As the global order faces deepening fragmentation, the Global South is called upon to chart a new course rooted in mutual respect, inclusivity, and shared prosperity.
Nowhere is this more urgent than in Africa, where the renaissance of Pan-Africanism, anchored in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, whose clearest expression in the African Continental Free Trade Area , which seeks to boost intra-African trade and economic sovereignty.
Yet beneath this optimism lies a cautionary undertone: the reconfiguration of global alliances may be ushering in a “second scramble for Africa,” with external actors once again vying for control of the continent’s vast untapped resources. In this context, strategic South-South and Triangular Cooperation offers a timely alternative—one that empowers Africa to claim its rightful place in global value chains.
India, a longstanding advocate of South-South cooperation, recently convened a high-level conference through the Research and Information System (RIS) for Developing Countries.
The gathering brought together leaders and institutions from across the Global South, alongside select participants from the Global North, in the spirit of collective will and action. Kenya, represented by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra), was a special invitee.
Among the key outcomes of the RIS conference was a reaffirmation of agriculture as the engine of sustainable and inclusive development.
However, despite its potential, agriculture remains one of Africa’s most underutilised and underfunded sectors.
The continent is home to 65 percent of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, along with abundant water and labour resources.
Yet weak land tenure systems, lingering colonial-era policies, and limited investment have kept this potential largely dormant.
Nowhere is this contradiction more stark than in Africa’s coffee sector. Though the continent is the birthplace of coffee and enjoys unique comparative advantages in its cultivation, African countries account for only 12 percent of global coffee production and a meagre 0.6 percent of the $500 billion global coffee market.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world after oil and the most consumed beverage after water—yet Africa’s share of its value chain remains shockingly low.
This underperformance is the result of a structural imbalance between producers in the Global South and consumers in the Global North.
On the supply side, African producers face market and policy failures that hinder productivity, while on the demand side, the global trading system is shaped by monopsonistic dominance, where a handful of powerful buyers dictate prices and conditions, locking producers out of the high-value segments of the chain, particularly value addition.
If the continent is to fully realise its agricultural potential, African coffee-producing countries must collectively advocate for a new approach. This means anchoring strategic commodities like coffee within the framework of South-South and Triangular Cooperation.
By collaborating to enhance value addition, improve policy coordination, and secure better access to global markets, Africa can begin to reclaim ownership over its most valuable resources.
This isn’t just about coffee—it’s about rewriting the rules of engagement in the global economy. The time has come for Africa to turn its comparative advantages into competitive gains.
The writer is a public policy analyst at the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra)
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