Impact Platforms / Afri–LAC Summit
Impact Platform · Since 2026
Afri–LAC Summit.
Lasting cooperation between Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, two regions with more than two billion people and 87 UN votes.
Why it matters.
The Afri–LAC Summit platform aims to break a familiar cycle: political interest, a summit, commitments, little follow-through, lost momentum. Earlier efforts, including the Africa–South America Summit process launched in 2006, produced declarations but no mechanisms to sustain them. Trade between the two regions is still only about 0.3% of the global total.
In 2026 we launched the Afri–LAC Think Tank Consortium, co-led by GCI and the Nkafu Policy Institute. It works with other think tanks and leading governments towards the first CELAC–AU Heads of State Summit. Members include Plataforma CIPÓ, Cepei, CAPRI and SAIIA.
The consortium works through narratives, policy, convening and geopolitical strategy.
Five priority tracks.
Sustainable industrial transformation
Including financing and connectivity between the two regions.
Digital sovereignty and technological cooperation
Shared approaches to technology, data and digital infrastructure.
Peacebuilding, security and governance
Lessons and cooperation across two regions that know the costs of conflict.
Diaspora, historical memory and the biocultural economy
Building on deep historical and cultural ties.
Women and youth as agents of transformation
Putting the people most affected at the centre of the agenda.
Phasing.
- To the Summit (October 2026 – March 2027)A policy note for each track, a consolidated roadmap for the Summit, technical input to the Summit outcome text, and side events at the Summit.
- Implementation (2027–28)Turning the roadmap into two or three flagship joint initiatives, in line with Uruguay's "tangible outcomes" principle.
- Institutionalisation (2028–29)Standing coordination mechanisms and options for follow-up beyond the summits.