Our Story

The Africa-Europe CS Platform

The longstanding relationship between Africa and Europe entered a new phase with the adoption of the Joint Africa and EU Strategy (JAES), the first overarching continent-to-continent partnership policy, in Lisbon in 2007. One of the major shifts in the Africa-EU cooperation policy under the JAES is the expressed commitment and ambition of partners for an inclusive, people-centred partnership. However, after nearly two decades into the new era of Africa-EU strategic partnership, civil society remain marginal to the process with little formalized avenues and enabling conditions for meaningful participation in policy making, programming, implementation and monitoring of the partnership.

Against this background, people’s organizations, movements, NGOs and youth organizations from both continents have participated in a ‘coalition of advocacy’ supported by CONCORD since 2022, with the aim of advancing civil society’s right to participation in the AU-EU partnership. To this end, members of the group organized an Africa-Europe Civil Society and Youth Forum as part of the EU-sponsored Africa-Europe Week ahead of the sixth Africa-EU Summit on February 19, 2022. The Forum provided an opportunity for civil society advocacy in AU-EU policy spaces and produced an outcome document–“No decision about us without us!”— with recommendations to take forward, including on the meaningful, long-term engagement with African, European and Diaspora CSOs.