The Swiss Federal Council (government) adopted, during its meeting on Friday, its new strategy for Africa, which covers, for the first time, all regions of the continent.
The new strategy defines the objectives and measures that Switzerland intends to implement between 2025 and 2028. Peace and security, prosperity and competitiveness, as well as the environment, democracy and governance, constitute the priorities of the strategy, which aims to strengthen cooperative relations with African states on the basis of a partnership, specifies a press release from the Federal Council.
Switzerland recognizes the growing importance of Africa politically and economically: by 2050, this continent, which currently has 1.3 billion inhabitants, will account for more than 25% of the world's population.
It also recognizes its great diversity, as well as the challenges and opportunities that arise from it. In some regions, a large part of the population suffers from global crises and climate change. Other regions, on the other hand, have potential, particularly for economic development.
Switzerland's 2025-2028 strategy for Africa aims as much to seize the opportunities as to meet the challenges that arise, we note from the same source.
Until now, two strategies dealt distinctly with relations with the States of North Africa on the one hand and the States of sub-Saharan Africa on the other. The new strategy builds on previous strategies (Sub-Saharan Africa Strategy 2021-2024 and MENA Strategy 2021-2024).
“However, it turned out that it was relevant to give greater importance to the links between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. Just think, for example, of cooperation within the African Union and of this institution's flagship projects such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), economic ties, efforts in favor of peace or still on migratory routes. A strategy covering the entire African continent takes into account the importance of these links,” underlines the Federal Council.
The Africa strategy aims to deepen relations between African states and Switzerland. Switzerland already has a vast network of representations on the continent (18 embassies and 10 cooperation offices) and it is represented in almost every country by an embassy or cooperation office.
The strategy for Africa 2025-2028 has as its common thread the four thematic priorities defined in the foreign policy strategy 2024-2027, namely peace and security, prosperity and competitiveness, the environment, as well as democracy. and governance.
