IPDAL carries out the first initiative on the future of the African continent.

Bringing together experts, international organizations, companies and ambassadors, the Institute began a new phase of joint reflection on opportunities for intercontinental cooperation.

The former Secretary General of UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa) Carlos Lopes was invited as keynote speaker of the initiative, sharing his vision on the current development paradigm on the continent, as well as the respective political, economic and social challenges.

The President of IPDAL argued that “the African continent is, increasingly, the continent of opportunities for Europe and the opposite is also true: Europe is a continent of opportunities for Africa. I would even say that many solutions to Europe’s great challenges are in Africa, but also many of the solutions to Africa’s problems are in Europe”. For Paulo Neves “we are condemned to understand each other and establish partnerships, where the final result can only be one: winning both continents”.

The initiative, which resulted from a co-organization of IPDAL with the Institut Royal des Études Stratégiques (IRES) of Morocco, took place on the 10th of October, in European University .

In this first edition, African ambassadors from English-speaking, Francophone and Portuguese-speaking countries participated in a round table dedicated to the recent continental free trade agreement in Africa.

The Executive Secretary of the CPLP , Francisco Ribeiro Telles, the Board of Directors of Moroccan International Cooperation Agency , and the administrator of Mota-Engil , Pedro Arrais.