5th EU-Africa Business Forum Specific

31.03.2014 - 01.04.2014Crowne Plaza Hotel,Brussels - Belgium

5th EU-Africa Business Forum

Specific Concept Notes

31.03.2014 - 01.04.2014Crowne Plaza Hotel,Brussels - Belgium

Specific Concept Notes

25th5th EU-Africa Concept Note

Table of Contents

Plenary Sessions Programme 3

About the 5th Forum’s Plenary Sessions Programme 3

Panel 1: on engaging businesses in inclusive and sustainable growth: 4

Panel 2: on doing business in Africa: 5

Panel 3: on closing the SME funding gap: 6

Panel 4: on investments and partnership for productive work for youth 7

Panel 5: on the role of banks in sustainable and inclusive growth 8

Roundtables Programme 9

Roundtable n° 1: Sustainable Energy for All: Innovative Solutions for Africa 10

Roundtable n° 2: Supply of risk capital for new enterprises 11

Roundtable n° 3: Inclusive models in Agri-food chains 12

Roundtable n° 4: Creating partnerships to bring e-schools to rural Africa: Offering incubator-backed seedand early stage funding 13

Roundtable n° 5: Scaling up investments in renewable energy through incubator-backed investment funds 14

Roundtable n° 6: ICT for Agriculture: The digital springboard for inclusive agriculture 15

Roundtable n° 7: Infrastructure and construction: Private Sector Investment and Participation inTransport Corridor: Using innovative project delivery mechanisms for Economic and Social Development 16

Roundtable n° 8: On raw materials and governance: 17

Roundtable n° 9: Promoting Growth, Innovation and Access to Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals throughEU-Africa Business Cooperation, Including Local Production of Generic Medicines in Africa 18

Roundtable n° 10: Social Entrepreneurship 19

Roundtable n° 11: Risk management 20

Roundtable n° 12: Fostering Business opportunities in the use of Space services 21

Presentation of success stories 22

EU- Africa investor meeting: Presentation of investment pitches 23

Plenary Sessions Programme

About the 5th Forum’s Plenary Sessions ProgrammeThe 5th EU-Africa Business Forum’s programme has been designed to bring some of the best business and entrepreneurial talent across Africa and Europe together, in focused discussions on key topics relevant to addressing the biggest challenges facing private sector development in Africa.

To ensure that the Forum engages participants fully in debates, with all involved being well informed to promote a more practical and realistic approach to current issues, both days of the Forum will host Plenary Sessions on general issues in the private sector. Like other parts of the Forum, these Plenary Sessions are private sector led, featuring handpicked panellists that are experts in a wide distribution of fields, tasked with ensuring a high-quality discourse, with the aim of clarifying all the different economic actors’ positions and helping to develop concrete recommendations that are both motivated, realistic and help all parties play a part in taking Africa to the next level.

The Plenary Session topics cover 5 main areas of concern - including on closing the SME funding gap, Investments and partnership for productive work for youth, blending as a tool for partnership with the private sector – that will ensure that all participants come out better informed of the new and innovative opportunities available for fostering inclusive and sustainable growth, both social and economic, in Africa.



EABF Plenary Session:

Panel 1 on engaging businesses in inclusive andsustainable growth: How can blending be used to partner with the private sector

1. Session Background – The Rationale

Blending has been used as a tool by the European Commission since 2008 and is seen as being an ever more important tool for EU development cooperation in developing countries. Too often, the African private sector has shied away from financing development projects, due in part to the perceived political risks and concerns that such projects could fail and in the process damage corporate reputations.

But private sector involvement in financing development projects is instrumental in generating economic growth and new jobs. The European Commission has also underlined the importance of blending in its 2011 ‘Agenda for Change’, as well as in its Communication on “Strengthening the Role of the Private Sector in Achieving Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Developing Countries”. Moreover, the experience of initiatives such as the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund - which has at times secured a leverage factor of 12 euro of private financing for every EIB euro of infrastructure grant financing – serve to underline the potential of blending in attracting private sector financing.

2. Session Objectives and Focus

This plenary session will build upon the conclusions from a number of previous discussions held by the EU and AU on the issue of blending, including for example the 2012 and 2013 European Development Days (e.g. session on ‘Blending as a catalyser for private financing’) and the 2013 side event “Scaling up infrastructures in Africa through European blending mechanisms” held by the African Union Commission.

• What can be learned from past experience of international development banks (e.g. EIB, EBRD, AfDB, IFC etc.) in use of blending?

• What is the likely scale of local African private financing and investment (e.g. local government pension funds) that could be tapped into through blending? What has to be done to entice such local financing away from other asset classes such as real estate, and into development project financing?

• What platforms and processes (e.g. partnership fora) are needed to optimise and accelerate the uptake of blended financing approaches in Africa?

• Are there areas, such as financing for SMEs, where additional structures or support need to be put in place if blending can play a role (e.g. hands-on support for beneficiary SMEs)?

• Can we ensure that blending will benefit a wide range of development needs and contribute to wider sustainable and inclusive development?



Panel 2 on doing business in Africa: Improving the investment climate and how can SMEsbe supported


This plenary session is aimed at fostering the debate on the manner in which support, both financial and hands-on, should be adapted to SMEs, and how the process of investing in start-ups and SMEs can be simplified. The discussion builds on earlier discussions such as the Sankalp Forum Concept Note for the Africa Summit 2014, recently held in Nairobi, as well as the notes on Recommendation 3 from the Progressive Africa Panel’s Policy Brief on “Doing Good Business in Africa: How Business Can Support Development” from March 2010.

The high-level members of this panel come from diverse backgrounds, but what most of them have in common is having chosen to invest their time and their money in African SMEs and to have made a success of it. Their investments have been profitable but, more importantly, they have changed the lives of many of their fellow African citizens by creating many new secure and stable jobs, providing better health and ensuring better infrastructure. What personal insights and advice can the panel provide to help foster more African SME success stories?


