Moving with Africa
Opportunities for Business and Development


The ECAS 2017 Business and Development Forum at the University of Basel
Wednesday, 28 June 2017 | 1:30 pm to 5:45 pm (followed by reception)


  • Share your views with academics, professionals and policymakers
  • Discuss opportunities and challenges for business and investment in Africa
  • Appreciate the private sector’s contribution to socio-economic development
  • Learn about the expectations of potential African partners, talents and customers

“Moving with Africa”

With the Business and Development Forum we offer a platform for the exchange between academics and decision makers in business, government and development cooperation. The aim is to discuss opportunities and challenges for international business arising from Swiss-African relations as well as the expectations by African societies and stake-holders towards these relations. Parallel panel sessions will pay special attention to business and society, technology and infrastructure as well as capacity and knowledge.

The forum takes place in the run-up of the 7th European Conference on African Studies, which is hosted by the University of Basel from 29 June to 1 July 2017. The conference will attract up to 2000 scholars working on the social, political, economic and cultural development of African societies. The fact that the Centre for African Studies Basel together with the Swiss Society for African Studies are entrusted with the organization of Europe’s most important convention in the field speaks for the position of Basel and Switzerland as international hotspots for research on, in, with and for Africa. This position is based on Switzerland’s and Basel’s long-term and lively ties to various regions, states and institutions in Africa – in the academic realm, but also in the areas of business as well as development cooperation. It is one of the Centre for African Studies’ foremost aims to valorize and critically reflect these ties in order to make our academic engagement with Africa relevant and accessible beyond academia. The Business and Development Forum is a means to this end.

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Photos: World Bank/Adobe Stock