On July 11, at the third EU-Israel Strategic Roundtable, the topic of Development approaches in Sub-Saharan Africa was discussed at the European Policy Center (EPC).
The first session on European and Israeli development approaches – challenges and opportunities, related the collective effort to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The second session reflected the strategic approaches to developments aims to bridge the gap between internal and external policies and recognize the nexus between security and development.
This common initiative was organized by European Policy Center (EPC), the Forum of Strategic Dialogue and Elnet. The sessions were being led by José Fernando Costa Pereira (Adviser for policy and communication to the Managing Director for Africa, European External Action Service), Paulus Geraedts (Team Leader, Outreach and investment services, Secretariat of the External Investment Plan, European Commission), H.E Mrs Novisi Abaido (Ambassador of Ghana to the EU), and Joshua Azure (Minister Counsellor for Trade, Mission of Ghana to the EU).
From Israel, the initiative was held by Prof. Uzi Arad (Former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister and Head of Israel’s National Security Council) Yariv Cohen (CEO, Ingnite Power) , Eran Etzion (Executive Director Forum of Strategic Dialogue, Navonel Glick (Co-chief Executive Officer, IsraAID) , Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar (Ambassador of Israel to the European Union and NATO).
Israel puts Africa on its political agenda: Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the continent three times in 2016-2017 and was the first non-member state leader to speak in ECOWAS summit in Liberia.
At the end of 2017, Israel joined USAID’s Power Africa energy development program. The US-led initiative connects millions of Africans to electricity. This program aims to connect 60 million households in Africa to the electricity gird by 2030.
“Every time that an African mother will turn on the light or turn on a heater for some water for her children, part of Israel will be there,” Netanyahu said. “It’s a great, great development.”
Another organization that forge closer links between Israel and Africa is Mashav. This agency for International Development Cooperation aims to share the Israeli expertise in order to improve the daily life of developing countries. In Africa, Israel and Mashav focuses on education, food safety, agriculture and health. For example the organization favored the installation of eyes clinics across Africa. In 2014, during the crisis of Ebola virus, Mashav sent a mobile clinic fully equipped, although the political relations were inexistent.