This plenary session panel will include discussion of the following issues, among others:

• What are the areas of greatest support needed to foster successful African entrepreneurial companies?

• What role could the following support interventions play? a) Online and accessible education? b) Reducing red tape and administrative simplification? c) Improved access to finance? d) Entrepreneur mentoring and coaching; e) other?

• What African good practices in supporting SMEs can other countries and regions learn from?

• Over time, Africa will need national, regional and continental SME success stories that can evolve into fully-fledged global players - what role can national, regional and continental government actors play in accelerating growth through trade liberalisation and regional market integration?

• What would be the panel’s most important advice to African entrepreneurs?



Panel 3 on closing the SME funding gap: Strengthening Financial Systems (revamping the capital market)


Nearly half of SMEs in developing countries rating access to finance as a major constraint - the World Bank Enterprise Surveys reveal that on average 43% of businesses in low-income countries with 20 -99 employees rate access to finance or cost of finance as a major constraint to current operations, compared with just 11% of businesses of the same size in developed countries. The IFC estimates that the total financing gap for formal SMEs outside of the high-income OECD countries is potentially as high as some US$700-850 billion.

Given the importance of closing the SME funding gap to accelerating private sector development in Africa, this plenary session has assembled a high-level panel to discuss what solutions could be deployed to tackle the SME funding gap. This discussion builds on other discussions on this key issue, such as the Sankalp Forum for the recent Africa Summit 2014 held in Nairobi, as well as earlier Recommendations from the Progressive Africa Panel’s Policy Brief on “Doing Good Business in Africa: How Business Can Support Development”.


This plenary session panel will include discussion of the following issues, among others:

• Addressing the problematic collateral requirements of bank lending to SMEs - to what extent can third party provision of guarantees be part of a large-scale solution to allow banks to lend to SMEs that have difficulty meeting standard bank collateral requirements? What good practice exists that we can learn from?

• Can large-scale support/Technical assistance solutions be considered, such that strengthening SME management and development capacity reduces the risk of bank lending to SMEs?

• To what extent is there scope to increase local African banks willingness to lend to SMEs by increasing staff capacity to assess and manage risk?

• What are the key challenges facing trading SMEs requiring bank support, and how can trade finance banks best support the development of trading SMEs?

• Where is IFI support most needed in supporting increased SME financing in Africa, and what best practice should be replicated?





Panel 4 on investments and partnership for productive workfor youth


Globally, youth (aged 15-24 years) represent 17% of the world’s population and over 40 % of its unemployed, leaving millions economically and socially excluded. By February 2014, over 600 million young women and men aged 15 to 24 years are neither in school or receiving training, working or looking for work and nearly 75 million young women and men are unemployed. Both Europe and Africa face significant, if somewhat differing, challenges with regard to ensuring productive work for their youth: in Europe, 23% of youth is unemployed (2013) and in Africa it strongly differs per region and is difficult to measure as many jobs are in the informal sector as well. Moreover, with almost 200 million people aged between 15 and 24, Africa has the youngest population in the world. Many who do work do so in informal jobs with a low quality of employment. Therefore, African Governments deem the development of the private sector a priority, as the latter generally generates 9 out of 10 jobs worldwide and the public sector is not able to provide enough jobs.

At the same time, there is an enormous potential in terms of a young labour force. In many countries, there is a vast poten-tial with the untapped human resources (the unemployed youth) that could be used for value addition to and production of commodities and raw materials of which around 90% is being now exported and not processed in the country of origin. Technical skills training and investment promotion for these sectors are viable options for tackling the youth unem-ployment problem. A holistic approach is needed, whereby all relevant stakeholders are involved: at the Government level, policies should be put in place to ensure an enabling environment for employment creation for youth, for example through MSME creation. At the institutional level, technical and financial support services should be in place for young entrepreneurs and finally, the youth themselves should receive adequate and qualitative education and training in order to ensure matchmaking with the skills required by the market.


This session will discuss, among others, the following issues:• How can the Government and educational institutions ensure that youth have the skills that the private sector needs?• The importance of the informal sector for tackling youth unemployment in Africa: how to consider this factor and how to include it in a comprehensive approach?• How can support for the creation and growth of MSMEs along the value chain, including youth-led MSMEs, be put in place to harness entrepreneurial capacities among young women and men? • How can financial institutions be incentivized to provide financial products to young entrepreneurs? • How can investment promotion of certain sectors in African countries contribute to the issue of youth unemployment on the continent? • How can the international investors’ community contribute to the issue of youth unemployment in Africa? Which incentives can African Governments give in that regard?• What good practice exists in terms of successful, larges-scale training and skills development initiatives?• What new partnerships are needed – How can international organizations work together with the private sector in ensuring a holistic approach to tackle youth unemployment?

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Panel 5 on the role of banks in sustainable and inclusive growth


While Africa’s economic growth has accelerated in an impressive fashion over the past decade, the quality and inclusiveness of this growth remain a major concern to policymakers, researchers, development partners and, most importantly, the ordinary people that such growth is expected to benefit. Growth is inclusive when it creates economic opportunities along with ensuring equal access to them. Inclusive growth is influenced by both supply-side and demand-side factors, and banks, for example, have an important role to play in mitigating the supply-side processes that prevent poor and disadvantaged social groups from gaining access to the financial system. Access to finance for the poor and vulnerable groups is a prerequisite for poverty reduction and social cohesion, and is thus a form of empowerment of the vulnerable groups.

