The BMZ's Africa Strategy Shaping the future with Africa

Africa is growing and changing enormously. The way it develops will leave its stamp on the 21st century and thus also determine the future of Germany and Europe. Africa’s progress is currently being threatened by geopolitical, demographic, and economic upheaval and crises. At the same time, African countries are key partners in addressing global challenges. Against this background, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has drafted a new Africa Strategy.

The Africa Strategy of the BMZ

PDF | 01/2023 | 1 MB, 36 Pages | Accessible

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Couverture: Construisons l’avenir avec l’Afrique

La Stratégie du BMZ pour l’Afrique

PDF | 01/2023 | 1 MB, 36 Pages

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The BMZ’s Africa Strategy has three overarching goals

Ahunna Eziakonwa, Regional Director for Africa at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Federal Minister Svenja Schulze at the press conference to present the BMZ’s new Africa Strategy.

to lend structural support to the achievement of the development goals set by the African Union (AU) and its member states (AU Agenda 2063 (External link));
to work together for a global transformation to ensure that everyone can live in dignity and security in an intact environment (UN 2030 Agenda);
to address crises jointly and visibly with Europe’s neighbouring continent in a spirit of solidarity.

Press conference

Recording of the press conference on 24 January 2023 in Berlin with Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Ahunna Eziakonwa, Regional Director for Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Chido Mpemba, Special Envoy on Youth to the AU Chairperson

Conference

Liz Shoo, Chair, Ahunna Eziakonwa, Regional Director for Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, Executive Vice President, African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) (from left)

How can a modern partnership with the African continent based on shared values and common interests succeed? Development Minister Svenja Schulze discussed this with German, European and African experts on 25 January 2023.

Respect and fairness – the BMZ has based its new Africa Strategy on this principle. We voice our values and interests, but also listen, thus building trust and partnerships to give us a sound basis in the new multipolar world order.

Svenja Schulze Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development

New attitude in cooperation

Cooperation with Africa will be based on respect and reciprocity and Africa’s priorities and initiatives. The BMZ wants to engage in a dialogue with Africa rather than about Africa. It advocates for the voices of African states and the AU to be heard appropriately within multilateral fora. It is clearly formulating its own value-based political interests and sees an in-depth reflection on the consequences of colonialism as a foundation on which to build an open and honest dialogue. It champions diversity and applies a feminist approach.

A sustainable future The focus areas of development cooperation with Africa

The BMZ’s Africa policy is to become more social, more environmental and more feminist. Those are the threads running through the strategy’s six focus areas:

Training as a car mechanic in Harar, Ethiopia

The aim is to achieve a social and environmental transformation of the economy (Just Transition) that combines conservation of vital natural resources with social justice and the creation of decent jobs.

A woman shows the result after pounding millet on a smallholder farm in Ishiara, Kenya.

The aim is to transform agricultural and food systems so as to strengthen food security over the long term. Expanding social protection also helps reduce poverty and inequality.

Vaccination against Covid-19: Close-up of the injection of the vaccine into the upper arm of a woman.

The aim is to establish robust basic health systems and support the establishment of medical production capacities (particularly for vaccine manufacturing).

People in the lecture hall of the Institute for Applied Agricultural Research and Training in Katibougou, Mali

The aim is to address the root causes of inequality and discrimination against women and girls and to improve their rights, representation and access to resources.

Employees in the Ministry of Finance in Ghana

The aim is to strengthen democratic institutions, effective public authorities and a free press as the basis for resilient societies and political participation.

A knotted pistol: The work "Non Violence" by the Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd has stood as a peace symbol in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York since 1988.

The aim is to target the root causes of conflict and prevent conflict through an integrated approach combining humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peacebuilding. Support is provided to refugees and displaced persons and equally to host communities.

New instruments and cooperation formats

It will expand cooperation with European and African partners. Bilateral programmes will be increasingly incorporated into multilateral processes so as to achieve a transformative impact. It is forging new strategic alliances (such as Climate and Development Partnerships) and is developing new means of mobilising private investment. Finally, it is working both within the German government and at the European level to achieve greater coherence and for greater account to be taken of African interests in agricultural, trade, migration, financial and climate policies, for example. In general, it is focusing on alliances rather than individual efforts.