The Baha'i International Community (BIC) Brussels Office continued its series of meetings exploring what a meaningful partnership between Africa and Europe entails. During this session, participants delved with further depth and nuance into different aspects of the partnership which were identified during previous meetings.

An insight that emerged was the need to reconcile various interests, whether local, national or intercontinental and to foster coherence between specific policy areas. “We need to start thinking, not just about development, but at how we can balance various interests - private sector interest, competition policy, trade policy- in order to work towards something that actually works for everyone and not just for a small handful of people.” said Brandon Locke from the ONE Campaign.

Participants also highlighted that some of the challenges both continents face provide the opportunity to form a common vision of the priorities and objectives the partnership should pursue. “There is an energy crisis, there is a cost of living crisis, there’s a food security crisis, here and in Africa, and I think, these shared challenges allow us to build a solidarity agenda between the two continents.” said Rahul Chawla from the Africa Europe Foundation.

Another topic brought up during the conversation was that of rethinking the sources and notions of knowledge required for a successful partnership. This will be the focus of a meeting scheduled for early 2023, with the aim to consider in what ways the definition and incorporation of knowledge applied in the partnership can be broadened so that it better serves all those involved.