What role can co-operative banks play, and can Africa learn from experience in other parts of the world? In Europe, for example, cooperative banks have some 50 million members who own them and control them in 4.000 co-operative banks across Europe. While African investment capital traditionally was invested abroad, this investment capital is now increasingly staying in Africa - how can it be harnessed to finance inclusive growth? New donors from emerging countries are also increasing and diversifying the resources available to Africa to finance its growth. How can these resources be leveraged to promote inclusive growth and do banks have a role to play? Another issue is how Africa’s rich natural resources can become a force for both increased economic growth and inclusive growth.


The session will address some of the above issues, and more, including:

• How can African banks provide financing support for non-traditional private sector companies, such as social enterprises and community-based enterprises?

• What kind of new partnerships between African banks and civil society actors can be envisaged?

• If Africa’s rich natural resources can become a force not just for increased economic growth but also inclusive and sustainable growth, what is still required in terms of increased transparency? How can African countries develop national or regional investment vehicles to channel wealth from natural resources towards sustainable development projects?

• How can the new donors from emerging countries act as promoters of inclusive growth, for example through promoting joint ventures with African entrepreneurs eager to partner with larger and often more experienced foreign companies? What role can banks play here and how can respect for agreed international social and environmental standards be safeguarded?

• Can increased regional integration be a motor for inclusive growth? Is there experience from within regional integration in Africa, or from other parts of the world, that can serve as good or better practice?

Roundtables Programme

About the 5th Forum’s Roundtables ProgrammeThe 5th EU-Africa Business Forum’s programme has been designed to bring some of the best business and entrepreneurial talent across Africa and Europe together, in focused discussions on key topics relevant to addressing the biggest challenges facing private sector development in Africa.

To ensure that the Forum delivers the best possible recommendations, a significant part of the Forum programme will be devoted to 10 theme-based Roundtables. Like other parts of the Forum, these Roundtables are private sector led, featuring handpicked high-calibre panellists and a Roundtable Chair and Co-Chairs tasked with ensuring the highest quality of discussion and the development of insightful recommendations that are both ambitious and realistic.

The wide spectrum of Roundtable topics - including for example on the supply of risk capital for new enterprises, ICT for agriculture, and creating partnerships to bring e-schools to rural Africa – ensures a wide range of key development challenges and areas of opportunity will be discussed as well as ensuring a highly attractive learning platform for forum participants. Another exciting feature of the programme will be the Investment Pitches, where a selection of African countries will present their countries’ specific opportunities, allowing for a more lucid view for outside investors.


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Roundtable n° 1:Sustainable Energy for All: Innovative Solutions for Africa

1. Roundtable Background - The Rationale

Demand for electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa is growing fast – driven primarily by economic growth – and yet production capacity has developed very little since the 1990s. Today, only 30% of the population (8% in rural areas) has access to electricity. Many African country economies are severely disadvantaged by this. In Tanzania and Uganda, for example, power-cuts cause the loss of an estimated 4-6% of GDP every year. In addition, Sub-Saharan Africa’s power-capacity shortfall limits local people’s access to basic services including education. According to estimates, production capacity would need to be boosted by approx. 7.000 megawatts every year from 2005 – 2015 in order to meet unsatisfied demand. This would require an annual investment of around USD 40 billion – whereas current investment is estimated at just USD 4.6 billion per year. Private investment would help supply adequate funding and support, though independent producers still represent just a tiny fraction of the players. Their involvement is halted by the lack of reach of power sector reform programs. Regulatory framework conditions are still insufficient and include: low creditworthiness of the state-owned off-taker, inadequate power purchasing agreements (PPAs) and low electricity tariffs which do not cover the costs.

The countries of Sub-Saharan Africa present a wide variety of scenarios with respect to their power generation mix. In many countries, renewable energy sources provide great opportunities and the private sector can play a key role with regard to exploiting Renewable Energy sources. Yet, government programs promoting renewable energy are often not explicitly targeted at private sector projects.

Given these challenges, the international community, in 2012, started to take action: Energy is now a priority for the UN and the EU through the “Sustainable Energy for All initiative”, which aims to increase access to energy while growing the proportion of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency. Actions have already been undertaken under this initiative.

2. Roundtable Focus - The Agenda

Key Roundtable discussion points will include:

• Which regulatory framework conditions are necessary in order to increase private investments in the energy sector in Africa?

• What are the benefits of involving private actors in the energy sector, and how can efficient public-private partnerships be developed?

• Can the private sector help to facilitate a shift towards renewable energies?

• What is the role of renewable energies in the energy mix of different countries?

• Showcasing examples of how the private sector can contribute with innovative solutions to increasing the energy capacity of Africa.

3. Roundtable Recommendations

The Roundtable will target making recommendations in the following areas, amongst others:

• How can the EU support African countries in putting in place regulatory framework conditions that will foster investments in the energy sector as well as nation-wide rural electrification?

• What is the role of the private sector in promoting the energy sector in Africa?

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Roundtable n° 2:Supply of risk capital for new enterprises


SMEs are the backbone of every economy: they are engines of employment, income generation and economic growth. Studies indicate that SME’s account for around 80% of job creation and over 55% of employment in developing countries. Emerging economies are no exception. Yet, despite their potential to contribute to economic growth and job creation a series of complex constraints are preventing African SMEs from realizing their full potential. These constraints include skills shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and – perhaps most importantly - a lack of access to finance.

Success stories, such as Pagatech Nigeria’s first mobile money company, still show that innovative services are possible and can open up new possibilities for SMEs. Within less than a year of launching its mobile phone or internet-enabled money transfer service Paga, the company had accumulated over 32,000 active users and processed over US$1.6 million in volume. Pagatech also secured equity investment from the renowned Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper, showing that the investment market for innovative business ideas is increasingly global.


