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Conference agenda
Linking borderlands research and policy in Africa and Europe:
Tackling translation challenges
Niamey, November 29- December 4, 2017
Welcome!
Dear participants,
We are very much looking forward to our time together in Niamey. This is our preliminary agenda for the week—there is a possibility that small details might change.
We envision a conference of lively discussion and very loose sessions that allow everyone to participate. However, we have scheduled number of different formats for the conference: In sessions with paper presentations, presenters are expected to give a 15 min presentation. These sessions have a discussant who will respond to the paper on the basis of one of the identified ‘dilemmas’. During roundtable discussions, each participant will be asked to present a five-minute opening statement, followed by a chaired discussion with audience participation. We also kindly ask participants to chair different sessions. We are still working on the details.
Tuesday, November 28: Participants arrive
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Wednesday, November 29: Policy and practice in borderlands management
Does borderland practice reflect what we have learned from research? If not, why not?
Time Topic Speaker Discussant Chair
9 am Welcome and introductions LASDEL, Dr. Moussa Sissoko (Point Sud Institute in Bamako), Gregor Dobler, Mohamadou Abdoul, Georg Klute
10 am Overview and objectives of the conference Mareike Schomerus
10.30 COFFEE BREAK
11.00 am The dilemma: Research is expected to solve the current crisis—how could border studies achieve that?
Peter Tinti Mohamadou Abdoul
A brief overview of border studies Gregor Dobler
From Developmentalism to Securitization and Environmentalism: Policy Changes towards the Nigeria-Niger Borderlands/
Bill Miles
1 – 2.30 pm
LUNCH
2.30 – 4.30 pm
The dilemma: The realities of what happens at borders is often not reflected in policies. What can research offer to sharpen the understanding of such reality?
TIlman Scherf
Barriers as Bridges: how local sensitivities and global security discourses converge into increased securitization of border policies in Africa
Lotje de Vries
7 pm Welcome Dinner
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Thursday, November 30: Findings and methods in borderlands research
Are they robust in the eyes of policy makers seeking evidence for policy decisions? If not, why not?
Time Topic Speaker Discussant Chair
9 am Practitioners’ roundtable: What are the greatest challenges we see?
Mohamadou Abdoul
Hamadou Mounkaila
Muhammad Bose Ahmad
Peter Tinti
Leonardo A. Villalón
10.30 COFFEE Break
11 Researchers’ roundtable: What are the greatest challenges we see?
Olivier Walther
Moustapha Koné
Francis Musoni
Lotje de Vries
Philippe Frowd
1 – 2.30 pm
LUNCH
4 pm Public Event
Border management practice and research: What we need to learn from each other
Mohamadou Abdoul
Emmanuel Gregoire
Muhammad Bose Ahmad
Georg Klute
LASDEL
Free evening
4
Friday, December 1: Public event
Time Topic Speaker Discussant Chair
9.30 The dilemma: How can we better understand borders through better data or different perspectives?
Muhammad Bose Ahmad
Researching borders
Georg Klute
Cities and Borders: A New Research Policy Partnership
Moustapha Koné, Leonardo A. Villalón and Olivier Walther
11 COFFEE BREAK
11.30 Border case study: Le jeu des acteurs autours de la rente frontalière
Moustapha Koné
12.30 Establishing working groups: Possibilities of future practice/ research collaborations
Mareike Schomerus
1.30 LUNCH
Participants are free to visit the National Museum
7 pm Group Dinner
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Saturday, December 2: Translation challenges
Why exactly is it so difficult for researchers and policymakers to communicate across their divides? What concepts, language, frameworks and interpretations can be jointly developed to overcome this divide?
Time Topic Speaker Discussant Chair
10 am The dilemma: Researchers and practitioners use different language
Hamadou MOUNKAILA
Peter Tinti
Understanding ‘evidence’ in research/ policy partnerships
Mareike Schomerus
Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap in Contemporary Border Studies: Issues and Theories’ Potential
Serghei Golunov
11.30 COFFEE BREAK
12 Bridging the research-policy gap through a continuous collaborative platform
Rinku Gajera
1 – 2.30 LUNCH
2.30 Border case studies Emmanuel Gregoire
De la ligne à l’étendue : politiques et pratiques des frontières migratoires dans l’espace saharosahélien
Julien Brachet
La gestion des frontières, entre politique institutionnelle et pratiques des populations. Quel modèle de gouvernance ? Cas du Sénégal et de ses voisins
Mountaga Diallo
4 pm COFFEE BREAK
4.30 pm Working groups
Free evening
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Sunday, December 3: Securing borders? Theory and practice
Time Topic Speaker Discussant Chair
10 am Border realities: Agenda 2063 and the Future of Border Jumping in Africa: A View from the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border
Francis Musoni
Lotje de Vries
Non-state actors and the fate of open borders in the SADC
Innocent Moyo
11.30 COFFEE BREAK
12 noon Roundtable discussion: What is the impact of security policies on day-to-day border management?
