“The paper explores contextual questions, in particular in section 2 it focuses on the question of whether African countries should negotiate at all. In doing this, the paper identifies the full range of available options from which the affected African countries must choose. It identifies the countries that do not need to negotiate, and discusses the negotiating modalities for those that have to. Section 3 focuses on negotiating structures and schedules and section 4 discusses in some detail the preparations necessary for African countries that will engage in the negotiations. The paper ends with concluding remarks in Section 5.”
