The 11th edition of the MEDays Forum, which will be held from 7 to 10 November in Tangiers, will be marked by the participation of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of Burkina Faso.
“It is a great honor for us to welcome to Tangier the President of Faso, an African Head of State who embodies a new democratic page for his country with a desire to work for regional and continental integration, a Inclusive growth model for youth, women, and the rural world, not to mention its commitment to innovation and renewable energy. Said Brahim Fassi Fihri, President of the Amadeus Institute.
This is the third time that the MEDays Forum hosts a head of state in office after S.E. Paul Kagamé in 2015 and S.E. Alpha Condé in 2017.
This eleventh edition, under the theme “In the era of disruption: building new paradigms,” will also focus on regional and continental integration, security challenges in Africa, new dynamics of cooperation, and economic and diplomatic issues. facing the disruptions of the international order.
The new development models for Morocco will be tackled in the context of a transforming African regional environment through the recent signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECA) but also the accession talks of Morocco to the ECOWAS.
Regional integration models, new forms of inter-African cooperation and development models will be among the key issues on which intervene Moustapha Cisse Lo, Chairman of the ECOWAS Parliament, Luis Filipe Lopes Tavares, Foreign Minister of Cape Vert, or Thomas Boni Yayi, former President of Benin. The free trade model, embodied in Africa by the signing of the ZLECA, will be discussed in a broader context of trade wars between the United States and China on one side and between the United States and the European Union. the other which could have repercussions on African economies. These international topics will be discussed with Yonov Frederick Agah, deputy director of the World Trade Organization, Yves Leterme, former Prime Minister of Belgium, Daniel Ona Ondo, President of the Commission of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community ( CEMAC), Boubou Cissé, Minister of Economy and Finance of Mali or Gamal Hassan, Minister of Investment and Economic Development of Somalia or Moussa Mara, former Prime Minister of Mali.
Particular focus will be given to China-Africa relations and the “road and belt” project around which China wants to organize a dialogue to align African development strategies with its international strategy. A panel of speakers including Hanru Wang, director of forecasting and planning at Chinese Export-Import Bank of China, Lilia Naas Hachem, director of the North Africa office of the Economic Commission for Africa, Augustine Mahiga, Minister of Business from Tanzania or Sun Xiansheng, Secretary General of the International Energy Forum, will speak on these lines of debate.
In addition, the Forum will focus on security issues and proposals to strengthen inter-African cooperation and continental bodies such as the AU Peace and Security Council that Morocco has joined this year. On this theme the contributions of Jerry Rawlings, former President of Ghana, Mamadou Tangara, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gambia, Ennadif Mahamat Saleh, head of the MINUSMA and Representative of the UN or the General Ely Mohamed Sid’Ahmed Znagui, Defense and Security expert with the G5 Sahel, will be expected. In a complex security environment, facing a threat of Sahelian terrorism everywhere in Mali, Burkina Faso, in northern Cameroon or Nigeria, the new operational responses to these threats to populations and States will be discussed by a panel of experts international issues such as Joëlle Milquet, former Belgian Minister of the Interior, Damien Martinez, CEO of Facepoint, Jaromir Novotny, former Deputy Minister for Defense of the Czech Republic.
Finally, North-South cooperation will also be at the heart of exchanges, particularly with the question of reviving a space of sharing and a Mediterranean imagination. The Forum will propose to rebuild relations of equals between Europe and Africa by not giving in to the folds and leaving the discourse centered on immigration. José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, former Spanish Prime Minister, Najat Vallaud Belkacem, former French Minister of Education, André Flahaut, Belgian Minister for the Civil Service will contribute, among other things, to the reflection on new initiatives to be taken to rebuild the Mediterranean relations. Among the Mediterranean speakers introducing the debates of the Forum will also include Saeb Erakat, Secretary General of the PLO, Palestinian leader for the negotiations. Palestine has also been elected to the presidency of the Group of 77, the largest group of developing countries in the United Nations General Assembly. The consequences of the unilateral actions of American diplomacy on security in the Mediterranean and the Middle East will be at the center of the concerns and analyzes of stakeholders including the establishment of the American Embassy in Jerusalem, the withdrawal of the Iranian agreement and the international institutions such as UNESCO or the Paris Agreement.
As always, the MEDays Forum will give pride of place to themes of transformation around the role of new technologies in finance, the increased participation and equality of women in societies of the South or the question of how take advantage of new technology opportunities in the education sector.
Nearly 150 high-level speakers – Heads of State and Government, Ministers, politicians, Nobel Prize winners, business leaders, leaders of international organizations, experts and representatives of civil society – will be present for four days to discuss the priority issues of the international agenda alongside 3000 participants.
