Publications

The Struggle Continues: Pan-African Youth Led Feminist Activism for Gender Equality

The book begins with a focus on the Africa Young Women Beijing +25 Manifesto and highlights the challenges, including a lack of intergenerational engagement and the failure of state and non-state actors to ensure ownership of the Beijing Declaration. After emphasizing the need to recognize the work of African feminist activists, the chapter argues that activism cannot be apolitical and needs to be intersectional in nature.

Daaji, S., Hussain, S. R. and Sebhatu, R. W. (2021) ‘The Struggle Continues: Pan-African Youth Led Feminist Activism for Gender Equality’, in Rashid, U. (ed.) The Journey to Gender Equality: Mapping the Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. San José: University of Peace, pp. 25–35.

Applying postcolonial approaches to studies of Africa-EU relations

To say that Africa/ African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) relations are postcolonial in nature should be stating the obvious, and yet studies that discuss and analyse Africa- EU relations from a postcolonial perspective or through postcolonial approaches are hard to come by. This chapter outlines the importance of postcolonial approaches for the study of Africa- EU relations. It contextualises such approaches in negotiation practices and outcomes of the EU proposed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). Though academic literature on Africa- EU relations tends to define such relations as being asymmetrical, the politics around the negotiations of the EPAs through postcolonial lenses reveals contestations around the assumptions of such asymmetries. In particular, the dominant narratives of asymmetry locate African states as being in a weaker position, thus silencing the articulations of African agency. Yet in undertaking a postcolonial account and paying attention to resistance towards the EU’s imposed EPAs – through diplomacy by state actors and the actions of civil society – this chapter is able to highlight African agency in the context of Africa- EU relations.

Throughout this chapter, references to and examples of the politics around EPA negotiations– launched in 2000 and which were supposed to be finalised by 2007 in order to meet a World Trade Organization (WTO)- mandated deadline – are analysed through postcolonial approaches with the aim of contextualising the reasons as to why negotiations did not lead to the signing of EPAs by the 2007 deadline. Accordingly, after discussing what postcolonial approaches are, this chapter discusses how to consider and analyse colonial legacy by decentring Europe, how to analyse partnership from a postcolonial perspective, how to contextualise market liberalisation in a changing world order within a context of a postcolonial global economy, as well as how regional actorness should be analysed through the politicisation and rearticulation of subjectivity.

Sebhatu, R. W. (2020) ‘Applying postcolonial approaches to studies on Africa-EU relations’, in Haastrup, T., Mah, L., and Duggan, N. (eds) The Routledge Handbook on EU-Africa Relations. London: Routledge. Available at: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-EU-Africa-Relations/Haastrup-Mah-Duggan/p/book/9781138047303.

The Digital Mediatization of Feminist Foreign Policy

This article outlines the opportunities feminist activists my take advantage of when shaping the discourse on what a feminist foreign policy agenda should do, especially through transformative connective action. As feminist foreign policy strives to create a normative framework for gender equality through cosmopolitan norms of global justice and peace, countries that adopt such a policy paradoxically also adhere to policies that are not so feminist (e.g. arm exports). However, the mediatization of feminist foreign policy, especially through online discursive activism of non-state actors, provides an opportunity to discuss issues of contestation, and hopefully influence the decision-making processes of given states. Of course, activists should be wary of the negative impact foreign intervention has on the lives of women and vulnerable people around the world. Accordingly, discursive activists should strive hard to include feminists from around the world in such discussions, most notably feminists from the Global South, so that feminist foreign policy agendas are sensitive to and include the voices of those who are “at the margins”.

(En)gendering Youth for Gender-Just Peace with UN Security Council Resolution 2250

This working paper was also accepted and featured as one of the thematic papers connected with the UN’s Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security.

Reaching Higher: Women Liberators and Gender

The aim of this paper is to call on WPS activists, as well as feminists in the Horn, to reach higher than NAPs by challenging the discourse that women are solely victims of conflict, and emphasise women’s agency in peace and state-building. Moreover, all actors should pay due consideration to gender-just peace and transitional justice. By doing so, a critical feminist engagement with UNSCR 1325 and 1820 should argue that the political participation emphasised in the IGAD-RAP has become conflated with agency[3]. Governments of the Horn must ensure space for women to engage in peace-building while also considering their needs and representation in processes of transitional justice by acknowledging the role women have played in national liberation, reconstruction, and state-building processes.

Published in the Horn of Africa Bulletin (November-December 2017, Volume 28, Issue 6). Full bulletin can be found here: http://life-peace.org/print-hab/?hab-issue=november-december2016

Encouraging diaspora youth to contribute to national development: The Eritrean case

Engaging Youth in Decision-Making: A Path towards Active Youth Citizenship in Eritrea

Article at a glance

• Citizenship is not innate; it needs to be taught and cultivated in young people through civic education and leadership training.

• Citizenship includes both rights and responsibilities; for youth to become active citizens, they need to be given a voice in decision-making processes that affect them.

• In order for young people to develop a sense of citizenship, they must first realize the positive role they can play through active civic participation.

This essay has also been cited on Youthpolicy.org, which is an independent think tank and publishing house, working at the junction of youth policy, youth research, youth media and youth work.