Casa África's Economic and Social Development Area works not only in economic diplomacy, but also in sports diplomacy, migration and emergencies.
Continuing with the line started in my last articles, reviewing the work done in Casa África and making its team visible, today I would like to talk to you about the work carried out in the Area of Economic and Social Development, a section of the Casa of which Yurena Ojeda and Naziha Hage are part and from which actions are implemented not only related to pure economic diplomacy, but also public diplomacy and even sports diplomacy, as you will see in the course of this article.
As Pan-Africanist revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara said, development is not a question of the money we have, but of the capacity to develop our people. Economic growth in African countries is both a financial necessity and a powerful path to social development, equity and dignity. When African economies flourish, doors open to education, health, employment or innovation. This is how Africa is no longer seen as a future promise, but as a transformative force in the present.
For almost twenty years, economic diplomacy has been an important part of our efforts and has defined our action. Within the framework of our Africa Grows programme, we show the Spanish business community the business climate on the continent, the best investment opportunities and the challenges of business internationalisation. This is the case of the annual report African Development Dynamics, published by the African Union Commission and the OECD Development Centre, which we present every year at our headquarters and in Madrid with the CEOE, a key economic organisation in the Spanish business network.
In contrast to those who see Africa as a territory condemned to poverty and backwardness, economic diplomacy offers realistic and contrasted visions of the African economy and proposes areas to explore for cooperation. And although there are other institutions that deal with communication between the Spanish business community and African countries, it seems to me that the global perspective provided by Casa África is necessary, relying on different organisations specialised in this overall and strategic vision, capable of identifying trends and, above all, providing some confidence and "background" to facilitate exchanges between our countries.
In this context, I would also like to highlight the launch of an initiative that we have been able to present for the first time, the Global Gateway, a European strategy that promotes smart, sustainable and secure connections in the digital, energy and transport fields, as well as strengthening health, education and research systems, and which has EUR 150 billion for Africa. Two representatives of the European Commission were present at the event.
At Casa África we are convinced that the education and training of Africans must be a pillar in the development of the continent. For this reason, we have been collaborating since 2017 with the INCYDE Foundation for the implementation, with the support of local counterparts, of training actions for trainers and entrepreneurship training in Senegal, Gambia, Ghana and Ivory Coast, with the result of training more than 120 trainers. In addition, from this area, we work in meetings of specialists, experts and entrepreneurs on issues such as new technologies, gathered around initiatives such as the meetings of tech hubs and technology centres.
Another area of great concern to me, as you know, is climate change. You may have read me on other occasions reminding you that, although African countries contribute the least to global warming, they suffer particularly from adverse phenomena such as storms, floods and droughts. Being very aware of this reality, since 2021 we have launched different initiatives with the Biodiversity Foundation in which we deal with issues such as desertification and drought or green entrepreneurship. Finally, the big issue that I write about continuously is migration, which is also part of the work of this area with actions such as the Africa-Spain Think Tanks Meeting on migration, which we held in 2024 and which was based on the need for a change of narrative on this issue. To this end, we had the privilege of having experts from universities and research centres such as the University of Letters and Human Sciences of Bamako, the European Policy Center in Brussels, the World Data Institute of the International Organization for Migration and CIDOB.
In fact, Casa África is now participating, thanks to the enormous involvement and leadership of the manager, Ana Mª Hernández, in the European projects AfricanTech and COMPASS, within the framework of the Territorial Cooperation Programme INTERREG VI- D- Madeira-Azores-Canary Islands 2021-2027. These are not the first European projects in which Casa África participates, but it is the first time that we lead them as the main partner, after our experience in previous projects. With AfricanTech we aim to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized Canary Islands and African companies, strengthening their capacities in innovation and digitisation. For its part, the COMPASS project will allow us to identify solutions for managing the migration of people arriving in the Canary Islands from Africa, promoting international collaboration and the welfare of migrant populations and host communities.
I will leave for the end two topics that are probably not related to economic development. The first is a pioneering initiative designed by the Economic and Social Development Department: the Civil Protection and Emergency Training Project in the city of Praia. As I have already pointed out, we are facing a scenario in which adverse and extreme meteorological phenomena are increasingly recurrent, with an increasingly devastating impact and consequences, mainly due to the effects of climate change. This impact is even more devastating in African countries, with a higher level of vulnerability to any type of catastrophe or disaster. Therefore, an adequate civil protection and emergency management system will allow them to respond in the best possible way, ensuring a more autonomous and sustainable emergency management, and at the same time providing a structured framework for prevention, preparedness and coordinated response. We have the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as a partner, in a project in which the experience and know-how of the technical and operational team of the Government Department of the Security, Coexistence and Culture Area are fundamental. This team of professionals already made a first trip to Cape Verde with the aim of carrying out a diagnostic report on the main needs to work on and to define priorities in order to design the necessary training plan to be implemented in a second phase. I would like to highlight and thank the Spanish Embassy in Praia and the Canary Islands Foundation for External Action in Cape Verde of the Government of the Canary Islands for their collaboration in this project.
Another of the Area's most gratifying projects, related to sports diplomacy, is our collaboration with the Sky Runners Kenya project, which was created by the physical trainer Octavio Pérez. It arose with the aim of generating new opportunities and launching the professional careers of promising young athletes with international projection and from Casa África, we have been involved in the initiative from the beginning. These athletes live in Iten (Kenya), in the Rift Valley, considered the Mecca of athletics worldwide. Thanks to this project, Robert Pkemoi and other companions were the first Kenyans to participate in a European mountain race, specifically the Transgrancanaria 2020. Five years later, Robert and Sky Runners Kenya are still making history in the 46-kilometre marathon, in which Robert already has two victories to his name. Thanks to his various podium finishes, he has been able to buy land and cows to support his family and develop his community.
I would like to end this article by recalling that Africa's economic development will only make sense if it goes hand in hand with social development. It is not just about growth, but about growth with justice, inclusion and values. Africa does not need to choose between economy and society: its true potential lies in the union of both, in a progress that reflects not only how much it produces, but how deeply it transforms. That is why from the Economic and Social Development Area all actions have this spirit, a spirit that shows that economic development and social development in Africa walk hand in hand, following the same horizon of hope and transformation.