The Roundtable will focus on identifying solutions needed to further accelerate the growth and development of the African SME sector as a viable investment class. The Roundtable Agenda will include:

• Lack of appropriate capital across the risk/return spectrum

• Shortage of high quality investment opportunities with a solid track record

• High transaction costs involved in investing in SMEs in Africa, when compared to amounts invested

• Difficulties facing investors in exiting existing investments

• Lack of research and data on products and performance

• Lack of investment professionals with relevant skill sets

• Mismatch between SMEs’ needs and the restrictions and requirements of investors and financiers

3. Roundtable Results - Expected Recommendations

The Roundtable will seek to develop recommendations for the Forum around:

• Identifying innovative ways to reduce investment costs / make investment assessment processes more efficient

• How to better enable initiatives in a certain ‘difficult’ geography or sector and build up a track record so that market/sector dynamics and risks can be better understood and trust enhanced;

• Solutions to unlocking local capital: For example local pension funds and banks in African states that keep more than half of their deposits in liquid assets and provide minimal credit to local SMEs

• Optimising RoI through total value chain development: In order to generate significant impact (and RoI) the whole value chain needs to be developed; yet some parts of the value chain are not attractive to investors. How can appropriate financing structures be put in place to complement private sector investment in value chains?

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Roundtable n° 3:Inclusive models in Agri-food chains


Agriculture is crucial to poverty reduction and wealth creation. In Africa, agriculture accounts for 65% of total employment and 32% of the GDP. For the next 20 years, Africa will have to transform its agriculture and agroindustry in order to feed itself and reduce poverty. Agribusiness is strategically placed to drive Africa’s future economic development if it can address a number of challenges ahead: to facilitate access to land, capital and credit is essential, as is the role of the private sector and public–private partnerships; it also needs to respond to local, regional and international demand by adding value to commodities, to include smallholders in the value chain and to modernise family farming using the experi-ence of export-oriented farming. For this to happen, proper models for an inclusive agri-food chain need to be encouraged.

Today, many companies are going beyond traditional models of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility to create inclusive business models that engage low-income people as consumers, producers, suppliers and distributors of goods and services, and that have the potential to deliver both commercial and social returns.


From European and African experiences of private sector involvement in the development of sustainable agriculture in Africa, to contribute to formulating the key messages regarding the private sector to be addressed to the EU–Africa summit. The Roundtable Agenda will include:

• What pre-existing models work? The contribution of trade and the private sector to sustainable development, from African and European perspectives, including local, regional and international success stories.

• How can the private sector guarantee transparency for the public sector and ensure fairness?

• How to foster inclusive businesses serving the demand of low-income groups at the base of the pyramid with affordable, high-quality products and services?


Addressing the above three co-related foci, amongst others, provides an excellent opportunity to generate practical recommendations. The Roundtable will seek to develop recommendations for the Forum around:

• How to distinguish between the potential roles and impacts of small-scale private sector companies and large corporations.

• Ensured effective learning about good practices and methodologies from cooperation programmes at local, regional and international levels.

• Identification of key conditions that need to be taken into account in public–private partnerships for development.

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Roundtable n° 4:Creating partnerships to bring e-schools to rural Africa:Offering incubator-backed seed and early stage funding


Despite the Education for All (EFA) initiative’s global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults, access to education remains a key challenge across the globe and especially in Africa which accounts for 43% of the 67 million children out of school across the globe. Addressing the challenge of quality basic education for all children, youth and adults is a key priority for the international donor community, with the EU alone committing in May 2013 to mobilize as much as EUR 4 billion for education over the 2014-2020 programming period, as part of the wider Education for All movement.

While the lack of connectivity in Africa remains one of the key bottlenecks to African development, ICT technologies can however offer significant advantages for connecting the African continent to the rest of the world and for improving its socio-economic development. For example, satellites can deliver connectivity within short time frames where no other technology can deliver provided that some ground infrastructure is built in parallel or in combination with other technolo-gies when available (e.g. TV White Spaces, WIFI, Mobile). Large-scale deployment of ICT and technology-driven solutions (including satellite) in education can help government to cut costs, improve academic performance and standardize the quality of education (possibly include the private sector dimension here).


The roundtable will raise the awareness among EU and African policy makers that connectivity is a key tool in bringing about increased economic convergence, as well as looking at how increased education access can be brought about through securing a quantum leap in connectivity through ICT technologies and solutions- also including the support of the European and African private sector.

Key discussion points will include:

• What ICT solutions are deployed currently in Africa and what is proving most effective?

• The need for a strengthened dialogue between European and African private actors

• How to foster a more systematic approach to tackling overall barriers to ICT deployment?

• How to support the development of Africa’s private sector? (In particular satellite service providers and satellite Internet Broadband service providers).

• How to ensure that increased connectivity brings inclusive growth and job creation?

• What financing gaps exist and what is need to ensure adequate financing for ICT deployment?

• What financing models can offer the best prospects for rapid, large-scale deployment of e-schools in Africa? What potential exists for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)?


Addressing the above co-related challenges will provide an excellent opportunity to generate practicalrecommendations.

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Roundtable n° 5:Scaling up investments in renewable energy through

incubator-backed investment funds


Despite the fact Sustainable energy access for all has been established as an imperative for society and the lack of readily available energy supply is a major constraint to sustained economic development, existing energy infrastructure in Africa is often stretched to near capacity and is intermittently unreliable. Frequently the back-up energy supply comes from diesel generators and kerosene, which is expensive and provides health and environmental concerns if not managed carefully. However, significant recent international technology market innovation and development in the sector, has allowed renew-able energy to compete with the prices of traditional energy supply. Barriers remain, in particular the availability of finance required for deployment, whether at utility or individual consumer level. But the opportunity for increased clean energy generation across the continent is massive. Less than 1GW of Solar PV is installed across Africa, the region with the world’s highest irradiance levels, against c.70GW of installed capacity in Europe.