Philippe M. Frowd
Faleye, Olukadoye
Hamadou Mounkaila
Mareike Schomerus
1 – 2.30 pm LUNCH
2.30 pm Security interventions
Vacuity of Regulations: An Anatomy of Nigeria’s Border Securitization Policy, 2015-2017
Faleye, Olukadoye
Innocent Moyo
The Politics of International Border Management in West Africa - INTERPOL and the ‘Policed Border’ Intervention in
Tilman Scherf
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Côte d’Ivoire
4 pm COFFEE BREAK
4.30 Discussion from working groups: Emerging research topics
Gregor Dobler
7 pm FAREWELL DINNER
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Monday, December 4: Priorities for practice in Europe and Africa
Time Topic Speaker Discussant Chair
9.30 am The dilemma: Different priorities in Africa and Europe
Peter Tinti
European approaches for African borders
Mohamadou Abdoul
Cross-border Co-operation in West Africa: A Relational and Policy Approach
Leena Hoffmann and Lawali Dambo
11 am COFFEE BREAK
11.30 Preparing the visit to the commission
Bill Miles
12.30 Wrap-up
1 – 2.30 Lunch
2.30 pm Departure for visit to the Bilateral Commission for Niger-Nigeria Cooperation
3 pm Meeting with the Deputy Secretary General of the Bilateral Commission for Niger-Nigeria Cooperation Madame Touré Aminata Djibrilla Maïga
5 pm Return to hotel
Participants depart
Participants
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1. Emmanuel Gregoire, Director of Research at the Institut de Recherche pour le
Developpement IRD, Niamey, [email protected]
2. Francis Musoni, University of Kentucky, [email protected]
3. Georg Klute, Uni Bayreuth, [email protected]
4. Gregor Dobler, Uni Freiburg, [email protected]
5. Hamadou Mounkaila, Niamey, [email protected]
6. Innocent Moyo, UNISA, Johannesburg, [email protected]
7. Julien Brachet, Sorbonne, Paris, [email protected]
8. Lawali Dambo, Université Niamey
9. Leena Hoffmann, CILSS
10. Leonardo A. Villalón, University of Florida
11. Lotje de Vries, Wageningen U, [email protected]
12. Mareike Schomerus, ODI, London, [email protected]
13. Mohamadou Abdoul, GIZ Addis Abeba, [email protected]
14. Muhammad Bose Ahmad, Director General of the National Boundary Commission,
Abuja,Nigeria, [email protected]
15. Mountaga Diallo, Dakar, Senegal, [email protected]
16. Moustapha Koné, Niamey, [email protected]
17. Olukayode Faleye, Ilesha, Nigeria, [email protected]
18. Olivier Walther, University of Southern Denmark, [email protected]
19. Peter Tinti, [email protected]
20. Philippe Frowd, University of York, [email protected]
21. Rinku Gajera, Helsinki, Finland, [email protected]
22. Serghei Golunov, Kyushu University, [email protected]
23. Tilmann Scherf, FU Berlin, [email protected]
24. William Miles, Northwestern U, Boston, [email protected]
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ABSTRACTS
Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap in Contemporary Border Studies: Issues and Theories’
Potential
Serghei V. Golunov
The paper proposal is based on my previous theoretical research on practical potential of Border
Studies1 as well as on his empirical research on the EU-Russian border, Russia-Kazakhstan border and
of Russian online travel communities’ perspective (including perspectives of Russian tourists having to
deal with EU’s and African countries’ border barriers). I’m also going to use my lectures on practically
relevant comparative border issues (border management, borders and mobility, subversive cross-border
practices, cross-border cooperation, and border conflicts) that I teach to MA students of Kyushu
University.
In the proposed paper, I’m going to conceptualize contemporary Border Studies’ potential for
generating practically relevant findings. Overall, I argue that the main potential strength of practical
Border Studies is exploring and offering non-trivial perspectives on practical issues, making
comparative research, and dealing with data typically disregarded by practitioners. I consider potential
of some existing mainstream trends in the contemporary Border Studies: viz. post-modernism,
constructivism, and Critical Studies. While the most of research informed by these trends is largely
practically irrelevant, I argue that the corresponding theoretical approaches could be useful for dealing
with such issues as cross-border region building (post-modernism); applying, optimizing, or
dismantling “imaginary” borders in the framework of border policies; managing cross-border conflicts
and reducing alarmist perceptions of the Other (constructivism); fighting border-related injustices and
human rights violations, and finding efficient strategies of resistance to such injustices and violations
(Critical Studies). Further, I consider my own pragmatist-dialogical approach, aimed at managing
efficient communication between those who protect borders and border crossers. Finally, I’m going to
consider in brief practical Border Studies’ potential in dealing with some kinds of issues mentioned
above as topics of my lectures.
Biography: Serghei Golunov is a Doctor of Political Sciences (Russian highest academic degree
equivalent to Habilitation) and Professor of the Faculty of Law and a member of Kyushu University
Border Studies Research Group at Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan). He worked previously as a
Professor and a Director of the Centre for Regional and Transborder Studies of Volgograd State
University (Russia), Marie Curie Research Fellow at the International Boundaries Research Unit
(Durham University, UK) and a Research Fellow at the Center for EU-Russian Studies (Tartu
University). He is an author of some 150 research works.
Border Studies is Sergey Golunov’s main research topic. He is an author or editor of some 70 research
works related to border issues, including monographs EU-Russian Border Security: Challenges,
(Mis)perceptions, and Responses (Routledge, 2012) and Russia-Kazakhstan Border: Security and
Cooperation Issues (Volograd: Volgograd State University, 2005; in Russian). Currently he also
teaches a part of a MA level course “Border Studies in an Asian Context” in Kyushu University.
E-mail: [email protected]
1 See: Golunov, S. (2013) 'EU-Russian Border Crossing: The Dialogical Perspective,'
Geopolitics 18 4: 933-953; Golunov, S. (2014) ‘Practical Relevance as an Issue for the
Contemporary Border Studies,’ Russian Sociological Review 13 3: 60-79.
