated that while acknowledging the diversity, Frances policy towards Africa will include Anglophone Africa and others in its policy.
“The President wants to break from old ways of doing business. In terms of new policies, a very strong aspect of that could be, we the French have a strong bias for Francophone Africa for historical reasons, language, geography, population and so on. One of the policy changes he wants to make is to basically see Africa as one continent recognizing the diversity of the 54 countries. He is really trying to focus his policy on Anglophone Africa,” Binder pointed out.
Speaking on the focus of the new French government on letting bygones be bygones when it comes to the history of French colonization of African countries, Binder said that all must focus on the future.
“Colonization is definitely a sensitive issue and everybody acknowledges that. I think on the other hand you can’t always get back to the past to explain what is going on today and to think about what future you can build. The past is the past; some mistakes were made that have been acknowledged by the French President, but that shouldn’t prevent us from moving forward together and build new partnerships,” she stated.
Although there are a lot of claims that suggest Frances continuous involvement in the political affairs of its old colonial African nations, Binder argues that decisions made and steps taken after colonial times were by African governments, without France’s involvement.
“It’s true that we had a history where France had a responsibility in the way Francophone Africa has developed over the years, but the choices that have been made ever since the end of colonization are choices made by African governments so what we can do is, again, support policies any way that we can and try to build new partnerships,” she said.
The Presidential Advisory Council for Africa was set up in August this year by the French President. It has 10 members who were chosen by for their various experiences and exposure to the continent. All members come from civil society and have various backgrounds.

The Sugar Corporation awarded a procurement of 100,000 metric tons of sugar for the Dubai based supplier, Al Khaleej Sugar on Friday December 1.
The company which is familiar to the Ethiopian market will transport the product up to Djibouti port through January.
The sugar shortage has not been alleviated with local production so the government has imported 70,000 metric tons of sugar recently.
In the recent bid, though the invitation to short listed companies; five importers participated on November 24 hoping they would be picked to import the product as soon as possible.
The companies who bided are ED and F Man, Tereos Commodities, Agro Corp, Sucden, and Al Khaleej. Sucden is the company that supplied the 70,000 metric tons that was procured before the end of the past budget year to fill the gap that occurred when sugar factories shut down for maintenance at the beginning of the current budget year.
In the latest procurement Al Khaleej won the bid by offering 496.91 USD per ton up to the Djibouti port or FOB of 460.91 USD at the port of the initial point. The company is expected to supply the sweat from UAE or Pakistan and the payment will be settled within 12 months.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn recently said that the import of sugar will be continued until the shortage is alleviated.
Several sugar projects commenced in the first Growth and Transformation Plan, but none of them commenced commercial production.
In the last couple of months the sugar shortage was visibly observed in the capital and regional towns and the price of the product skyrocketed on the black-market. In his latest press briefing the PM apologized to the general public for the incident and he promised that the government will continue importing.
The corporation has plans to cut sugar imports as of the budget year and it has unsuccessfully to export sugar to Kenya.

The Palestinian government, which strongly opposed the US plan to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem thanked Ethiopia and other 14 members of the Security Council namely: Russia, France, Britain, China, Sweden, Bolivia, Uruguay, Italy, Egypt, Ukraine, Japan, Kazakhstan, and Senegal for their principled stand and deep compliment to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, for condemning the announcement of the US President.
Nasri Abujah, Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda said on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, celebrated at the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) on December 12, said peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East without a full sovereign and independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
“The president of the United States of America did not realize the fact that we Palestinians have a deep rooted history in East Jerusalem: deeper than the roots of olive and orange trees! And Mr. Trump will never be able to erase that fact.”
“Mr. Trump, you based your decision on the facts of Jerusalem for few years, such as the presence of the Israeli Prime Minister office and the Israeli Knesset, to give Israel this right. If you have wondered in the neighborhoods and streets (like Khan al-Zayt, the old city, WadiAljoz and the gates of Jerusalem) you would have discovered that it belonged to the Palestinians.” He added that the recent decision will harm the ongoing peace process.
“This reckless decision sends a dangerous message that will resonate worldwide. It undermines the standing of the international system, including the United Nations. It also tells countries that they can dictate realities by force and violations of the international law. This will unleash a new era of violence and disregard of international law worldwide’’ the Ambassador further added.
Suleiman Dedefo, Director of Middle East at the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Ethiopia will work with the UN and AU to resolve the dispute among Israel and Palestine.
The international legal and diplomatic status of Jerusalem is unresolved. Legal scholars disagree on how to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian dispute about it under international law. Many United Nations (UN) member states formally adhere to the United Nations proposal that Jerusalem should have an international status.
The major dispute revolves around the legal status of East Jerusalem, while an agreement exists regarding future Israeli presence in West Jerusalem. De jure, the majority of UN member states and most international organisations do not recognize Israel’s ownership of East Jerusalem, which came under its control after the 1967 Six-Day War, or its 1980 Jerusalem Law proclamation, which declared a “complete and united” Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. As a result, foreign embassies are generally located in Tel Aviv and its suburbs.

The African Economic Conference is urging African governments to put governance at the center of their agenda. The conference that gathered researchers, policy makers, civil society and private sector leaders was held in Addis Ababa this week at the United Nations Economic Conference for Africa.
“Governance, as we all know, determines which public policies get adopted and how they are implemented. There is a growing consensus that African countries require a more conducive governance environment for them to be able to pursue better public policies and ultimately to achieve better outcomes, including structural transformation and inclusive development,” said United Nations Under Secretary General and ECA’s Executive Secretary Dr Vera Songwe during the conference’s opening session.
The theme for this year’s conference is, “Governance for structural transformation” and according to Songwe, bringing the two concepts together to constitute the theme of this conference is very deliberate notably because of their centrality and importance in moving our continent forward towards the development trajectory envisioned in both the 2030 development Agenda and Agenda 2063.
“Governance and structural transformation can be said to be mutually re-enforcing. On the one hand, good governance and effective institutions are prerequisites for the attainment of structural transformation.”
“On the other hand, structural transformation can have a strong disruptive effect on governance (particularly political governance) – giving rise, for example, to interest groups that push for accountable leadership and effective institutions. As countries get more transformed, more effective institutions also become more affordable. Over time, economic transformation can advance core governance objectives of accountability, participation and transparency,” Songwe said.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who officially opened the conference also underlined that Structural transformation as related to the national development agenda is all about the path to and achievement of industrialization. This goes from securing productions and markets to including an equitable mechanism of fairness in spreading the wealth.
“In this regard, there are theories and experiences of recent success, such as those of the East Asian region, Africans can refer and look into for better lessons. It is true these late industrializations did not have the conventionally prescribed and over promoted neoliberal governance capabilities when they started it, or even at later time during their unprecedented massive economic transformation. It does not mean, though, these countries did not have governance qualities of other kinds,” the Prime Minister said.
“In East Asia and other successful developmental states, massive transformation was brought about through an effective and successful centralization of economic rents and allocating them to value-creating sectors and actors,” he said.
The three-day annual event, organized jointly by the African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), brought together over 500 participants consisting of government officials, researchers and many other development actors. International leaders, authorities in the field of governance research, were also present.