Increased development equity is required to stimulate, de-risk and demonstrate the commercial opportunity of wide spread renewable energy deployment in Africa, followed by larger scale and later stage. Such capital remains in short supply, exacerbated by constraints in international financial markets. The public sector continues to step up to foster the development of new opportunities and increasingly multinational corporations are playing an integral role in facilitating and funding this market development. The market opportunity is huge but the challenges of investment and implementation remain significant.


This Roundtable aims to recommend the 5th EU-Africa Business Forum with the means to support the deployment of renewable energies in Africa, given the mutual benefits in increasing bilateral trade, investment and market integration. The Roundtable will develop around several points, including:

• Demand and opportunity for renewable energy supply.• Support infrastructure for innovation and deployment of low carbon sustainable technologies, products, services and infrastructure.• Required local technical and business skills and resources to enable the opportunity or to access to international expertise where needed and the availability and constraints of finance.• Ability and relevance to leverage learnings from, and access to, international developments in the clean technology and renewables industries.• Complementarity to existing public and private funded programmes and activities.• Identify relevant complementary market and industry developments to assist in market development.• Required support to and of government regulation and policy development.• Opportunities of specific investment and funding focus: technology, sector, geography, off-grid.

3. Roundtable Results - Expected Recommendations – to potential EU funding bodies


• How to actively provide pool(s) of capital to fill the market let-down for early stage project, R&D funding. • Outsource governance and management of said funding facilities to independent team(s) of experts.• Definition of overarching funding criteria. • Identification of how additional resource can be provided to further support and de-risk individual investments or investment themes.• Encourage working with and complement other public investment activities and programs. • Encourage faster/greater acceptance of innovation.

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Roundtable n° 6:ICT for Agriculture: The digital springboard for

inclusive agriculture


Smallholder agriculture, practised by a majority of farmers in Africa, has been recognized as vital in reducing hunger and poverty in Africa. Yet it has performed poorly in terms of growth rates and productivity increases, due to a series of constraints that it faces in access to and use of natural resources, markets, finance, new farming knowledge and technology. Poor capacities for risk forecasting and assessment from climate, pests and disease, which when combined with poor planning capacities means smallholder farming struggles to be resilient and sustainable.

New ICTs can now enable a more knowledge-based and intelligent agriculture for smallholder farmers in Africa. This intelligent agriculture, using ICTs as a core agricultural technology, offers greater precision in managing the resources needed for farming such as water, soil nutrients and energy, and also enables better access to knowledge services and markets, thereby reducing the impact of the above-mentioned constraints. This allows smallholder farmers to become more productive while using less natural resources as well as enjoying better access to markets through improved logistics and financial services as well as increased resilience and sustainability.


New ICTs, especially low cost sensors, high resolution 3 dimensional mapping, Smartphones with increasing access to cellular and wireless connectivity (and thereby enabling use of applications for knowledge and agribusiness services accessed through cloud computing and other ICT technologies) can contribute to reducing the above-mentioned constraints and make farming more intelligent, knowledge-based and precise. This can improve all-round productivity based on resources used and incomes generated. Application of ICTs in smallholder farming and agriculture will also open new avenues of rural employment through agribusiness, agro-industries, and financial and agricultural knowledge services. Key Roundtable discussion points will include:

• Showcasing examples of how the use of ICTs (with special emphasis to those now available and applied in the EU) can make African Smallholder Agriculture more intelligent.

• Contributions that the EU can make through access to ICTs, information and new knowledge for Africa.

• How to work in partnership with Public, Private and Community Institutions both in Europe and Africa to bring effective application and use of ICTs to make African Agriculture more intelligent.


The Roundtable will target making recommendations in the following areas, amongst others:

• Developing a priority list of appropriate ICTs and knowledge services needed to make Smallholder African Agriculture more intelligent and profitable.

• Identifying Actions that could be taken by the EU to enable and support the use of appropriate ICTs and knowledge services needed in order to make Smallholder African Agriculture more intelligent and profitable.

• Identifying a list of possible partners that can initiate actions in using ICTs and providing knowledge services to make African Agriculture more intelligent and profitable.

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Roundtable n° 7:Infrastructure and construction:

Private Sector Investment and Participation in Transport Corridor:Using innovative project delivery mechanisms for Economic

and Social Development


The African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) share a common vision for an effective transport infrastructure network across the African continent as a prerequisite for inclusive growth and sustainable development. For African countries to benefit from the increasingly global economy, an adequate transport network must be in place to provide essential and efficient physical access. Over time, Africa’s transport infrastructure has to grow in line with production and its changing requirements. The “Priority Action Plan 2020” (PAP) of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) aims at enhancing Africa’s inter-regional connectivity among the major cities, corridor modernisation, as well as the improve-ment of the continent’s port, railway and air transport systems, and has identified 24 priority transport infrastructure projects worth 25 billion €.


The Thematic Roundtable shall deal with two key challenges associated with Africa’s transport infrastructure network:

• Funding: African governments have historically financed a sizeable share of the continent’s infrastructure development on balance sheet and infrastructure rollout has thus been constrained by budgetary restrictions. Given that local banks are often not able to supply the kind of loans needed for long-term infrastructure investment, governments in Africa are increasingly turning to Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to deliver efficient and cost-effective infrastructure and services. Despite their potential, however, PPPs are highly complex policy instruments and must be fully understood and professionally implemented and managed if they are to deliver on their potential.

• Efficient infrastructure delivery: the traditional method of project procurement is a reliable form of procurement, but there are inherent disadvantages associated with the design-bid-build method of contracting, such as the shortcomings and errors in the design studies. By contrast, the Design-Build (DB) and Design-Build-Operate (DBO) methods could potentially enhance the procurement efficiency through the fast-tracking of the design and construction portions of the project.



• Creating an adequate institutional framework (e.g. political commitment and effective governance) and a transparent legislative and regulatory framework for Infrastructure PPPs.

• Encouraging security for investors through EU Blending initiatives, like the Africa Energy Guarantee Fund (AEGF), and other risk-sharing mechanisms.

