Italy–Africa Conference Economic development, migration, sustainability

Africa has been one of the world’s fastest growing regions since the beginning of the new millennium, even though this overall trend weakened over the last two years. 
Better relations between Italy and Africa are essential to cope with common problems and find mutually beneficial solutions.

To this aim, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in cooperation with ISPI, launched the First Italy–Africa Ministerial Conference. 40 ministers, over 300 top representatives from 50 countries and 15 International organisations joined the event which took place on 18 May (see the programme).

The one–day conference offered the opportunity to tackle the most relevant issues in four working sessions. The panel on "Economic sustainability" discussed common strategies for infrastructural development, economic diversification and promotion of intra–African trade while the second session focused on how to balance Africa’s economic growth with better environmental and social sustainability. The demographic, economic and political dimensions of African migrations were put under the spotlight during the third session. Finally, the issues of peace–keeping, peace–building and institution–building were addressed by the "Peace and security" panel to strengthen African ownership in crisis resolution processes.