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Like hardly any other technology, digitalisation is changing and revolutionising our working and living environments, and last but not least, social coexistence. The issue also plays an increasingly important role in relations between Africa and Europe.
The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), together with the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) and the European Center for Development Policy and Management (ECDPM), organized four online workshops on digitisation last month. African and European politicians, members of implementation organisations, entrepreneurs and representatives of international organisations met to discuss four central thematic blocks of digitisation on the basis of a previously circulated position paper. The discussion centered on strategic investments, education, higher education, and vocational training, good governance and regulation and the implementation of existing agreements between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU).
The direct juxtaposition of contrasting positions contributed to the broadening of the knowledge of a highly dynamic thematic complex. All participants agreed that COVID-19 acts as an accelerator of global digitisation. In view of significant investment needs and limited funds, it requires close cooperation between public institutions and the private sector, according to some participants. Africa’s digital transformation can only succeed if both infrastructural and educational policy challenges will be solved in unison.
The event is part of a series of policy briefs and events ahead of the AU-EU Summit, jointly organized by the DIE, ACET, ECDPM with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The results of the discussions will be reflected in a public position paper. More information and regular updates on upcoming events can be found here.