• For “commercially non-viable” investments the EU should consider integrating private sector know-how upstream during the design stage (Design-Build approach) and/or downstream during the operation and mainte nance phase (Design-Build-Operate approach).

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Roundtable n° 10: Social Entrepreneurship


Roundtable n° 8:On raw materials and governance:

Managing natural resources for inclusive development in Africa


Africa is the world’s top producer of numerous mineral commodities (PGM, phosphate, gold, chromium, etc.) and has the world’s greatest resources of many more commodities. The continent’s vast mineral resources have led to more and more global players competing to exploit these resources, yet at the same time precious little of this potential has benefitted local populations.

In 2009 the African Mining Vision drew up a scenario for sustainable exploitation of the minerals wealth of the continent, leading to broad-based sustainable growth and socioeconomic development. It is anchored on the understanding that mineral resources are part of the stock of natural capital that can encourage Africa’s development. While it refers mostly to primary raw materials, re-use and recycling is regarded as integral part of the responsible management of mineral resources.

On the EU side, within the first pillar of the EU Raw Materials Strategy (sourcing raw materials from global markets) the EU has committed itself to pursue Raw Materials Diplomacy, reaching out to third countries through strategic partnerships and policy dialogues. In June 2010, the 4th College-to-College meeting between the African Union Commission and the European Commission concluded with the agreement of bilateral cooperation in the field of raw materials, taking fully into account the Africa Mining Vision of February 2009 and the EU Raw Materials Initiative of December 2008. In January 2012, the EC organised a High-Level Conference EU-Africa Partnership on Raw Materials: Translating Mineral Resource Wealth into Real Development for Africa. Discussions evolved along three axes: good governance, infrastructure and investment, and geological knowledge and skills. Some important steps in that direction have been taken already, such as the planned work on transport corridors under the EDF, and the progress in the support for good governance in mineral mining, especially in developing countries affected by conflict and the issues related to ‘conflict minerals’.


The Roundtable will take stock of what has been done so far, and will then focus on the following four axes in order to answer the questions surrounding what is needed to implement the resolutions formulated in the 2012 Conference:

• Governance: Setting up an investment climate: transparency, best practices, involvement of civil society; EITI; making best use of entrepreneurship of small scale and artisanal mining operations.

• Infrastructures: Transport corridors, port infrastructure, feeder roads.

• Knowledge base: Organisation of the African Geological Surveys, cooperation with EuroGeoSurveys, national education and training systems. Safeguarding minerals wealth for future generations.

• Waste management: Recycling and recovery; the role of small-scale operators. Research and innovation. The role of municipalities and the civil society.

3. Roundtable Results – Expected Recommendations

The Roundtable will seek to develop recommendations for the Forum in each of these 4 areas:

• Governance

• Infrastructures

• Knowledge base

• Waste management

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Roundtable n° 9:Promoting Growth, Innovation and Access to Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals through EU-Africa Business Cooperation, Including Local Production of Generic Medicines in Africa


One of the major challenges that many countries in Africa face today is the differing levels of regulatory capacities that govern the authorisation and quality control of pharmaceutical products. This stems from limited technical and human resources and has implications for policies that safeguard public health as well as complicating and diminishing regulatory harmonisation at regional levels. Another key challenge area is weaknesses in healthcare systems financing, organisation, infrastructure and healthcare equipment, which also undermine how medicines and other medical related resources are handled and reach those that most need them. A lack of sufficient and sustainable national health care financing to cover basic healthcare has been a key problem in this regard, and one which has been further exacerbated by inadequate distribution channels for pharmaceutical products and poor procurement systems - all leading to insufficient healthcare delivery and shortages in pharmaceutical products and medical devices. A third major challenge for many African nations has been ensuring better access to medicines, lowering prices of essential medicines and stimulating local production. Each of these challenges correlates to each other and have an impact on public health across Africa.


This Roundtable will discuss concrete EU-Africa initiatives which could address the above three challenges Specific areas of discussion will for example include:

1. Addressing challenge area1 - Options and ways to strengthen regulatory capacity: a. What options can be considered to build regulatory capacity (including regional partnerships, processes, approaches, and networks both in the EU and African regions)? b. What models can best address the specific regulatory needs of developing countries?2. Addressing challenge area 2 - Health systems structure: a. How to ensure successful implementation of health care legislation at national and regional levels, with a view to improving healthcare financing and structures? b. How to enhance collaboration and consultations between policy makers in the EU and Africa? 3. Addressing challenge area 3 -Collaborative efforts aimed at increasing access and local production: a. To what extent does Africa need new infrastructures that are adapted to knowledge-based businesses, in order to enable knowledge generation, acquisition and knowledge utilization? b. What other practices or polices can best contribute to improved access to medicines (e.g. voluntary licensing, opportunities for EU-Africa technology transfer? c. What other collaborative efforts can lead to reduced cost R&D costs and production costs (and lead to increased innovation and access)?


Addressing the above three co-related challenges provides an excellent opportunity to generate practical recommendations.

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Roundtable n° 10:Social entrepreneurship


Societal challenges (migration of millions of people from one country to another, job creation and youth employment, health issues, ethical production and consumption, ecological issues, etc.) are making it difficult for the public authorities and businesses face them. But they are also source of innovation and pushing entrepreneurs develop new concepts tapping into the unmet societal needs acting in an entrepreneurial manner and through new collaboration models.

Absent social security systems and mechanisms in Africa has resulted in source of an inspiration and innovation giving birth to numerous success stories working with the human capital, developing new tools to boost health systems and creating mechanisms ensuring ethical production.

The high-level members of this panel are practitioners and come from diverse backgrounds, including successful social entrepreneurs and representatives of the leading networks bringing social entrepreneurs together.