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From Developmentalism to Securitization and Environmentalism: Policy Changes towards the Nigeria-Niger Borderlands WILLIAM MILES – CASE STUDY ABSTRACT
After three decades of promoting transborder co-operation through the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission
(NNJC), parties to the Commission found their developmental focus overshadowed by two external
security shocks: 9/11 and the rise of Boko Haram. The events of September 11, 2001 gave rise to a
defensive Pan-Sahel Initiative for protecting borders (later expanded into a Trans-Sahara Counter-
Terrorism Partnership) of which Niger was an original member and which Nigeria eventually joined.
Boko Haram’s transformation from a national (qua Nigerian) militant group into a transborder terrorist
organization pledged to ISIS has created havoc and mayhem within the Niger-Nigeria borderlands,
resulting in unprecedented cross-border security cooperation between these two states.
Despite sharing a common lingua franca, culture and religion within most of their shared borderland, on
account of divergent colonial histories Niger and Nigeria developed sharply different official languages,
military structures, and political cultures. Neither of their capitals lies within the geographical heartland
of the shared borderland culture, giving rise to further difficulties in communication and coordination.
Stark differences in their relative demographic size, regional influence, and economic status also inject
complexity into a shared policy (qua counter-terrorist) objective.
Since his invited participation in the Ford Foundation-funded Nigeria-Niger Transborder Co-Operation
Workshop in 1989, the proposer has been following the evolution of state policy and structures
affecting the Nigeria-Niger borderlands. Translation of academic research on borderlands into policy
action is a major focus of this longitudinal case-study of the Nigeria-Niger borderlands. It includes
evolving notions of “security,” which now extends to environmental security. In this context, he will
also discuss the United Nations Environment Programme Global Environment Facility-funded
Integrated Ecosystem Management (IEM) Program in the Transboundary Areas between Nigeria and
Niger.
WILLIAM MILES - BIOSKETCH
William Miles is professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston where he teaches in
the school of public policy. For nineteen years he chaired the International Development Concentration
in Northeastern’s Masters of Public Administration program. He is Palgrave Series co-editor for African
Borderlands Studies and is on the executive committee of the African Borderlands Research Network
(ABORNE). He has conducted Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership programming
assessments for USAID in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Mauritania.
Miles’s Hausaland Divided: Colonialism and Independence in Nigeria and Niger (Cornell University
Press, 1994) was cited in the Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year for having made a "significant
contribution to learning" in the History of Mankind field. His latest book, Scars of Partition (University
of Nebraska Press, 2014), examines contemporary legacies of French-British colonial partition in the
borderlands of West Africa, the West Indies, South Asia and the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the
South Pacific. His research on borderlands, development policy and counterterrorism in Africa has
appeared in African Studies Review, Africa Today, and the Journal of Modern African Studies. William
(Bill) Miles served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger and with the State Department in northern
Nigeria; he still speaks Hausa.
12
Barriers as Bridges: how local sensitivities and global security discourses converge into increased
securitization of border policies in Africa
The call for papers posits a contrast between how Europe and Africa interpret borders, suggesting
that the securitization of borders in the EU affects African countries, which, by contrast, would be
inclined towards regional integration. This paper challenges this assumption, arguing that the
securitization agenda of the EU fits well with the dominant agenda of many African countries to
securitize their borders. Instead, I would like to point towards a contrast between different two
border-ideologies that both have their protagonist in academic and policy spheres. On the one hand,
those who perceive borders as bridges, propagating open borders, lower administrative burdens and
the free movement of people. This group, dominated by civil society organisations and NGOs, see
African cross-border cooperation and regional integration as an opportunity for development. The
African Union Border Programme (AUBP) is an important result of this ‘borders as bridges’ agenda.
The second ideology is dominated by protagonists of the narrative of national borders as a security
and political concern. Sensitivities surrounding border management strongly influence relations
between nations: e.g. security agents stationed at borders firmly perform formalities to express
national authority, and local authorities have polite but highly politicised relations with counterparts
across the border. Drawing on work with an NGO on cross-border cooperation across Senegal,
Guinea-Bissau and Gambia and social-anthropological research on the borderlands of South Sudan,
DR Congo and Uganda, I explore how local cross-border sensitivities feed national security concerns,
inhibiting an open approach to borders. Although African national security sensitivities differ from
the EU’s politics of securitization, the interests converge in the current discourses on global security,
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which leads to the marginalisation of the open-borders ideology. The challenge is not to bridge policy
and research or African and European border management, but instead, to find a middle ground in
which both border-ideologies co-exist. [299 words]
Dr. Lotje de Vries is an assistant professor at the Sociology of Development and Change Group of Wageningen University. Her research focuses on local dynamics of (in)security, transnational security governance in borderlands, and state-society relations in (post-)conflict settings (South Sudan and the Central African Republic). She has a background in development sociology and holds a Ph.D. from Wageningen University (2012).
