ECDPM 🌍

🔵 Once seen as an agenda pushed onto Africa from outside, green policies are now clearly essential for African economies themselves - from cutting emissions to making borders and transport chains more resilient.

🔵 Africa and Europe do not just share a past, but a future. In our 40th anniversary interviews, João Gomes Cravinho describes the turbulent geopolitical landscape facing both neighbours, and the urgency of cooperation to deliver for their citizens. 👉 bit.ly/4tTs0aI

🔵 Digital now cuts across everything in development work. Whether we look at climate, social protection, health, education or governance, the infrastructures, data and platforms behind them are increasingly digital.

🔵 Geopolitical competition means increased pressure to align with a specific power, particularly when funding is at stake. But credibility rests on safeguarding independence. Watch the clip 👉 youtube.com/shorts/rGyrc...

🔵 We spoke to Ibrahim Mayaki, former Prime Minister of Niger and former CEO of African Union Development Agency-NEPAD, on the end of Official Development Assistance (ODA). "Why are we so poor and why didn't ODA help?"

🔵 International cooperation is not dead – but it has to change. If traditional development cooperation fell short because it was not honest about competing interests, better partnerships will start by listening.

🔵 Geopolitics is changing. Budgets are under pressure. Donor priorities are shifting. But global challenges are not going anywhere.

🔵 As the old global order fractures, it is harder – and more important – to get very different actors around the same table.

📝 Europe is still a heavyweight in digital connectivity, but without a coherent offer to partner countries, it will continue to be passed over for China, the US and others. Find the paper and briefs here 👉 bit.ly/4w2vQ2f

🔵 This is not the first 'crisis' of development aid or Africa–Europe cooperation. As ODA collapses, we can’t just defend an old model that often stood in the way of development. We should use this moment to build something better.

🔵 ECDPM was founded in 1986, as the Cold War closed with a tectonic shift for Europe and its partners. Forty years later, we are again in an age of disruption – and Europe has to rethink how it acts on the global stage.

📣 As development aid shifts to defence spending, it is a real loss for millions across Africa, Asia and Latin America. But it may also signal the end of a model that was already under strain. Read the commentary by Geert Laporte 👉 bit.ly/4mmvqj5

🎬 As African governments impose export bans on critical minerals to capture more local value, @poorvak.bsky.social warns National Security News that such bans do not automatically work as planned. Watch the full interview 👉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0X...

🎙️ Europe, Africa and partners face a fertiliser crisis, and therefore food crisis, with limited options in the short term. But long term, collaborating on green fertiliser production will limit exposure to the blockades of unstable actors. Listen 👉 lnkd.in/ef5EMpsR Watch 👉 lnkd.in/eaV9B8Yu

🎙️ The Iran crisis shows Europe a familiar, painful lesson: over-reliance on a single partner is a strategic liability. As the blockade chokes oil and fertilizer flows, the EU moves from one insecure fossil fuel dependency to another. Listen 👉 lnkd.in/ef5EMpsR Watch 👉 lnkd.in/eaV9B8Yu

🎙️ As the EU shapes its next long-term budget (MFF), the role of the Global Gateway remains unclear. Is it a development tool? A competitiveness strategy? A geopolitical instrument? Watch 👉 youtu.be/Ntsoz2CzSIA Listen 👉 bit.ly/4cZJyfp Webpage 👉 bit.ly/3P9OKnb

🎙️ Five years since its creation, Europe's key vehicle for external action is still a cause of confusion for partners. So what is the Global Gateway, how is it changing and how can it be improved? Our new podcast dives in. Watch 👉 youtu.be/Ntsoz2CzSIA Listen 👉 bit.ly/4cZJyfp

🇨🇳 Over the past two years, ECDPM has studied how the EU and China shape Africa’s green transition, and what this means for countries that do not want to choose sides. Avoidance serves no one: Europe will have to decide when to complement, when to compete and how. Explore the page 👉 bit.ly/4urfVtv

🎙️ With Europe’s digital ecosystem dominated by US monopolies, it is hard to claim the EU governs its own digital infrastructure. From cloud to social media, power shapes the rules in highly autocratic ways – with real consequences offline. Listen to the podcast 👉 bit.ly/3Tydog3

🎬 Are 'food sovereignty' and 'self-sufficiency' actually making it harder to achieve food security? Scaling investments in key African food corridors 👉 bit.ly/4rDs38T Watch the full panel 👉 lnkd.in/eX7ZVZhr

🔴 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 | How can Africa and Europe can work together to make global peace and security governance both more representative and effective? Read the policy brief 👉 bit.ly/4qPFBNu Watch the full recording 👉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqWD...

📸 Why should powers like the EU and India work together on AI? MEP Brando Benifei, architect of the EU's AI act, speaks at our event at the India AI Impact Summit. Read our paper 'Beyond the Brussels effect' 👉 bit.ly/4rsOq1g

🎙️ With global tech dominated by the US and China, middle powers will have to cooperate on AI and other tech to maintain their digital sovereignty. Who they choose to work with becomes and important issue. Listen 👉 bit.ly/4awi3Iu Watch 👉 youtu.be/5Ky1hKC2z4A

📣 The EU needs a fundamental rethink of its partnerships to reduce dependency on any single global power. A 'principled but pragmatic' stance would foster alliances that are both strategically aligned and mutually beneficial. Read the commentary 👉 bit.ly/3MeX4kd

🎬 ECDPM is working with the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD to boost investments on food security and climate resilience along major infrastructure corridors in Africa. Read more about the project 👉 bit.ly/4rDs38T