In the past few years, the training activities carried out at the European University Institute have opened up to a more global audience and to more regular partnerships with counterparts in the African continent.
In October 2018 the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) in collaboration with the Indian Ocean Commission conducted training on Regulation of the Power Sector for energy sector personnel for the islands of Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles. The course – which included both a residential part and online sessions – was tailored to professionals from the Ministry, regulators and utilities from the islands of Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles. As part of the same collaboration, the School also conducted training on Regulation for Universal Access to Energy for the energy sector.
Participants of the Open Africa Power initaitive in Florence, June 2018
In June 2018 the FSR also welcomed participants from the Open Africa Power initiative in Florence: the participants interacted with FSR researchers to understand the topical global energy issues focused on at FSR. This initiative, created by Enel Foundation in partnership with the FSR, aimed to forge a new generation of African leaders deeply engaged with their countries’ clean energy future. After the residential training organised in Strathmore University in Kenya, the participants took FSR’s ‘Regulation for Universal Access to Energy’ online course and then went to Italy for the last leg of residential training. Previously, in 2017, FSR also organised residential training on Energy Regulation to support the Moroccan Energy Policy. In collaboration with the German Development Agency FSR trained energy professionals in Morocco for the creation of a Moroccan Regulatory Agency for electricity.
Within the framework of the Global Governance Programme (GGP), training courses have been organised in the past few years on trade policy topics, regional integration and the World Trade Organisation targeting practitioners, government officials from ‘Least Developed Countries’ and donor agencies, researchers and the private sector. These residential training seminars were organised by Professor Bernard Hoekman, in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Between 2015 and 2018, about 140 participants came from African countries, representing a total of 16% of participants in these training seminars. More information can be found on the Global Governance Programme website. For several years the Global Governance Programme also organises Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with a focus on international migration. Three migration-themed courses include Africa-related content and have been followed by learners from across the African continent as well as the rest of the world: ‘Why do people migrate? Facts;’ ‘Why do people migrate? Theories’; ‘Migration and Cities’.
For several years the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) has been organising summer schools and executive trainings, including speakers and participants from African countries. It has been selected by the European Commission DG DEVCO to train civil servants in Brussels and in EU Delegations worldwide. The Centre offers scholarship places for its annual Migration Summer School to participants from African countries. In total, 74 participants from the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa have participated in the Migration Summer School to date. In April 2019 the Centre, together with the School of Transnational Governance organised an executive training on ‘The Regional Governance of Migration and Mobility: Southeast Asian, African and South American Experiences’ and the 15th Migration Summer School welcomed four participants from African countries thanks to scholarships funded by the School of Transnational Governance.
In collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration, the Centre has also organised a first meeting of the 'Enhancing Research, Analysis and Policy' (E-RAP) network at the European University Institute in May 2019. The E-RAP network is an initiative to enhance research analysis and policy on African migration by supporting early career African researchers.
Since 2017, the Middle East Directions Programme (MEDirections) has co-organised executive training seminars and Summer/Autumn Schools with the School of Transnational Governance. The courses were opento participants from Africa, and have had so far about ten people attending from Ethiopia, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Middle East Directions Summer School on 'Post-Conflict Stabilisation: The Day after IS Military Defeat', July 2018
Both executive training seminars and Summer/Autumn Schools target scholars, mid-career professionals and practitioners (mostly from international organisations, national governments, European and regional institutions, NGOs) and are organised at the European University Institute usually lasting three days.
Of particular note, the executive training on ‘Learning from Conflicts’ in autumn 2019 will include a module dedicated to ‘Conflict patterns and drivers in the wider Sahel region’. This module will focus on conflict trends and drivers of political instability in the wider Sahel region, stretching from Dakar to Djibouti, and their impact on state fragility and resilience across the region. This module will be organised in partnership with Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.
Finally, in autumn 2019 the MEDirections Autumn School “Natural Resources and Geopolitics in the MENA region” will include modules dedicated to the challenges of natural resources governance in North Africa, especially Morocco and Tunisia.
The School of Transnational Governance (STG) has also developed a thematic cluster on ‘Comparative Regional Integration’ that includes systematically an Africa component. This has materialised in the organisation of two executive training seminars in 2019, one on regional courts and one on rule of law, where the role of regional organisations in Africa was addressed by several trainers from the region, such as Tony Elumelu Elumelu, ECOWAS, Nigeria, Mehari Taddele Maru, IGAD Lead Migration Expert and GIZ Migration Consultant, Ethiopia, Justice Charles Mkandawire, Representative of Malawi to the International Commission of Jurists and others.
In March 2020, The School of Transnational Governance and the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition joined hands with selected G20 countries to look at the role of carbon pricing in the fight against climate change. A first workshop took place in Cape Town. In September 2020, a second workshop will take place in Delhi, India.
In August and September 2020, the Radicalisation, Secularism and the Governance of Religion (GREASE) project published two short films discussing Religion and Society in Morocco and how to Counter Religious Extremism in Morocco.
The STG is currently developing a tailor-made training programme for mid-career, high-potential practitioners from sub-Saharan Africa, in fields including politics, diplomacy, enterprises and entrepreneurship, journalism, and civil society. Aiming at starting in 2021, the programme intends to convene relevant actors from the region with a substantial innovation and impact potential in their respective field of action. STG has been engaging with various stakeholders in Africa and Europe for the design, delivery and assessment of the programme.