The Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa is an annual meeting that brings together African leaders and stakeholders to engage and explore African-led security solutions. Currently in its 6th edition, the Forum is at the forefront of initiating dialogue with the continent’s policymakers and influencers.
The Forum takes place annually on the banks of Lake Tana in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. This year it will be held on 22-23 April 2017 with a keynote address delivered by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia.
Natural resource is the key
The theme of this year’s Forum, “Natural Resource Governance in Africa” reflects the centrality of natural resources, both in historical as well as in contemporary times, in understanding the far-reaching implications on state-society relations within the continent and Africa’s disadvantageous position in global production and exchange since the earliest days of European penetration and colonialism.
Realize the full potential of Africa
It also seeks to showcase how, over time, the exploitation of the continent’s rich and diverse natural resources, both on land and sea, have created several paradoxes; in particular, those leading to inequality and poverty, corruption, unemployment, environmental degradation, violent conflicts, and the elusive quest to realize Africa’s full developmental potential.
Beyond the non-renewable sector
For the 6th Tana Forum, the focus will go beyond the conventional wisdom that places sole premium on the long-standing contradictions within the extractive ‘non-renewable’ sector (oil, gas and minerals) in understanding and explaining the challenges of resource governance in Africa.
A call on biodiversity
Whereas debates around the governance of natural resources have understandably been fixated with the extractive sector, the Forum will broaden the scope to include issues around the governance of other natural resources, specifically: land, water, the seas, and forests and biodiversity.
