As part of the on-going review by the Swedish government of the entire basis for its relations with Africa, a seminar on the theme Partnership Africa was convened in Abidjan in January 1997 under the auspices of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet and the African Development Institute of the African Development Bank. The Seminar was attended by some 25 scholars, development bankers, government officials and civil society activists from all parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and some 10 development co-operation officials and academics from Sweden and the other Nordic countries.The aim of the Abidjan seminar was to enable participants to explore the problems of and prospects for the establishment of a new partnership between Sweden and Africa in the context of the major changes that have taken place on the global and regional scenes over the last decade. For this purpose, various issues central to the history and dynamics of North-South relations generally and Swedish-Africa co-operation in particular were critically examined. Participants also sketched out what they considered to be the essential pre-conditions and parameters for a new partnership, one that would be premised on greater equality, mutual respect and a transparency of purpose and goals.This publication brings together in a volume, the various papers which were commissioned to serve as background materials for the debate that took place in Abidjan. The volume was edited for publication by Henock Kifle, Director of the African Development Institute of the ADB, Adebayo O. Olukoshi and Lennart Wohglemuth, respectively Senior Researcher and Director of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.