Theme
Over the last two decades, as in previous decades, commodity prices have gone through particularly significant upward and downward phases, which have not been without major consequences on the economic, social and political realities of African exporting countries. The ambition of this workshop, two years after the return of bullish prices, is to appreciate the nature of the various links that unite Africa and world commodity markets and to characterize a possible paradigm shift. Considering the high degree of commodities’ price instability, has the macroeconomic resilience of the African continent increased over the last decade? What have been the consequences of the financialization of commodity markets on the reality of African producers? What are the challenges that Africa must now overcome to ensure the economic diversification that governments are calling for? Is there a significant evolution since the end of the super-cycle of the relations between Africa on the one hand and Western or Chinese groups on the other? What are the opportunities offered to African producers by the creation of the Continental free trade area and the promotion of continental demand? Is a reform of global commodity markets that would benefit African countries now only a distant utopia? So many questions, among others, that this workshop will try to address. This analysis could be as general as it could be specific to a specific commodity or a (group of) country. In this respect, this workshop is not necessarily limited to strictly economic approaches and remains open to alternative approaches combining economics, politics, geopolitics, law, or sociology as long as they open a new perspective on the theme of this workshop.