Vacuity of Regulations: An Anatomy of Nigeria’s Border Securitization Policy, 2015-2017
Olukayode A. Faleye
Department of History and International Studies
Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Nigeria
Abstract
Following the Nigeria’s economic bubble-burst that was precipitated by the collapse of the oil market
in 2014, fiscal policies characterized by increased securitization of her national boundary were
introduced. Whereas earlier policies had aimed at discouraging trans-border smuggling, the new
regulation is unprecedented as it totally disallows the importation of principal goods such as vehicles
through the landed borders. While the new regulation appears on paper to discourage capital outflow
and sustain a favourable balance of payment, the existing armoury of West African border literature
argues otherwise. What is new in the transborder dynamics of West Africa? What informs
government’s border policies in Nigeria? In answering these questions, this paper, particularly focuses
on the making and the implications of the top-down policy approach in West Africa. This is illustrated
by the pattern of trans-border flows between Nigeria-Benin on the one hand, and Nigeria-Niger on the
other. The phenomenon is observed in comparison with trade statistics at the official ports of entry from
2015 to 2017. The approach is qualitative and quantitative based on the critical comparative analysis of
ethnographic data collected through the interviews of transborder traders and government officials as
well as custom and international trade records. This work concludes that effective border management
in Nigeria is set aback by misguided and dysfunctional elitist-centred regulations that are devoid of the
realities on the ground.
Author’s Narrative Biography
Olukayode A. Faleye studied History at the University of Ilorin where he received his B.A, (Hons.) and
at the University of Ibadan where he obtained his M.A. African Studies. He is a Lecturer in the
Department of History and International Studies, Joseph Ayo Babalola University. He is presently
studying for his PhD in History and International Studies at the University of Ilorin. His most recent
publications are (a) ‘Regional Integration from “Below” in West Africa: A Study of Transboundary
Town-Twinning of Idiroko (Nigeria) and Igolo (Benin)’ published in the RISC Journal - Regions &
Cohesion, 6 (3), Winter 2016: 1-18 and (b) co-authored chapters - “Eco-violence or Trans-border
Terrorism?: Revisiting Nigerian Pastoral Nomadic Fulani Question” and “Civil Society and Terrorism
in Africa: Rethinking Borderland Security in Northeastern Nigeria” In R.A. Olaniyan & Akinyele, R.T.
(Eds) Nigeria’s Ungoverned Spaces. Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press, 2016. He is a
member of the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE) and the Historical Society of
Nigeria. His research focuses on Environmental History and Borderlands Studies.
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Cross-border Co-operation in West Africa: A Relational and Policy Approach Olivier Walther, University of Southern Denmark ([email protected])
Marie Trémolières, OECD
Leena Hoffmann, CILSS
Lawali Dambo, University of Niamey
This paper discusses how an empirically grounded approach to cross-border co-operation was
developed by the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) Secretariat for the use of West African
intergovernmental organisations, the European Union and OECD member countries. Building on the
recent report “Cross-border Co-operation and Policy Networks in West Africa” (2017), the paper shows
how the SWAC Secretariat is working to bridge the gap between research and policy. It is developing a
relational approach that captures the potential of cross-border regions, maps the functions of cross-
border public policy networks and illustrates policy makers’ vision of cross-border co-operation. By
taking into consideration these three dimensions, the paper puts forward original views on the future of
cross-border co-operation policies in West Africa, the methods used to understand policy networks, and
the integration models adopted in the region. The first conclusion of the paper is that cross-border co-
operation would work best if place-based policies could provide public goods adapted to the specific
socio-economic challenges of each region. The second conclusion is that cross-border co-operation is a
fundamentally relational field of research and policy that should be approached through relational
methodologies, such as social network analysis. More than just an analysis tool for researchers, social
network analysis could become an empowerment tool for local communities and non-governmental
organisations as well as an intervention tool to help international organisations and governments
identify bottlenecks. The third conclusion is that the political vision of cross-border co-operation in
West Africa borrows from both the European Union model focused on institutional structures, and from
a more functional model developed in North America that creates ad hoc co-operation structures to
address the problems which stem from territorial discontinuities. Neither model, we argue, is fully
adapted to the region’s socio-economic and political specificities
Cities and Borders: A New Research Policy Partnership Linking borderlands research and policy in Africa and Europe: Tackling translation challenges
Marie Trémolières, OECD ([email protected])
Leonardo A. Villalón, University of Florida
Olivier Walther, University of Southern Denmark
Lawali Dambo, University of Niamey
Moustapha Koné, University of Niamey
This paper discusses the new programme on West African cities and borders developed by the Sahel
and West Africa Club (SWAC) Secretariat at the OECD in partnership with North American and
African scholars. The programme provides support for regional policies and international strategies in
order to better anticipate two major changes impacting the region: the border-related aspects of
urbanisation and climate change. It is built upon the new memorandum of understanding signed
between the OECD and the Sahel Research Group at the University of Florida, reinforcing the ties
between the research and policy communities. The collaboration will also promote West African
expertise by strengthening relations with African researchers and research centres such as the
University of Niamey. More specifically, the researchers and policy makers involved in this initiative
will develop an analytical framework that will be used to understand the development dynamics of
cross-border cities and the role they play in building regional integration. This will be achieved by
studying the morphological, economic, political and environmental specificities of border cities in West
Africa. One of the main originalities of the programme is to build upon social network analysis to
identify the actors involved in women’s trade networks, map their formal and informal relationships
and assess the impact of national borders on the exchanges of information and power. Assessing the
structure of these networks and how they change will also help to collect information on adaptation and
resilience strategies developed by their members.
Author bio for both:
Biographies
15
Olivier J. Walther is Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Southern Denmark
and a Visiting Professor at the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers – The State University of New
Jersey. He received his PhD in geography from the University of Lausanne. His research focusses on
trade, cross-border cooperation and terrorism in West Africa. His current research project addresses the
effects of national boundaries on cross-border cooperation and policy networks in 18 West African
countries. Professor Walther has received support for his work from the World Food Program, the
European Commission, the OECD, the European Spatial Planning Observatory, the research funds of
Luxembourg and Denmark, and the Carlsberg Foundation. Dr Walther is the Africa Editor of the
Journal of Borderlands Studies and on the executive committee of the African Borderlands Research
Network (ABORNE).
