This pilot project will provide an electronic space in which Africans, North Americans and others can discuss what policy perspectives and understandings of African reality should shape international engagement with Africa. Such a process can contribute to the emergence of new policy frameworks, which better correspond to African realities and priorities. The Roundtable will try to use the opportunities opened up by new electronic communication technologies to come up with new ways of putting together and conveying African knowledge. It will experiment with means by which African-initiated content and perspectives can be projected into policy debates on African issues taking place outside the continent. Each session is to be introduced by several panellists responsible for opening remarks and interchange before being opened up to 20 days of comment from Roundtable respondents and general participants.
Participation is open to all, with special attention to ensuring broad-based African participation.
A wide audience is anticipated building upon both ECA's and APIC's substantial mailing lists and networks. The discussions will be moderated and summarized on a regular basis. Summaries, and selected other interventions, will be translated from English into French, or from French to English. A book-length publication will be prepared following the conclusion of the Roundtable. It will try to build an e-mail equivalent of a roundtable panel at a conference.