The Roundtable will focus on key issues relevant to unlocking Africa’s potential of social entrepreneurship:

• Who are “Social Entrepreneurs” and what their distinctive features are?

• What are the current trends related to Africa and how has social entrepreneurship evolved over the last few years?

• Practical and scalable ways to boost capacities of African human capital surpassing China and India by 2040 through an example of SkilledAfricans.com

• New opportunities technology brings and how it can solve social issues within the health area based on a practical example of mPedigree?

• Social Entrepreneurs and private sector cooperation - new examples of new ways to work together presented through several examples.

• Existing support structures and the major barriers for development of social entrepreneurship. Why new collaborative economic models are key to set a favourable environment for (social) entrepreneurship – example of Jokkolabs.


An important focus of the Roundtable will be on identifying the practical actions which are needed and might be undertaken to support and promote social entrepreneurship movement in Africa.

The Roundtable will identify and learn from success stories (SkilledAfricans / Jokkolabs / mPedigree, etc.) in promoting social entrepreneurship and developing a system ensuring collaboration with the private sector.

The outcomes of discussion would be taken into the report summarising the findings.

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Roundtable n° 11:Risk management


The management of political and commercial risks in projects, in particular in infrastructure, is a hotly debated and thoroughly researched subject. The reason is clear: no project can go forward without proper risk allocation amongst the parties involved and risk (whether real or perceived) is the most important factor preventing projects from finding investors. Each PPP project has risks that the private sector is unable to control. These can be broken down into various elements: counterparty risk (creditworthiness of off-taker in energy projects), legal and regulatory risk (risk of tariff changes, contract enforcement and secure property ownership), risk of currency convertibility, (civil) war and expropriation. In addition, in relation to renewable energy there are sector specific risks that investors may have difficulties accepting, e.g. hydrological and geological risks in hydropower projects, wind risk, drilling risk in geothermal projects etc. The aggregate of all these risks can result in a required remuneration for equity investors that can be prohibitively high in the context of African infrastructure projects that aim to deliver affordable services to the poor. Commercial banks will not lend generally without full, comprehensive protection for the life of the loan; or will lend at tenors that are too short. The consequences are stark: projects either do not go forward at all, or will be expensive. To give an example taken from a recent study of UNDP compar-ing the cost of equity and debt for wind energy in Kenya to the financing costs of wind energy in a risk-free (“Best in Class” country) environment : the cost of equity doubles from 9.5% to 18% while the cost of debt increases from 5% to 8.5%.

Whenever risk rests on parties who are unsuited or unwilling to bear it, there is demand for risk mitigation instruments. Not all risks need to be mitigated, investors are expected to take risk and one should be careful to avoid issues of moral hazard and adverse selection. In addition, there is a vibrant private insurance market with lots of capacity where equity investors and banks can normally turn to. However, it remains difficult to mobilise private insurance capacity for projects in Africa and tenors in the private insurance market remain below those that are required for most infrastructure projects. Whenever supply for risk mitigation fails to meet demand, gaps in coverage result in bottlenecks that are sometimes difficult to solve. This is where public institutions come in, such as the EIB, Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), etc. that all aim to do more to encourage private investment in infrastructure and provide different risk mitigation instruments. Blending instruments also try to help, by providing first-loss coverage or paying for the insurance premium. Yet it seems that the ongoing activities are insufficient – more needs to be done to close Africa’s very large infrastructure financing gap – measured by some as needing more than EUR 30 billion per annum in the next decade.


The Roundtable will focus on key issues relevant to unlocking Africa’s human capital potential, including:

• Is risk mitigation indeed the critical missing link?

• What could the public sector do to help de-risking projects?

• Should donors and financing institutions do more to help governments to ‘put their house in order” to reduce the risks that are within their control – and that should lead to a reduced risk premium over time?

• Should there be more emphasis on creating upstream capacity in governments to prepare the ground for PPPs and explain the nature of such projects?

• Or should the effort be on finding new and better risk mitigation instruments?

• If the latter, what should such instruments look like, bearing in mind the need to align interests between insurers and guarantors on the one hand and investors and banks using the instruments on the other hand.


Addressing the above co-related challenges will provide an excellent opportunity to generate practical recommendations

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Roundtable n° 12:Fostering Business opportunities in the use of Space services


The Roundtable will focus on the opportunities for African and European businesses in the deployment of space infrastruc-ture and the utilisation of space services. African and European companies working in the field of aerospace and satellite infrastructure/services (both international corporates and SMEs) will be invited and expected to participate, as well as relevant international organisations.

Technology is a fundamental enabler of social and economic development, and space is the sector of the future with a great potential for growth and jobs. Space products provide new and innovative ways of addressing the different societal challenges worldwide from a different aspect. Space technologies, infrastructure and services could play a positive role in Africa, helping to favour development and growth, to facilitate good governance of resources and to contribute to the implementation of policies in various fields such as food security, health and education, air transport safety and maritime navigation, not to mention the important role they can have in management of disasters and climate change adaptation.


In 2010, Vice-President Tajani said that the EC has to “strengthen cooperation between Europe and Africa in order to give African citizens better access to space services and to build the capacity of space institutes". The aim is that both African and European citizens realise the important part space has to play in today’s major challenges. For AU Commissioner Professor Jean-Pierre Ezin, Africa is not exploiting the full potential of space resources, especially where sustainable development is concerned. It is recognised that space applications provide an essential platform for Africa’s regional and continental sustainable development and can assist in tackling the problems it is facing.

The roundtable will focus on the two areas of space service where currently African and European stakeholders cooper-ate: satellite navigation and earth observation; relevant business opportunities will be explored. To enhance cooperation with Africa on the use of space for sustainable development it is necessary to:

• Support the deployment of an infrastructure for the gathering and use of satellite data and for the provision of satellite navigation services, which would enable socio-economic benefits for the entire African continent, • Develop satellite navigation applications, in particular for the aviation sector as well as in other applications and transport domains,• Develop Earth Observation applications for businesses especially natural resources, energy and agriculture,• Strengthen use of Copernicus Services in particular to monitor climate change and mitigate impact of disasters.

