In partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Office of the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, the Government of the Netherlands, and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
This report is based on discussions at the Wilton Park high-level roundtable, Towards Long-Term Cooperation for Mutual Prosperity in Africa’s Great Lakes Region, that took place from Wednesday 26 June to Friday 28 June 2024.
The Great Lakes region holds world-class reservoirs of unused agricultural land, hydroelectric capacity, biodiversity and minerals critical to global green transitions, as well as a young and enterprising population. Peace and economic development are mutually reinforcing, and unlocking the region’s potential could contribute significantly to its transformation into a peaceful, prosperous and globally significant engine of growth. But the Great Lakes is finding its place in a newly multipolar world and is facing increasing disruption from demographic pressure, climate change and technology, compounding existing complex security, humanitarian and economic challenges. Progress is urgently required.
Introduction
The Great Lakes region is of critical importance both for the African continent and the world. It holds vast reserves of agricultural land, biodiversity, hydroelectric capacity and minerals, and is home to a young and fast-growing population that already numbers in the hundreds of millions. The Congo Basin is a critical ecosystem, ‘the world’s last lung’ and of global importance in the fight against climate change, and minerals from the Great Lakes region are central to green transitions. Geographically, the Great Lakes region is the crossroads and the pivot of the continent, straddling and linking economic and political blocs across Eastern, Southern and Central Africa. Peace, prosperity and growth could not only transform the countries of the Great Lakes region, but could make it an engine of continental growth.
However, all of these factors also increase the region’s vulnerability. Competition for control of resources is already marked and will only increase as the global importance of critical minerals intensifies. The region’s size and diversity make co-operation difficult, reflected in overlapping regional organisations and inter-governmental institutions operating in the Great Lakes. Its vast borders risk instability from elsewhere taking root. Growing populations need livelihoods and jobs if political instability and encroachment on natural spaces are to be avoided. Progress on long-term co-operation and mutual prosperity is urgently required.