KAMPALA – The Finn Church Aid Country Director for Uganda Mr. Wycliffe Nsheka addressed the Finnish Parliament last week on October 1st on the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in implementing the EU/Africa Strategy.
In his presentation, Nsheka spoke about the proposed five thematic areas of the strategy, why they matter and how best they should be implemented.
The thematic areas are;
A partnership for green transition and energy access in compliance with the Paris Agreement on climate change
A partnership for digital transformation.
A partnership for sustainable growth and jobs, promoting investment through innovative financing and enhancing ‘learning, knowledge and skills, research and innovation capacities, particularly for women and youth, protecting and improving social rights, and eradicating child labour.
A partnership for peace and governance; and
A partnership ‘to ensure a balanced, coherent, and comprehensive approach to migration and mobility’.
The proposed strategy also features actions to strengthen multilateralism in deepening the EU-Africa alliance in international fora.
He said that, the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) have converging interests in a number of areas, such as forced migration, refugee crisis, youth unemployment, climate change and violent extremism.
The EU for example is providing support to the African Union towards its capacity building initiatives in support of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) within the framework of the EU-Africa strategic partnerships.
He informed the Finnish law makers about the work that Finn Church Aid, an organisation that he leads is doing in Uganda which includes empowering refugees with education scholarships and contributing to women’s social and economic empowerment through income generating activities, Village Savings and Loan Associations and entrepreneurship skills development.
He said Savings and Loans Associations supported by FCA have helped women to finance business start-ups and enterprise development at community level which increased their self-employment opportunities and income levels.
In the East and Central Africa and in the Horn of Africa, FCA supports youth and women led CSOs to prevent, mitigate and resolve violent conflicts using the triple nexus approach, where it integrates peace-building in urgent humanitarian responses and long-term development cooperation.
Nsheka also participated in an EU/Africa event in Helsinki during which he met several members of the EU parliament.
