Africa-Spain Cooperation Summit: the opportunity to create synergies between two continents

On 6, 7 and 8 July, the Africa-Spain Cooperation Summit organised by One Africa Forums will be held in Madrid, bringing together prominent personalities to analyse relations between Spain and Africa, create synergies between the two regions and achieve co-development. An opportunity we talked to Maryama Kadaoui, project manager of One Africa Forums in an interview with Javier Fernández Arribas.

Maryama, what is One Africa Forums and what experience do you have?  

One Africa Forums is a company that has been organising large sectoral conferences for almost 20 years with the aim of contributing to the development of the African continent. To date, we have organised more than 200 conferences and a network of more than 110,000 leaders throughout the continent.  

Why now Spain? What are our objectives for this event to be held in Madrid on 6, 7 and 8 July?  

The Africa-Spain Summit is the result of so many years and so much experience we have had in Africa. Today we have come to the conclusion that African countries have evolved a lot, they want to untie themselves from their historical partners, start looking for new partnerships, enter into a dynamic of co-development and open new doors and markets in order to develop the continent.  

In turn, Spain is increasingly focused on the continent. We see this through the government's strategy, both with the Africa Focus and with Horizon Africa. There is a clear will to address, to open up towards Spain, and Spanish companies are also increasingly present, so it seemed natural and logical to bring together large companies, government representatives, civil society, all these actors from both the public and private sectors to discuss, exchange and, above all, to begin to get to know each other.  

What we have noticed is that there is currently a great deal of ignorance, both on the one hand and on the other. It is very important to start a dialogue, to get to know each other and to be able to explore avenues for development, for collaboration, to establish new relations and to be able to really develop this relationship between Africa and Spain, which would also mean Africa and Europe.  

Therefore, it seems very important to us to be able to have as many Spanish representatives as possible to host this wonderful audience: great participants from all sectors coming from Africa for this meeting in July in Madrid.  

We, on Onda Madrid's De Cara al Mundo, are going to be present. I know that Atalayar Between Two Shores magazine is a media partner. And what other relevant participants have we already confirmed?  

We have a lot of participants. We are delighted to see that this initiative, this first edition, has been received very positively and has created a lot of interest. We have the support of the African Union and the OSD. We are delighted and honoured to have wonderful partners, both from the private and public sector. We have institutions like the Exporters Club, like Women for Africa, Africa 2.0, ASCAME, and then our sponsors who have supported us from day one. We have the big company Indra, the Axal group, the NSCA bank, Morocco Now... We have a lot of partners. I can't mention them all because it would take too long, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their trust and their great support, because together we will be able to give a great boost to these relationships. 

Then, in terms of media participation, we have our great partner who has been there from day one, which is Atalayar entre dos orillas. We also have Renat Hic, The African Report, Africa Energy. You can see that there is a great thirst to know and explore this relationship between these two regions.  

On the speakers' side, we have a very high level: we have government representatives, several ministers and delegations of ministers, big businessmen and big institutions, so we are really delighted.  

In terms of countries, we have more than 20 countries represented. To name but a few, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Rwanda, Morocco, Angola, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Tunisia and the list goes on and on, with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot to contribute.  

This shows that there is a real will, a lot of enthusiasm and a great desire to get to know each other and to enter into a co-development that really contributes to improving relations, to consolidate them and to make this world a better world, because we are talking about very important issues that have an impact on the whole world.