On March 15 Sweden Africa Chamber held a seminar on Beyond Aid at Sweco which attracted 50 particpants from 14 African Embassies in Stockholm, Swedish companies, EKN and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A networking event followed the seminar.

Main speakers included Henrik Cederin, Ambassador and Director at the Department for Trade Promotion, Nation
Branding and CSR at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Tove Adolfo Lilja from Sweco. The seminar was moderated by Åsa Jarskog, President of Sweden Africa Chamber.

The new Swedish government has emphasized the importance of accelerating the synergies between development cooperation, foreign trade and export and investment promotion. Work is under way to explore new ways and new instruments to deliver on this objective. Opportunities to strengthen the role of Swedish business in development cooperation will be identified. One area to further develop is Private Sector Collaboration, often a component in the individual country strategies formulated by the government and implemented by Sida. The aim with this specific approach is  to promote sustainable business and market development, entrepreneurship, innovation and digitalisation.

Thank you to all particpants, Henrik Cederin and Sweco for hosting the event.

Andia Laura Chakava, Investment Director of the Graça Machel Trust, further explained how they
continually develop programs to innovate and drive more capital to women entrepreneurs in Sub
Sahara Africa.

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion on how Swedish financing and investing can
contribute to sustainable solutions in Africa with both governmental and private companies. The
panel was comprised of Karin Kronhöffer, Director Strategy and Communication at Swedfund,
Victor Carstenius, Senior Analyst at EKN, Maximilian Jönsson, advisor PowerAfrica team at SIDA,
and Ulrika Hasselgren, CSO at Coeli Group.

The event was chaired and moderated by our President of the chamber Åsa Jarskog.

The Swedish Fika was appreciated, and the networking was intense with a happy and inspiring
atmosphere around the coffee and cinnamon buns. There were Ambassadors, representatives from
Embassies, Members of the Chambers, and representatives from private and public sector.
Some comments from the participants:

“What a privilege to hear H.E Mrs Graca Machel and her team from  Graça Machel Trust  sharing how
seed funding to women entrepreneurs in Africa leads to exponential development”

“A privilege to hear the insights from Graça Machel. Also, big thank you to organizers, Åsa, fellow
panelists and participants. We've all been to many of these events, I thought this was a good one.”

“A good discussion on how to advance sustainable investments Africa!”

“Thank you for the great panel session.”

“Impressive speech - and an excellent event.”

Green Cities and Sustainable Solutions” was the theme of Sweden Africa Chamber business mission to Kigali 26-29 September.

Eighteen companies from the Nordic countries joined the mission to expose their solutions within sustainable energy, healthcare, waste management and other areas requiring sustainable solutions in Rwanda
 
Once again, Sweden Africa Chamber’s concept for business missions proved to be successful: Over 150 representatives from Rwandan key stakeholders participated in the one-day seminar co-organised with our partner Rwanda Development Board. The same number was represented at the networking event at the Swedish Ambassador’s Residence. The most appreciated part was as usual the individually customised B2B programmes for each company, this time hosted at Norrsken House in Kigali, where a total of 120 individual meetings took place in one day.
 
The Nordic companies were in local television and news-papers, and several deals were signed during the very same week.

A breakfast meeting was held at SWECO on 9 September where presentations and discussions were held on SADC Green Energy Solutions.

A presentation was held by ZESA Executive Chairman Dr. Sydney Z. Gata on Central African Renewable Energy project (CARE), Zambezi and Kafue Electric Power Potential. 
 
The opening remarks were held by SADC Dean H.E. Ambassador Florêncio Joel Alberto Sele of Mozambique.

Nordic Rwanda Connect was launched on 9th of May at the Embassy of Rwanda in Stockholm. Present for the official launch was Dr. Diane Gashumba, A, The Ambassador of Rwanda to the Nordics, Johanna Teague, The Ambassador of Sweden to Rwanda and Åsa Jarskog, President Sweden Africa Chamber.