Leena K. Hoffmann is Associate Fellow at Chatham House in London and Technical Advisor on Food
Security and Agricultural Policy to the Executive Secretariat of the Permanent Interstate Committee for
Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). She holds a PhD in African Studies from the University of
Birmingham. Dr. Hoffmann works on West African unrecorded trade and financial flows, food security
and agricultural policy, as well as politics, governance and security. She has carried out extensive field
research across sub-Saharan Africa and recently contributed to the World Bank’s diagnostic of
underdevelopment in North East Nigeria.
Marie Trémolières is Senior Policy Analyst at the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) in
Paris. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris. At the OECD, Dr. Trémolières
has worked on cross-border cooperation, food security and regional integration. She now supervises the
SWAC/OECD research program on West African cities and borders.
Leonardo A. Villalón is Professor of Political Science and African Studies at the University of Florida,
where he also currently serves as the Dean of the International Center. He is the author of numerous
works on democratization and on religion in the Sahel, including Islamic Society and State Power in
Senegal (Cambridge University Press). He is currently co-editor of the Journal of Modern African
Studies.
Lawali Dambo is a Professor at the Department of Geography at the University of Niamey, Niger. He
received his PhD in geography from the University of Lausanne. He has participated in many
interdisciplinary research projects dedicated to trade, water and in recent years has conducted research
focused on rural development issues.
Moustapha Koné is a lecturer at the University of Niamey, Niger. He holds a PhD from the University
of Bordeaux. His research focusses on cross-border trade in West Africa.
Julien Brachet, IRD-Université Paris 1 & University of Oxford
Titre
De la ligne à l’étendue : politiques et pratiques des frontières migratoires dans l’espace saharosahélien.
Résumé
Depuis le début des années 2000, la médiatisation des migrations africaines irrégulières à destination
de l’Europe, marginales au regard de l’ensemble des flux, tend à occulter toute la diversité et la
complexité de ces circulations à l’intérieur du continent africain, et particulièrement au Sahara. Tout
migrant originaire d’Afrique subsaharienne repéré aux abords de ce désert est dorénavant suspecté
d’être un “clandestin en transit vers l’Europe”, et traité comme tel tant par les autorités nationales que
par les OIs et ONGs présentent sur place. À la faveur de politiques migratoires toujours plus
contraignantes, les volontés d’endiguement des migrations africaines irrégulières à destination de
l’Europe se transforment en une perturbation généralisée des systèmes migratoires intra-africains,
empêchant de fait des catégories entières de population de se déplacer à travers certains territoires. Pour
16
nombre d’individus - migrants, guides ou transporteurs - le franchissement irrégulier d’une frontière
internationale n’est ainsi plus déterminant dans l’assignation officielle qui leur est faite d’un statut
particulier qui les désigne comme personnes à contrôler, refouler, voire emprisonner. En ce sens, la
frontière politique – la ligne – perd de sa spécificité, tandis que l’ensemble du Nord Sahel et du Sahara
devient un espace-frontière. En s’appuyant sur trois années de terrain ethnographique mené au Niger,
cette communication visera à questionner le décalage entre la connaissance produite sur les dynamiques
des migrations dans le pays, et les représentations sur lesquelles s’appuient officiellement les politiques
migratoires qui y sont mises en oeuvre. L’analyse des cadres législatifsqui régissent les circulations de
personnes en Afrique du Nord-Ouest soulignera les contradictions entre d’une part ces politiques
migratoires et d’autre part le protocole de libre circulation de la CEDEAO, le droit international et la
convention internationale des droits de l’homme. À partir de récentes enquêtes menées à Agadez (en
décembre 2016), nous analyserons en particulier les questions politiques, légales, économiques et
sécuritaires que soulève la mise en application de la loi nigérienne de 2015 sur le trafic de migrants.
Biographie
Julien Brachet est chercheur à l’Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD – Université Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne), et est actuellement Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellow à
l’université d’Oxford (Royaume-Uni). Ses recherches portent l’organisation et les transformations des
sociétés sahariennes, ainsi que sur les mobilités vers et à travers le Sahara, principalement au Niger et
au Tchad où il a effectué plusieurs années de recherches de terrain. À travers l’étude des processus
migratoires, des systèmes de transport ou encore des échanges commerciaux entre l’Afrique
subsaharienne et l’Afrique du Nord, ses travaux montrent comment les populations s’adaptent
localement aux durcissements des politiques de contrôle des mobilités en Afrique. Il est notamment
l’auteur d’un ouvrage consacré aux Migrations transsahariennes (2009) et l’éditeur d’un numéro
spécial de la revue Politique africaine intitulé « Crises et chuchotements au Sahel » (avec V.
Bonnecase,
2013). Parmi ses récents articles sur les questions transfrontalières au Sahara : “Fleeting Glory in a
Wasteland: Wealth, Politics and Autonomy in Northern Chad”, Comparative Studies in Society and
History, 57 (3): 723-752 (avec J. Scheele, 2015) ; et “Policing the Desert: The IOM in Libya Beyond
War and Peace”, Antipode (48): 272-292 (2016
The Politics of International Border Management in West Africa - INTERPOL and the ‘Policed
Border’ Intervention in Côte d’Ivoire Tilmann Scherf
Research Associate / PhD Candidate
SFB 700 “Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood”
Freie Universität Berlin
Email: [email protected]
Tel.: +49 (0)30-838-75826
The global management of mobility at borders in the Global South has turned into a crowded
and heterogeneous field of intervention involving a multiplicity of governance providers.
