Policy Forum on Development (PFD)

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The PFD supports partnership between Africa and Europe via its programming consultations and its work around recent summits between the regions. In preparation for the meetings amongst heads of state, the PFD has supported fora to bring the voices of civil society participants into the discussions of politicians and policymakers. Here you can find more information about the work leading up to the summits.

🔸2025 November CSO and Youth Forum

Representatives of more than 200 youth and civil society organisations from across Africa and Europe, convened in Luanda, Angola, on the margins of the 7th AU–EU Heads of State and Government Summit to deliberate on the pillars of the Africa–Europe partnership: Peace, Security and Governance; Prosperity; People; and Multilateralism. The group worked in person and in two online pre-meetings to develop an AU-EU CSO Youth Forum joint declaration, which was welcomed by the heads of state in the joint declaration of the summit (point 47). 

• The resulting joint declaration can be found here in English
• The short version of the declaration can be found here in EN, FR and PT 
• The 2 pre-meeting presentations can be found here: meeting 1 and meeting 2
• The agenda of the meeting can be found here

🔸2025 May CS and Youth forum

Ahead of the 3rd EU-AU Ministerial Meeting on 21 May 2025, a CSO-Youth Taskforce took part in a virtual Forum to provide input into the Ministerial meeting to enable cross-regional dialogue on shared challenges and collaborative solutions. Two selected CSO-Youth representatives served as rapporteurs, presenting the Forum’s conclusions directly to Ministers and Commissioners at the Ministerial. This initiative embodies the commitments of the EU-AU Joint Vision 2030 and the Samoa agreement, highlighting the indispensable contribution of youth and civil society to sustainable development and partnership renewal between Africa and Europe. 

• The resulting joint declaration can be found here: EN  & FR
• The concept note is available here
• The EU press release is available here: Global Gateway in Africa: European Union and African Union take stock of significant progress - European Commission

🔸Past discussions include:

• July 2022 Online meeting with Commissioner Urpilainen on Africa-Europe Week follow-up
• October 2021 Commissioner Urpilainen’s dialogue with civil society organisations and local authorities ahead of the meeting of AU-EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Kigali