Africa-Europe Foundation Forum

The Africa-Europe agri-food partnership has the ambition to transform food systems sustainably, with flagship policy initiatives and added financial momentum. The AEF SG on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems aims to play its part given the scale of transformations we urgently need. To build the jobs, businesses and partnerships required, we will focus first on ways to scale-up agri-food SMEs by offering access to finance and mentoring. The SG has flagged the huge importance of stronger support for co-innovation, training and professional development in the agri-food sector. Our initiatives include construction of cross-continental networks of excellence in regenerative agriculture, and an Erasmus exchange programme for African and European farmers and agri-food entrepreneurs. The SG is also providing a particular focus on the Sahel, showing how investment in rural landscapes and livelihoods could put the region on the road to prosperity by 2030.

Participation in this session is by invitation only.

This session will begin with the launch of a manifesto on clean cooking solutions developed by the AEF and partners. The introduction will put in context the Foundation’s work on an “Africa-Europe Climate Alliance” and the priority focus on Clean Cooking as emblematic of the Alliance, why investment in clean cooking has not matched the global magnitude of the challenge in recent years, and why there is a strategic and timely opportunity today for government and business to deliver on clean cooking solutions. This as a way to not only raise the importance of providing clean cooking solutions to all by 2030 but equally to recruit champions and mobilise government and investor to scale-up the cross-continental collective efforts.

The session will begin by highlighting why we are revisiting and rekindling an approach that has failed to get traction in the past. It will outline the fresh and compelling arguments that merit political attention and financial investment.

The role of cities and mayors is critical to reset the relationship between Africa and Europe in the post COVID-19 recovery. Mayors across the two continents are already working together, showing leadership and progress in areas where states struggle to find common ground. These pragmatic alliances between cities can reinvigorate a more equal partnership between Africa and Europe, making a real difference in the lives of all urban residents.

Cities matter: by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. While not all cities grow at the same pace across Africa and Europe, they share similar opportunities and challenges pertaining to demography, climate change and global pandemics – all factors affecting modern urban living. When COVID-19 dealt a blow to African and European cities with devastating health and economic impacts, mayors stepped up to the challenge, working to secure access to health and other basic services for their residents, as well as innovating and adapting policies and practices to a new global reality.

In this session, organised in partnership with ODI, mayors contributing to the Mayors Dialogue on Growth on Solidarity will share their experiences of working together with other leading figures and will look ahead to how cities can shape the future partnership between the two continents.

Cities connect all the work streams of the AEF Strategy Groups, from transport infrastructure, food systems and the energy transition to healthcare and digital innovation. This session will focus on how city leaders and existing city led platforms can act as catalysts to drive action on the priority initiatives identified by the Foundation Strategy Groups.

This session is organised in partnership with ODI.

Following the launch of the Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) in December 2020, the AEF High-Level Group has underlined its intent to ensure youth voice, agency, and leadership is central to the work of the Foundation as a network of networks. A Special Dialogue has been timed to take place as a culminating moment of the first AEF Forum in order to analyse the output of the Forum and co-design strategies for putting young people in the driving seat of transforming dialogue into action. There will be a strategic focus on connecting existing youth leadership networks and platforms affiliated to the launch of the AEF and sharing strategic thinking on how to mainstream youth voice in the preparation of next year’s AU-EU Summit, ensuring young people play a leading role on all areas of cooperation (from Health and Climate to Education, Employability, Mobility and Peacebuilding). The strategic meeting builds directly on the outputs of the first AEF Forum and the “Talking Africa-EU” series that ran in the lead-up to the launch of the Foundation in 2020.

Participation in this session is by invitation only.

Interconnectivity within and between Africa and Europe has ramifications not only for the Africa-Europe partnership, but potentially worldwide. With Europe contributing disproportionately to climate change, ‘greening’ transport networks on the continent is a priority. For Africa, making use of the advantages conferred by geography offers a chance to leapfrog up the infrastructure ladder – and as the events around the Suez Canal showed, Africa’s connectivity can have a huge
impact on the world economy. This meeting of the Transport and Connectivity Strategy Group is an opportunity to reflect on these issues, as well as those raised during the transversal sessions of the Forum on health, clean cooking, and cities, and how to link these to the work of the Strategy Group – such as partnerships on urban mobility and clean public transport. The Strategy Group will also discuss the issues generated through the working group processes and discussions with members, including initiatives on inland water transport, short-sea shipping, and online freight platforms. This strategic planning meeting will be a chance to define the work streams for the remainder of the year and into 2022.

Participation in this session is by invitation only.

There is arguably no area more important to Africa and Europe’s growth and integration than the potential created by digital transformation. Both Africa and Europe are at a pivotal point in time, where a transformative and inclusive digital agenda can prepare them to tackle a common future. The AEF Digital Strategy Group’s scope and ambition is to build a conducive environment for innovation within digital ecosystems in Africa whilst promoting mutual linkages, knowledge transfer, and partnership with Europe. The Group focuses its attention on leveraging innovation potential and opportunities for cross fertilisation in each of the priority areas of the partnership in concert with the sister Strategy Groups of the AEF. This meeting will focus its attention on the E-health sector – in particular improving integration, coordination and communication along the patient journey through digital solutions. Equally, the importance of data, its governance, protection and interoperability, has been noted as a cornerstone supporting the work of each area of the AEF and the Africa-Europe Partnership, and will need to be properly addressed in order to build an effective strategy for cooperation and action between both continents.

Participation in this session is by invitation only.