Africa-Europe report spotlights Namibia, urges finance reform

Namibia’s growing strategic role in the Africa-Europe partnership, particularly in mining, clean energy, and Atlantic cooperation, is highlighted in a new report.

The recently released ‘State of Africa – Europe 2025 Report – Financing Our Future’ serves as a blueprint for implementation, scale, and accountability.

The report was compiled by the Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) in collaboration with the African Union Development Agency-Nepad (Auda-Nepad).

These insights are timely, preceding the seventh African Union-European Union (AU-EU) summit.

Namibia is diversifying its mining and industrial partnerships through AfricaMaVal. The goal of AfricaMaVal is to develop an EU-Africa partnership, ensuring the responsible sourcing of mineral resources for European industries.

Critically, this project aims to grant sustainable local co-development under the best environmental, social, and governance (ESG) conditions, fostering a long-term business environment for both European and African companies.

The report also identifies Namibia as a regional leader in clean energy, particularly green hydrogen.

Another factor discussed is the nation’s strategic positioning in the blue economy and Atlantic cooperation.

The Africa-Europe Foundation calls for a new era in the relationship between Africa and Europe, defined by equitable investment and measurable delivery.

The foundation urges both continents to move decisively beyond short-term aid cycles to build a long-term framework based on co-ownership and co-investment.

This model requires combining public and private capital to deliver impact at scale.

Co-founder and chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Mo Ibrahim, says the report offers an operational blueprint for a financial impact that shifts from aid towards co-creation, risk sharing, value building, and trading resources.

“This means focusing on smarter money, not only more money, adapting financial tools, streamlining funding processes, and assessing progress beyond the announcement of financial commitments and rather at impact level and direct benefit for our societies,” he says.

The foundation’s executive director, Paul Walton, says for Africa and Europe to matter together, they must act together.

The focus must be on enhanced processes and smarter money, decisively moving towards value-building and innovative instruments that recognise no trade-off between human development and climate ambition. Progress should be assessed at the impact level and direct benefit for societies, rather than merely announcing financial commitments, he says.

“Africa-Europe should step up at this defining moment of geopolitical change, and demonstrate real gains for the societies of both continents. The report is a call to focus on delivery, to build the tools, the trust and the tempo needed for measurable change – between summits, not between generations,” Walton says.

The report warns that Africa continues to lose nearly US$90 billion every year through illicit financial flows, while critical sectors remain significantly underfunded.

The foundation calls for two major actions to build resilient economies, which are a reform of international financial systems and better mobilisation of domestic resources so that economies can invest on their own terms.

A crucial element of resource mobilisation involves fully leveraging existing financial instruments, such as sovereign wealth and pension funds.

These funds hold collectively over US$330 billion in assets, representing the largest source of investable capital in Africa.

In terms of energy, the two unions highlight the need for expanded industrial partnerships. Africa holds more than 60% of the world’s best solar potential, yet it currently receives less than 3% of global renewable energy investment.

Initiatives like the scaling of the Africa-Europe Green Energy Initiative are cited as illustrative positive shifts in reconciling the climate-development nexus.

Shared infrastructure accelerated through these joint initiatives can support Europe’s climate transition and energy diversification while accelerating Africa’s industrialisation, thus helping to build the Global Green Economy.

Auda-Nepad chief executive Nardos Bekele-Thomas says at a time of global shifts, solidarity between Africa and Europe is needed more than ever.

She stresses the necessity of looking beyond short-term gains towards long-term transformational change and ensuring commitments are turned into action.

“To do that, we must look beyond short-term gains at long-term transformational change and transform commitments into action.

This is the DNA of our partnership with the Africa-Europe Foundation and provides the focus for our follow-up to the seventh AU-EU Summit,” Bekele-Thomas says.

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