End of November 2017, African and European Heads of State and Government will gather in Abidjan for the 5th EU-Africa Summit under the central theme “Investing in youth for a sustainable future”. They will address current and future challenges and deepen their strategic partnership, launched in 2007 with the adoption of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy.
Ahead of this Summit, 80 representatives of civil society organisations from Africa and Europe – including CONCORD Europe – met at the EU-Africa Civil Society Forum in Tunis in July 2017 and adopted a joint declaration. They noted that the shrinking space for civil society organisations remains a major challenge for the partnership, and stressed the importance of fostering space for civil society organisations of both continents as independent actors and integral partners within the Joint Africa-EU Partnership and Strategy.
The joint declaration also contains a number of recommendations on five thematic areas: (1) Conflict prevention, peace building and refugees; (2) Democratic governance and civic participation; (3) Human development; (4) Decent work, universal social protection and social economic development and (5) Sustainable future for our planet in the context of climate change and natural disasters. Migration, gender and Youth were mainstreamed in the document.
To read the full Declaration, please click below:
The Confederation of European Development and Relief NGOs CONCORD Europe strongly supports the vision outlined in the EU-Africa Civil Society Declaration adopted in Tunis. Looking beyond the Abidjan Summit and focusing more specifically on the EU’s responsibilities in the EU-Africa Partnership, CONCORD Europe also prepared a Paper promoting alternatives to EU narratives on its partnership with Africa. As a complement to the Tunis Declaration, this CONCORD paper outlines a more in-depth vision on five specific themes that are at the core of EU’s policies towards Africa: migration, security, private sector investments, tax and trade, and youth.
Read the full papers below: available in English “Alternatives to 5 EU Narratives on EU-Africa Partnership“, in French “Les alternatives de CONCORD face à cinq discours de l’UE sur son partenariat avec l’Afrique” and in Portuguese “A CONCORD propõe alternativas para cinco narrativas da UE sobre a Parceria UE-África“.