EU-African digital partnership in a changing world

Abstract

Digital transformation is happening now, everywhere and it has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It became an essential instrument to enable sustainable development and inclusive growth. It is a relatively new part of the EU’s foreign policy, many challenges are still to be addressed. Strong digital partnership between African countries and the European Union is crucial to improve people’s lives on both the continents, by empowering women and girls, enhancing democratic governance and transparency, and boosting productivity and job creation. The event will address the long-term goals of digital partnership between EU and Africa. Specifically, how to forge a stronger, genuine, inclusive, and mutually beneficial partnership in digital transformation between Africa and the EU. Recently initiated Digital4Development (D4D) Hub by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen under the German EU Council Presidency creates such opportunities. However, the question is how to make the hub operational, so trust is built for mutual cooperation and exchange best practices while learning from each other.