3. Roundtable - Recommendations

As an outcome of the roundtable, recommendations would be developed around the following areas:

• Supporting the technological spill-over of space programmes into society and economy at large, and promoting the utilisation of space technologies with high socio-economic potential.• Strengthening EU-Africa collaboration in the Earth Observation based services development, exchanges of knowledge and expertise for the initiatives development and implementation, data, products and services standardisation and sharing particularly in the framework of the GMES and Africa initiative.• Promoting the development of satellite navigation infrastructure based on EGNOS, providing sustainable and adequate financial and human resources, and establishing governance and financing schemes for the relevant capital and operational expenditures in Africa.• Promoting capacity building in the area of utilisation of space services, technology transfer and development of joint business initiatives, and support skills development for space science and technology.

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Presentation of success stories


SMEs represent more than 80% of private enterprises in Africa, and are the largest employer in Africa and are particularly important employment providers for women, youth and vulnerable communities. This Roundtable is aimed at showcasing a number of SME success stories in order to demonstrate not only why supporting private sector development has a positive impact on development but also to showcase on how to engage with the private sector for development. The hosting of this Roundtable on African SME Success Stories at the 5th EABF comes at a particularly opportune time, given the recent and ongoing discussions at EU level and wider international level on the role of private sector development in sustainable development in developing countries1 .


The roundtable will illustrate the place of the African private sector in three roles:(a) Private Sector as engine for Development,(b) Private Sector for Development and(c) Development through Private Sector.

• Private Sector as Development (economic impact) – the Private Sector as an engine of development through its capacity to: a Produce goods and services, b Add value to raw inputs and develop markets, c Create a tax base, employing people and increasing net inflows of wealth.

• Private Sector for Development (social impact) - Private sector interventions to lessen negative externalities and boost positive externalities of their own economic activities in order to promote social and human development.

• Development through Private Sector Institutions (multiplier effect of private sector trade/business support institutions on development) - Private sector as a delivery channel for development has now become an indispensable partner to sustain and replicate results on the ground.

3. Roundtable Results – Expert Speakers

The Roundtable co-organiser, the International Trade Centre (ITC) -the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations- has outstanding experience in fostering private sector development in DCs, LDCs and emerging economies, being the focal point in the UN mandate to provide trade-related technical assistance for SMEs. The Roundtable will comprise six speakers drawn from SMEs, a local trade support institution representative, and a European SME trading with Africa. Invited speakers include Razack Kinninnon, Executive Director of SWCM in agroindustry; SWCM has engaged itself into an innovative south-south partnership through the creation of a JV company between Vietnam and Benin in trading cashew nuts. Nigest Haile is Executive Director of the Centre for Accelerated Women Economic Empowerment (CAWEE), whose mission is to promote Ethiopian women entrepreneurs, connecting African entrepreneurs to export markets, such as Aster Reeta, Founder and Director of Negist producing and exporting hand-woven textiles through fair employment.

1 See for example the EU Issue Paper on Strengthening the Role of the Private Sector in Achieving Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Developing

Countries and the EU Indicative Roadmap on Private Sector Development.


EU- Africa investor meeting:presentation of investment pitches

1. The Opportunity

The 5th EABF includes an innovative new programme session (dubbed the EU-Africa Investor Meeting) where a limited number of African countries will be afforded a unique opportunity to profile their investment opportunities towards investors, financiers, corporations and the wider EABF spectrum of delegates. The EU-Africa Investor Meeting will be opened by Mr. Naguib Sawiris, CEO of Orascom, and moderated by Isabelle Kumar from the media group euronews.

2. Presentation of Angel Investing

Following this, there will be a session for Angel Investing. The presentation will create a space where European and African investors can come together to learn from those who have more experience investing in the continent, in order to drive more activity and participation into the sub 1M category if the rest of the VC/PE sectors are to thrive. Some case studies will be showcased.

3. About the EU-Africa Investor Meeting

The format of the meeting seeks to capitalise on the presence at the EU-Africa Business Forum of a large number of leading financiers and investor names.

• The Meeting will allow presenters to make investment pitches to an audience composed of high net-worth investors, European Development Finance Institutions (EDFIs), Fund Managers, Sovereign Wealth Funds and other financiers.

• 10-15 minutes will be allotted to each country to clearly and simply communicate what their respective countries can offer to attract potential investors. The presenters will be high government representatives, possibly at Head of State or government level. Presenters will be allowed to use a limited number of PowerPoint slides or a maximum 4-minute video.

• Following each presentation, the panel of prominent financiers will give feedback on the investment pitches, both on the bankability of the proposed projects and the quality of the pitches.

4. Benefits for Presenters, Investors and Meeting Participants

For those selected to participate at the EU-Africa Investor Meeting, the session will not only allow them to their respective countries’ key investment strengths and offering to an exclusive gathering of investors, financiers and corporate executives, but the media coverage of the EABF will also provide additional publicity. The session will also allow presenters to connect with potential investors, as well as receiving feedback on how to improve their investment pitches and/or their country’s investment climate.

In addition to providing access to investment capital, the EU-Africa Investor Meeting and its partners can provide a host of mentoring services, allowing presenters to focus on building their business plans and enhancing their investor presen-tations. The Meeting will also allow presenters to leverage an existing network of international business executives. Presenters will have an unrivalled opportunity to mingle with potential investors prior to and after presentations. Partici-pants will benefit from the opportunity to see how high-level investors and financiers assess investment prospects and apply the learning to their own development ambitions.

Notes

Government & Nonprofit

5th EU-Africa Business Forum Specific