Especially in West Africa, the fight against terrorism, illicit cross-border trade and the outbreak
of Ebola have spurred an increasing mobilization of international agencies from both public and
private sectors. The interventionist role of particular international agencies and their
professionals in shaping and engineering the governance of borders as a domain of technical
expertise and statebuilding in the Global South has hitherto received only limited attention in
the burgeoning body of literature in border and migration studies. This article seeks to redress
this oversight by reconstructing how international policy professionals have formed and
deployed a ‘Policed Border’ rationality to ‘securitize’ border spaces in West Africa. With a focus
on international ‘nodes’ as organizational sites of governance, it examines the role of INTERPOL
in fostering joint police cooperation through training seminars for national border authorities
and the integration of global databases at Ivorian border checkpoints. The article also highlights
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the agency of Ivorian policy professionals in enabling and shaping the international ‘Policed
Border’ with their own interests and motivations to pursue better knowledge, capabilities and
control over their sovereign borders. In seeking to contribute to our understanding of the
proliferation of policed border spaces in West Africa, the analysis reveals how security and
development become intertwined, and how African states negotiate their sovereign powers
against the trend of globalization and border externalization. While not being fixed to one
particular locality or site, the research follows a ‘nonlocal ethnography’, which draws from an
eclectic mix of empirical material from semi-structured expert interviews and participantobservation
in various INTERPOL offices and Ivorian state institutions as well as document
analysis (e.g. policy/project documents, press releases, websites).
Biography Tilmann Scherf (*1987) is a research associate and PhD Candidate at the Collaborative Research
Center (SFB) 700 ‘Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood’ at Free University Berlin. His PhD
research focuses on the politics of international border security governance towards the Global
South with a regional concentration on West Africa. Studying the role of international agencies
in managing borders in the research site of Côte d’Ivoire, he is interested the deployment and
reproduction of three different political rationalities of international border governance: The
‘Humanitarian’, the ‘Policed’ and the ‘Smart Border’.
Tilmann holds a dual M.A. degree in International Relations/Political Science from Sciences Po
Paris and Free University Berlin and a B.A. in European Studies from Maastricht University. He
worked as Carlo Schmid Fellow and consultant for the International Organization for Migration
in Geneva, where he conducted border and migration management assessments. Prior to that,
he held positions as an intern to the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations in
New York and the European Parliament in Brussels.
A native speaker in German, Tilmann speaks English and French fluently and has intermediate
knowledge of Spanish, Italian and Dutch.
Non state actors and the fate of open borders in the SADC
Abstract
There is a wealth of literature which shows that, not only is the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) region characterised by a long history of migration, but that its borders are
contiguous and porous, which has made both regular and irregular cross border migration a permanent
reality. Drawing on qualitative research and my own publications on regular and irregular cross border
migration (particularly informal non state actors such as cross border traders), which started in about
2013, there is clear evidence that, for instance cross border traders constitute the bulk of cross border
traffic, yet the general border management in the region does not recognise the existence of this type of
cross border movement. There is a disturbing and continuing preference for “formal” cross border
movement, which has criminalised the informal actors. Policies in SADC, such as the Protocol on Trade
emphasise formal actors as if they were the only ones involved in cross border trade. This is emblematic
of a dissonance between reality on the ground and policy and practice in border management in areas
such as those between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Accepting informal economic actors like cross
border traders, would lead to countries in the SADC embracing irregular forms of cross border
migration, including undocumented migration, which is what SADC countries dread. For this reason,
the easier and more convenient approach to border management, which although defying research
results and indeed assaulting the very goal and dream of integration, is the defence of a fictional
territorialised nationalism (given the history of cross border migration in the region) through securitised
border management strategies.
Key words: Non state actors, borders, SADC
Author details
Inocent Moyo (PhD)
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Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
University of Zululand
Postal Address: Private Bag X1001
KwaDlangezwa 3886
South Africa
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Short narrative biography
Inocent Moyo is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the
University of Zululand, South Africa. Inocent is a seasoned researcher on the issues of migration and
development, immigration politics, cross-border traders, regional integration in the SADC,
transnationalism, and urban informality and governance. He has published and presented internationally
on these topics. He serves in the Steering Committee of the International Geographical Union’s (IGU)
Commission on Political Geography and is a member of the Association of Borderlands Studies and
The African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE).
Securitised nationalism and the fate of border citizens on the South- Africa-Zimbabwe
borderland
Abstract
One of the founding objectives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), is to
strengthen and consolidate long standing historical and cultural affinities of the people in the region
(Declaration and Treaty of SADC 1992). This objective of SADC, of necessity means that African
countries should recognise the existence of border citizens, based on the artificiality of African borders
as an outcome of an arbitrary process at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85. Drawing on a case study of
the interface between “South Africans” and “Zimbabweans” who live on the South African-Zimbabwe
borderland at Beitbridge and Messina, this paper argues that both South Africa and Zimbabwe continue
and choose to be oblivious to the reality of border citizens and research which points to this. Instead,
there is the obsession by the two countries in question, with the strengthening of the interiority and
exteriority of their countries or securitised nationalism, which leaves border citizens in limbo, with the
result that, these border citizens articulate their own existence in dynamic and agentive ways, which
subtly defy the separation by the border (Moyo 2016). In a SADC context, and the borderland in
question, I posit that there is need for a thorough engagement in the form of dialogues and workshops
between researchers and policy makers so as to directly speak to issues such as border citizens. Such
dialogues should include the border citizens themselves, so that, although research results represents
their condition, it should by no means replace their voices. It is anticipated that, such an approach
would attract the attention of policy makers, for the simple reason that, it assumes a protest movement
and a cry for recognition of a status of border citizens, imposed and superimposed by colonial and
strengthened by post-colonial statecraft.
