🇨🇳🇪🇬 The latest issue of our CDG Global Development Brief is out!
This week’s focus: Xi Jinping’s visit to Cairo. The third expansion phase of the Sino-Egyptian industrial zone at the Suez Canal and a currency-swap agreement enlarged from 18 to 30 billion yuan show how China is evolving its Africa engagement — from pure lending towards production sites and its own currency infrastructure. Given a trade imbalance of more than twelvefold ($10.4bn in imports against $840.8m in exports), it’s Cairo’s attempt to build an export base for Africa, the Middle East and Europe through local production.
A direct continuation of last week’s theme: health ministers from WHO’s African member states adopted a new framework for emergency medical teams through 2030 — a direct response to the gap between built institutions and actual response capacity described in our previous issue.
Also in this issue: Senegal’s delicate balancing act between debt ‘reprofiling’ and ‘restructuring,’ pan-African infrastructure fund Africa50’s growth ambitions — and a look towards Berlin: the African Ambassadors Labour Mobility Summit 4.0 takes place on 11 September.

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📊 The latest issue of our CDG Global Development Brief is out!
This week’s focus: a German debate with a global punchline. CDU politician Nathanael Liminski warns in a Reuters interview that retreating from development cooperation would be a strategic mistake – backed by a KfW/Göttingen study claiming every euro of German aid lifts exports by €2.50 (we also give the methodology a critical look). Germany’s 2027 budget draft shows a real shift underway: -9.8% for technical cooperation, -39% for crisis response, but +20% for the World Bank Group.
And while Berlin debates cuts, others are moving forward: pan-African AFC launches a climate fund for Nigeria, China plans $300m in digital infrastructure for Kenya, South Korea funds an AI institute in Tanzania – all in the very same week.
Also in this issue: a billion-dollar Canadian project in Niger with open questions about the investor, plus funding calls with realistic lead time.
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📊 The latest issue of our CDG Global Development Brief is out!
This week’s focus: KfW reports a record half-year – new commitments up 46% to €57.7 billion. But look closer and a pattern emerges that should give development practitioners pause: most of that growth is flowing to Latin America and Asia. Africa is left behind, receiving just €154 million from DEG – the smallest share of any region.
Also in this issue: a $388m World Bank financing deal for Senegal, over $510m approved by EBID/BIDC for West Africa, a credit rating upgrade for Benin, and current funding-call deadlines.
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A chatbot in Rwanda answers 14 million inquiries. France prefers to promote the digital ecosystem rather than its own channels. China builds reach through TikTok and WeChat – focusing on perception rather than dialogue. Some donors are barely noticeable in public literature on this topic.

In our new CDG Policy Brief, we compare how Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, China, and South Korea actually use social media in development cooperation – beyond the question of whether the potential exists.

→ Why a toll-free telephone hotline in Somaliland outperformed an SMS solution
→ Why even methodologically leading donors still call their showcase projects ‘pilot programs’ – eight years after launch
→ Why German and European development cooperation channels do not communicate in a vacuum, but in the same information space as a professionally developed Chinese media presence

With six concrete practical recommendations.

Policy Brief No. 04/2026 – fully available in German and English.

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Global transformation requires new forms of collaboration. Securing skilled workers, industrial transformation, resilient supply chains and access to raw materials can no longer be considered separately. Labour markets, education systems and international partnerships are increasingly converging. What is crucial is not only what is needed but also how collaborations are structured: reliable, fair, scalable – and with genuine value creation on both sides. The coming years will show whether it will be possible to turn political declarations of intent into robust structures: for qualification, employment, investments and strategic autonomy in a fragmented world. This is precisely where new partnership models between business, politics and education come into play.