Our Mission

Exchange supports the growth potential of the private sector in Global Partnership between Belgian and African companies in a market-economic context.

  • The sustainable development goals of the United Nations SDG 8 "decent work and economic growth" and SDG 17 "partnerships for the goals" are the basis of our operation.

"By setting up sustainable partnerships, private entrepreneurs and scale-ups in Africa can grow and be embedded locally."

 

This allows them to better support their communities and ensure sustainable employment. In addition, Exchange facilitates Belgian companies in various concrete ways when exploring the African entrepreneurial market.

    • Exchange transforms the partnerships between business partners in Belgium and Africa into so-called growth programmes. These are long-term partnerships, embedded in "global partnerships", where Exchange acts as an exchange platform, coach and facilitator and measures, monitors and adjusts impact and results.

 

    • Exchange choses for co-creation with the African private entrepreneur. Growth programmes are always designed and worked out together. Exchange focuses on sustainably empowering the local entrepreneur thanks to knowledge sharing and does not opt for the traditional method of financial support.

 

    • Within the growth programmes Exchange ensures contact and input from partner organizations, experts and other local or Belgian actors with specific competencies or resources.

 

    • Exchange has a team of competent, local representatives in each of the eight focus countries. In addition, Exchange maintains good contacts with overreaching organizations in the private sector.

 

    • Exchange maintains specific Country Strategy Papers for eight focus countries and five focus sectors. These papers always provide an up-to-date analysis of the local business climate in the private sector combined with knowledge drawn from years of practical experience.

 

    • Exchange actively focuses on partnerships and co-creation, both in the focus countries as in Belgium. Partnerships must always be a win-win for the African entrepreneur and the Belgian company or expert.

 

    • The operations of Exchange are constantly subject to the goal of saving costs and increasing efficiency. We want to shift spending in Belgium via our local expertise as much as possible to our African focus countries.

 

    • In our new model, we choose for impact through focus on eight focus countries and five sectors. The model with which Exchange previously worked ("demand-driven" short-term interventions in a multitude of different developing countries) is only being rolled out on behalf of partner organizations or as a continuation of cooperation ("farming") with previous contacts and in-house management.