Author details
Inocent Moyo (PhD)
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
University of Zululand
Postal Address: Private Bag X1001
KwaDlangezwa 3886
South Africa
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Short narrative biography
Inocent Moyo is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the
University of Zululand, South Africa. Inocent is a seasoned researcher on the issues of migration and
development, immigration politics, cross-border traders, regional integration in the SADC,
transnationalism, and urban informality and governance. He has published and presented internationally
on these topics. He serves in the Steering Committee of the International Geographical Union’s (IGU)
19
Commission on Political Geography and is a member of the Association of Borderlands Studies and
The African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE).
By Rinku Gajera, India and Niti Bhan, Finland
Bridging the research-policy gap through a continuous collaborative platform In development policy multiple stakeholders such as policy makers, researchers and academicians are
engaged in understanding the same topic over long time cycles. Their job constraints and incentives
mean that often they are unable see the big picture across time, space and people. This may result in
sub-optimal interventions despite the knowledge being available in an adjacent 'silo'. Although many
(for ex. Duncan Green, Oxfam 1, 2) have been vocal about this problem, the authors observe that the
solutions provided are limited to research communication level, however there is a need for
continuous, timely, traceable dialogues that encourage healthy debate, decision making and
dissemination of knowledge leading to appropriate interventions in ever-changing contexts.
Through their significant experience in the domain of informal economy in the emerging world, the
authors have often experienced this need first hand. Hence, they propose in this paper, an online
intervention and impact network that will provide a platform to bring all stakeholders together for
continuous dialogues, debates and dissemination relevant to cross-border trade and informal
economy. This network can encourage continuous cross-pollination of ideas, open communication
channels across asynchronous research vs. policy work-cycles and thus increase policy impact. The
platform could be extended to other related topics gradually.
The authors aim to illustrate the solution as a conceptual prototype by using their recent related
experience of 1) understanding cross border informal trade in the East African region from the
grassroots perspective, 2) disseminating the findings to the policy makers with an East African
developmental organization to 3) collaborating with various stakeholders to generate holistic
understanding of the domain 4) that redefined the topic for important stakeholders and hence the
future intervention strategy map.
References:
1. Khoo, Tseen, 2015, Everybody wants to save the world, March 2015, viewed on 24 April 2017,
<https://theresearchwhisperer.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/research-and-policy/#more-3290>
2. Green, Duncan, 2012, Do’s and don’ts on research -> policy and the state of Development Studies in
Ireland, September 2012, viewed on 24 April 2017, <http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/dos-and-donts-
onresearch-
policy-and-the-state-of-development-studies-in-ireland/>
Bridging the research-policy gap through a continuous collaborative platform 1
Abstract for European/African Borders Conference, Niamey 2017
By Rinku Gajera and Niti Bhan
Authors Biography:
Rinku Gajera Rinku brings over a decade of experience in practicing human-centred design, planning, ethnographic
research, analyzing problems from a systemic perspective, as well as prototyping, iterating and
providing context appropriate solutions. Her undergraduate degree from the Centre for Environmental
Planning and Technology (CEPT) University was followed by a stint at the National Institute of Design,
Ahmedabad, as Design Associate in the Bamboo and Cane Development Institute to train local artisans
on design and new product development. She was awarded a fellowship for her Master's in Human
Centred Design, specializing in Innovation Planning, from the Institute of Design, IIT, Chicago. Her
work
experience began as a User Experience intern in the CEO’s Office at SAP, Palo Alto, when design
thinking was being introduced to the entire organization. Most recently she was Research Scientist –
Ethnography & Design at Xerox Research Centre, Bangalore, and Interaction Designer at Carefusion
(formerly Cardinal Health), San Diego. At Emerging Futures Lab, she has created research
methodology for Fieldwork and led a small team to conduct ethnographic fieldwork studying
crossborder
trade.
Niti Bhan
20
Niti Bhan combines her engineering, design and business education with exploratory user research to
design and develop innovative concepts and strategy for new products, services and business models
for the most demanding customers in challenging environments of the developing world. Her key skill
is the ability to take vast amounts of disparate data and distill them down to cohesive and actionable
insights. Niti’s research interests include creating effective business models for groups with irregular
incomes at the base of the social and economic pyramid. She concentrated on the design and
development of interdisciplinary methods, frameworks, tools and systems at Aalto University's Design
Factory in Espoo, Finland during her tenure there in 2010. An established speaker, she was a judge at
the inaugural Pivot25 conference in May 2011, Nairobi, East Africa's first conference for mobile
developers and startups.
Niti writes extensively on design, innovation and strategy for cash based and rural markets in the
informal economy. In 2014, she was invited by the editors of Harvard Business Review to contribute to
their online publication. She maintains her own blog at www.nitibhan.com/blog covering the informal
and prepaid economy, Africa's emerging consumer markets as well as other topics covering business,
design and strategy.
La gestion des frontières, entre politique institutionnelle et pratiques des populations. Quel
modèle de gouvernance ? Cas du Sénégal et de ses voisins.
