G-PAD Forum Global Partnership for African Development (G-PAD) Forum

According to OECD, Sub-Saharan African countries are the recipients of 25% of global official development assistance. Various reports indicate that despite 50 to 60 years of independence for many countries on the continent, Africa’s fortunes appear to still be closely dependent on financial aid from former colonial countries, the United States, the European Union or multilateral institutions like the World Bank and IMF. However, recent positive developments in some African countries have proved that the continent must move away from foreign aid dependency to achieve sustainable development.

The president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo at a joint press conference with the French president, Emmanuel Macron after the 2017 AU-EU summit said, ‘’we can no longer continue to make policy for ourselves, in our country, in our region, in our continent on the basis of whatever support that the western world or France, or the European Union can give us. It has not worked and it will not work”.

This is the reality that has given rise to more calls for investment and trade rather than aid. The G-PAD Forum aims to promote knowledge that facilitate partnership on trade and investment, sustainable development and cultural cooperation between African civil society and private sector leaders and their counterparts from the West and other regions of the world.