This partnership will promote a renewed sense of urgency, combined with an acute sense of opportunity, and eyes wide open for the immediate benefits of cooperation in the quadrangle of business, science, government and civil society, between African and European/Dutch partners, according to Cor van Beuningen, director of FoodFirst-Floriade.
This year's AFIF Forum, entitled Financial Inclusion through SMEs & Cooperatives, will gather leading global representatives from a variety of sectors to highlight the financial tools, solutions and growing policy trends to ensure Africa's economic growth for Africa's small and medium enterprise sector (SMEs). The discussions and proposals to be highlighted at the forum are essential for a cross section of African sectors to establish their full economic potential.
"Africa's food production is bound to boom in the coming decade. It will supply the larger part of the extra demand for food at the global level. Sustainability would demand that African small and medium producers, organized in cooperative enterprises, are the ones who carry this development; but in order to make this happen, many actors should work together and act now," Van Beuningen believes.
Government representatives, experts, business leaders, entrepreneurs and civil society will be represented at the highest level and from all four corners of the world. Concrete measures will be proposed for Africa's SMEs and cooperatives sectors, with a particular focus on finance and sustainability.
In parallel to discuss and finding financial solutions for Africa's SMEs, as demand grows for real tangible solutions for African businesses, business-to-business meetings which are tailor-made to ensure maximum business partnership success will be organised over two days.