Mohamadou Mountaga DIALLO, Mamadou Bouna TIMERA
Le Sénégal et ses voisins, principalement le Mali et la Gambie, ont répondu aux recommandations du
Programme Frontière de l’Union africaine (PFUA) relatives à la délimitation et à la démarcation des
frontières africaines. Mais la mise en œuvre du PFUA est confrontée à l’interprétation différenciée des
textes historico- juridiques relatifs à la frontière, à la résurgence des différends territoriaux datant de la
période coloniale et à la multiplication des enjeux politiques, géostratégiques, économiques et
socioculturels. Le processus semble aujourd’hui bloqué, montrant ainsi un brouillage de la frontière de
souveraineté.
Cette communication évalue les logiques, principes et procédures de la démarcation tels qu’édictés par
le PFUA et appropriés par les Etats africains, aux regards des réalités des espaces transfrontaliers.
Combinant la documentation sur les résultats de la recherche relative à la frontière et une observation
des pratiques de gestion institutionnelle et des vécus quotidiens des populations, elle s’interroge in fine
sur les logiques de contrôle et d’encadrement des Etats face à des populations frontalières dont la
production des territoires déborde des limites de souveraineté nationale.
La démarcation et la délimitation sur laquelle est adossée la gestion institutionnelle de la frontière
repose sur l’interprétation de l’histoire (les textes historico-juridiques) et une intangibilité construite sur
la seule référence politico-juridique. Elle est fondée sur les principes de la linéarité, de la séparation des
souverainetés et d’une appartenance exclusive aux espaces nationaux alors que la frontière apparaît, au
quotidien, comme un espace ouvert dévoilant des terroirs enchevêtrés, des lieux domestiques intégrés et
des territoires définis par des pratiques commerciales et socioéconomiques fondées sur l’exploitation
différentielle des systèmes économiques, monétaires et juridiques des Etats.
Cet écart nécessite l’invention de nouveaux outils et schémas qui tiennent comptent des spécificités et
des dynamiques des espaces transfrontaliers.
BIOGRAPHIE
Mohamadou Mountaga DIALLO, docteur en géographie-aménagement du territoire, est enseignant-
chercheur à l’université de Dakar. Ses recherches portent sur les questions de frontière et de coopération
transfrontalière avec diverses publications scientifiques. Il a participé à la mise en œuvre de
programmes de coopération transfrontalière en Sénégambie méridionale et à l’élaboration de projets et
de documents stratégiques de gestion des frontières en Afrique. Dr DIALLO a été personne ressource
du Conseil des Collectivités Territoriales de l’UEMOA dans le cadre de l’élaboration du programme de
développement transfrontalier de l’espace UEMOA".
Mamadou Bouna TIMERA est géographe sénégalais, Maître-assistant à l'Université Cheikh Anta
Diop. Il est membre de la Commission Nationale de Gestion des Frontières (CNGF), co –coordonnateur
des missions techniques de reconnaissance et de délimitation des frontières depuis 2010. Ses travaux
portent sur la construction des identités nationales et territoriales, sur les questions de didactique et
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d'épistémologie scolaires. Il a notamment co-publié: « le Sénégal et la Gambie : deux pays, mille
frontières » Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Studia Europaea, décembre, 2016, Cluj Napaco,
Roumanie, Vol. 61 Issue 4, p129-150. 22p.
Agenda 2063 and the Future of Border Jumping in Africa: A View from the Zimbabwe-South
Africa Border
Francis Musoni
Agenda 2063 is a 50-year developmental framework, which the African Union Commission
launched in 2013. Among other objectives that the AU hopes to achieve through this long-term strategy
is an integrated and politically united Africa. Such an Africa, it is hoped, will be better able to handle
most of the developmental challenges that the continent currently grapples with. My proposed paper
examines the opportunities that Agenda 2063 provides the continent in its struggle against border
jumping. Commonly referred to as illegal or irregular migration, this phenomenon is one of the lasting
legacies of the creation of colonial boundaries and the imposition of state-centered migration control
measures in the continent. What makes border jumping a major challenge is that it is often accompanied
by human trafficking, smuggling and violence the borderlands.
Whereas in 1963 the OAU resolved to keep colonial boundaries in place, the AU wants to
remove inter-state boundaries in Africa. This will be done through several steps including: the removal
of all visa requirements for African citizens in every African country; the adoption of an African
passport by all member states; the establishment of an Africa Customs Union and the African Common
Market as well as the adoption of an African Union Government, with a continental anthem, flag, high
speed train network and a single airspace by 2063.
At the risk of being speculative, my paper argues that Agenda 2063 might very well be the
strategy that Africa needs to deal with border jumping across the continent’s inter-state boundaries.
Along with improving economic and political integration, the elimination of visas and other travel
restrictions will encourage people to use official channels when moving from one part of the continent
to another. A border-less Africa (if that can be achieved) will therefore have to only worry about border
jumpers from outside the continent and not from within. To support this argument, the paper will draw
upon extensive historical (mostly archival) and ethnographic research, I have carried out since 2009,
focusing on “illegal” migration across the Zimbabwe-South Africa border.
Brief Bio
Francis Musoni is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, where he teaches
courses on Sub-Saharan African history; Africa’s Borderlands; and Global Migrations. In addition to
research articles, which have appeared in the Journal of Southern African Studies; African and Asian
Studies; African Studies Review; Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies, his
recently completed monograph entitled Contested Illegality: Border Jumping and the Control of
Mobility across the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border is under contract with Indiana University Press.
Musoni is also a Research Associate with the African Center for Migration and Society at the
University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and has held a Visiting Research Fellowship at the
Five Colleges African Studies Program in Amherst, Massachusetts.