Also present at the launch were numerous Swedish companies interested in hearing about the opportunities of doing business in Rwanda, as well as about the upcoming business mission to Rwanda 26 - 29 September.

When we founded Sweden Africa Chamber eight years ago, our starting point was to agree on what the core values of our organization would be. Since that day, everything we do as an organization and as representatives of the organization springs from those values and whenever we need to take a decision, we relate back to the core values. 

​It was very natural for us to select Sustainability as one of our Core Values. A majority of our Executive Board has worked with Sustainability for several years, supporting Governments and Businesses in Africa to become more sustainable. Many of our member companies are actively contributing to sustainability. We are proud to say that Sweden Africa Chamber organized the first Sustainability Business Mission to Africa in 2019, highlighting that Swedish products, services and solutions can help African countries reach their SDGs. We are happy and proud to note that many have been followed our initiative, including several organisations funded by the Swedish government.

This year has not only highlighted the importance of sustainable solutions, but also 
that No Man is an Island.. Both the Covid 19 pandemic and COP26 are painful reminders that sustainability cannot be reached without collaboration. The world is interdependent, and partnerships are more important than ever. As an organisation we are not big, nor externally funded. But those who know us know that one of our strengths is our networks in Africa. We are because of our partners in the different African countries, and we spend a lot of resources on maintaining and developing our partnerships. 

Business missions operationalize our partnerships and we are happy to announce that for the first quarter of 2022 we are planning two sustainability business missions – one to Rwanda (21-24 March) and one to the Democratic Republic of Congo (28-31 March). We look forward to going back to Africa TOGETHER with you in 2022!! The preparatory meetings will start in January, and we will keep you updated on how to find out more and how to secure your space in the missions. 

Chinese influence in Africa is high on the global agenda, as China within just a few decades has become a key political and economic power in the continent. Indeed, its emergence as a dominant economic and political actor might be the most important development in Africa since the end of the Cold War. This paper, wirtten by Sweden Africa Chamber members Peter Stein and Emil Uddhammar, analyses China's economic and political relations with Africa beginning in the 1990s. It argues that the concern is not that China has expanded its economic and political presence in the African continent; rather, that the other stakeholders have ignored it for long.

Sweden Africa Chambers Annual General Meeting was held on 18th of March where the members approved a change in the executive board. We want to welcome Maria Westman as a new member of the board. Maria is Head of Power Systems Export at SWECO/Energy and has extensive experience working throughout Africa.

- Jag som ambassadör finns här också för er. Jag är aldrig längre bort än ett sms, ett mejl eller ett telefonsamtal. Om det är något jag kan göra för att underlätta för er ska ni inte tveka att höra av er, sade Håkan Juholt inför Sweden Africa Chambers medlemmar.

Sveriges nye Sydafrikaambassadör har redan samlat in åtskilligt med information om situationen i det nya tjänstgöringslandet. Bland annat berättade han om den nu pågående så kallade Zondokommissionen, som håller på att slå ned på den vittgående korruptionen i det sydafrikanska samhället, och som även utreder ANC:s generalsekreterare Ace Magashule.
Mot bakgrund av detta engagerar sig Håkan Juholt just nu väldigt aktivt i sydafrikansk media och skapar kontakter med företag och privatpersoner i landet. Syftet är att främja den svenska modellen med demokrati, yttrandefrihet, bra villkor för löntagare och ett noggrant utformat skattesystem – i kontrast mot en kinesisk investerarmodell utan demokrati- och rättighetsfokus.

​- Vi har det här frukostmötet i en av de mest spännande tiderna i Sydafrikas historia sedan frigivningen av Nelson Mandela, sammanfattade Håkan Juholt.I exempelvis Namibia har Juholt dessutom redan fått direktkontakt med landets finansminister, president och många andra personer i landets ledning.
 
För att ta del av hela samtalet i efterhand, gå till Medlemssektionen.
 
JOAKIM RÅDSTRÖM