Shaping Futures Network events in East Africa

The Shaping Futures: African-European Network on Development and Sustainability brought together participants from previous academy cohorts in two events in East Africa: the 11^th session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARDSD-11) and a meetup with alumni from Ethiopia and Kenya.

The ARDSD-11 took place from 9 – 11 April 2025 in Kampala. This annual event reviews the status of and progress on selected SDGs in Africa and is jointly organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the host government (this time, Uganda). Four alumni presented their (research) projects related to SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 14 (life below water) and SDG 17 (partnership for the goals). They shared their knowledge through poster presentations in a Shaping Futures booth at the conference’s knowledge fair, with the following titles:

• Gender Disparities in Climate Finance and Environmental Governance (Soumaya Zaddem)
• Role of Small-Scale Fishers in Ocean Governance in South Africa (Danai Tembo – MGG)
• Feminist Climate Entrepreneurship & Green Jobs for Young Women (Farah Kanbi)
• African Solutions for African Challenges: Leveraging Cowpea to Build Climate-Resilient Food Systems (Natasha Mwansa)

Of course, the booth was also used to promote the Shaping Futures programme (including the academy in addition to the network).

The alumni meetup took place a week later in Addis Ababa, on 14 and 15 April, with participants from Kenya and Ethiopia as well as the Chair and Vice-Chair of the network and members from the Shaping Futures team at IDOS. The group had a full-day session on the first day. All participants briefly shared their professional and/or research engagement in development and sustainability processes as well as their interests in (various forms of) knowledge cooperation within the Shaping Futures Network. Breakout groups discussed where interests aligned and agreed to explore these further in the coming weeks, potentially leading to policy briefs and other outputs. The Shaping Futures team spent the rest of the afternoon envisioning future developments of and within the network, and looking ahead to the next day’s visit to the headquarters of the African Union (AU) – with an alumna sharing insights from her previous experience working there.

The AU visit on the second day targeted two of its units. First, the team visited the AU’s Situation Room in the Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department. The coordinator of this room informed about how the AU gathers and distributes information to its decision-makers (and others) on political affairs throughout Africa. Then the team visited a similar situation room, this time related to Disaster Risk Reduction. Big screens showed the latest data on all kinds of environmental affairs, based on which the unit’s professionals scope possible environmental hazards and disasters. The AU visit was complemented by another visit to the GIZ African Union office. Its director Dr. Tobias Thiel introduced what the GIZ African Union does and how and in which areas it cooperates with the AU, followed by a discussion with the group.

Voices from the team: “All in all, a fruitful two days! Not just content wise, but also in terms of getting to know each other better and strengthening social relations. The latter is, after all, the backbone of a knowledge network like ours!”