Nederland en Afrika

10/10/2024

From October 8 to 10, the ‘World Council’ of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is taking place in The Hague. Local leaders from around the world are coming together for this event. The World Council meets once a year to collectively make decisions regarding UCLG’s policies, with the aim of highlighting the impact of global issues at the local level, such as economic development, climate change, and conflicts.

Jelte van Wieren, director of the Sub-Saharan Africa department, was present and invites ideas on how local authorities in Africa and the Netherlands can co-create investable projects to realize the EU Global Gateway initiatives. Local governance and municipal diplomacy are crucial for the implementation of the Dutch Africa Strategy, making this knowledge exchange essential.

19/06/2024

Mining week in Democratic Republic of Congo
Last week, a group of Dutch businesses visited the DRC Mining Week. This trade mission facilitated partnerships between Dutch and Congolese businesses in the mining sector, which strengthened both the local mining system and the Dutch position along the value chain.

18/06/2024

Youth visit to Tanzania
During a visit to Dar es Salaam, our desk officer for Tanzania, Vere Werlotte, met with several NGOs working on youth and women empowerment in the field of media and arts, youth and democracy, and health. She also met with startups focused on supporting young students to become entrepreneurs during their time at university. The goal of these startups is to connect young entrepreneurs with the right support organizations in order to accelerate investment in African youth.

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14/06/2024

Orange Corners Connect Days
Orange Corners aims to support youth entrepreneurship. Recently, all implementing partners, embassy staff and support network from across the world - including 12 countries in Africa - came together in The Hague. Objective: to connect the world to the Netherlands, learn from each other, and plan impactful action.

Orange Corners is a powerful display of how partnerships should work in practice.

12/06/2024

Deputy Director Africa, Martine van Hoogstraten, visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last week to confirm relations between our two countries. She was accompanied by Ambassador Angele Samura and Michiel Smet, head of Goma liaison office (photo). The Goma office is at the heart of the Dutch Great Lakes program, a regional program to promote stability by stimulating regional trade and contributing to solutions to problems such as land rights and local insecurity.

07/06/2024

Exchange with the African Union on election practices, focusing on the European parliamentary elections. The visit serves as an example of the close cooperation between the African Union and the European Union on the advancement of democratic principles.

Led by His Excellency Bankole Adeoye, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, de delegation was received by minister Hanke Bruins Slot. Mayor of The Hague, Jan van Zanen, then accompanied the mission to witness the counting of the votes.

The visit will continue in Belgium and Luxemburg.

06/06/2024

As diplomats, we speak to many different people; governments, youth, think tanks and humanitarian organizations, for example. We discuss where our interests intersect or overlap. For this reason, the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and an employee of the Africa Directorate recently visited Qatar. They spoke with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with representatives of the Qatar Red Crescent about the situation in Somalia and Sudan. They also spoke with a number of African ambassadors about cooperation between their countries and Qatar. It is clear that both regions are connected in many ways.
Photo credit: MFA Qatar.

05/06/2024

02/06/2024

Somali members of parliament visit Netherlands to learn more about International Criminal Court (ICC).

During the discussions it was agreed that Somalia’s accession to the ICC would send a strong signal of support. The ICC is crucial for a rule based international order and for the international fight against impunity for the most serious international crimes.

31/05/2024

27/05/2024

As part of the Diplomatic Training Programme (IBBZ) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our diplomats in training spend two weeks at an embassy for a consular internship 🎓📚They assist our colleagues on all matters related to consular affairs. This ranges from taking in applications for and issuing Dutch passports, to language exams and Dutch naturalizations 🌍🇳🇱

One of our colleagues interned at the consular desk in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 An incredibly enriching and interesting experience, where you are able to interact with the people who come to the embassy searching for consular assistance. This is all done at the beautiful embassy, where you may encounter rescued tortoises on the embassy ground 🐢🇳🇱🤝🇪🇹

22/05/2024