The Africa-Europe Civil Society Platform “provides an opportunity to learn from one another and to understand each other's realities”, said Rachel Bayani, Representative of the Bahá’í International Community’s (BIC) Brussels Office during a General Assembly marking the platform’s official launch.

The platform aims to create an inclusive, collective voice for African and European civil society organizations (CSOs) to facilitate knowledge sharing and dialogue, and is a way to organize an interface between these CSOs with intergovernmental structures and processes surrounding the Africa-Europe partnership. One of the platform's main goals is to “unify” CSOs from Africa and Europe, said Musa Sowe from Roppa, a network of farmers and producers organizations from West Africa.

Joined by over 100 organizations working in diverse fields across the two continents, including the BIC’s Addis Ababa and Brussels offices, the formal launch of the platform was a significant development for inter-continental civil society collaboration.

Co-chairing the launch together with Ms. Bayani, Hakim Baliraine from the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a network of civil society actors promoting food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa reaching an estimated 200 million people, said “It is a pleasure [to witness] civil society coming together... this is a memorable day and event".

“This is a truly historic moment,” added Tanya Cox, Director of the Confederation for Relief and Development (CONCORD), a European NGO. “This platform came to exist in response to the lack of civil society participation within the Africa-Europe Partnership,” said Karine Sohet, senior policy officer from Act Alliance, a network of 13 European faith-based organizations influencing policy in humanitarian aid and development.

Alemayhu Tedla, policy advisor on accountable governance advocacy at Oxfam in Addis Ababa, said the platform will help to “amplify civil society views for regular dialogue,” while also helping to “coordinate spaces for engagement” with institutional bodies.

Earlier in the year, the group published a joint statement, with over 50 signatories, exploring issues in the Africa-Europe Partnership and emphasizing the need to recognize that the prosperity of one continent is inseparably linked to the welfare of the other. 

A start-up group that began working and consulting two years before the platform launch, meanwhile, has explored how the relationship between the two continents can be re-imagined to increasingly reflect a partnership of equals—and involve genuine engagement of those working at the grassroots. The platform will now continue working on several thematic areas impacting both regions, including food systems and economic development, governance and peace, health and education, climate and energy transition, and youth, women and children. 

Dr. Solomon Belay, Representative of the BIC's Addis Ababa office, said "The platform can set an example for equal partnership and such a partnership doesn't come easily when it is across continents. Having a similar vision for development, and desire to represent the groups most affected by the Partnership, binds the African and European CSOs under one common purpose."

During her closing remarks, Ms. Bayani highlighted the significance of the launch in bringing together people “who are so physically distant, but who can have one conversation, and exchange with each other in such a beautiful and profound way”. She added, “We look forward to seeing how this platform will grow and develop.”