Budgets for development cooperation are under severe pressure, including in Belgium. Now that Flanders is discontinuing its support, it is crucial that Belgium maintains its commitment. Cutting back today will undermine our strategic position and influence tomorrow.
Knowledge as strategic capital
Belgium has no oil or gas, but it does have world-class higher education institutions. Knowledge is our most valuable resource. Through VLIRUOS, ARES and the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgian higher education institutions are working together on solutions for global health, climate and stability. In doing so, they are strengthening local universities as well as our own educational, research and innovation capabilities.
Security through knowledge, trust and networks
Academic cooperation – a rather forgotten part of Belgian “development cooperation” – connects people, institutions and countries through knowledge, shared values, trust and innovation. It creates sustainable networks and contributes innovative solutions to major challenges, on which political, diplomatic and economic relations can build. It contributes to prevention, security and prosperity. By sharing knowledge, strengthening local institutions and building sustainable networks, our institutions help to address tensions worldwide before they escalate into migration or security crises that also affect Belgium. They create trust where politics sometimes falls short and, through their networks, help to lay the foundations for mutual understanding and a safer and more prosperous world.
In addition to having a major local impact, such as access to unique knowledge, innovation and stability, academic cooperation also brings strategic advantages to Belgium: diplomatic soft power through networks with future world leaders and entrepreneurs, and an economic return. Every euro invested in academic cooperation strengthens both local capacity and our own innovative power, resilience and influence.
Short-term self-interest or strategic weakening?
In a world of tensions, migration pressure, climate change and cyber threats, Belgium cannot afford international isolation. Our security, values and prosperity require an integrated strategy in which defence, diplomacy and development cooperation reinforce each other. Development cooperation is a crucial instrument in this regard, promoting knowledge, stability, influence and prosperity – worldwide, but also for Belgium itself.
Smart diplomacy
One of our greatest assets is the global network of alumni from our higher education institutions. Many graduates hold key positions in governments, universities and companies in partner countries and are bridge builders for our diplomacy, our companies and our values.
For example, Éric Kalala, alumnus of UC Louvain, CEO of Entreprise Générale du Cobalt in DR Congo, influential entrepreneur in Central Africa. Today, he coordinates the extraction of critical minerals, which are crucial for the energy transition and industry in Africa, but also in Belgium and Europe.
Or Kora Tushune, PhD student at Ghent University. Today, he is State Secretary for Higher Education in Ethiopia. Thanks to his excellent ties with Flemish academics, he is a reliable discussion partner and bridge builder, even in times of conflict.
Cooperation and innovation that benefits us all
In Dakar, researchers from UC Louvain, KU Leuven and Ghent University are developing and producing high-tech vaccines against viruses such as MPox, which also threaten us. These types of collaborations are a strategic investment in a shared knowledge economy that results in research networks, stronger government policy and spin-offs with companies.
In the Congolese rainforest, Belgian and local researchers are using the UGent flux tower in Yangambi to measure how the forest exchanges CO₂, water and energy with the atmosphere. Their data show that this forest still absorbs more CO₂ than it emits — a natural climate service that slows down global warming. Thanks to academic collaboration, Belgium gains access to unique climate data, strengthens its scientific and diplomatic position in international negotiations, and helps protect an ecosystem that also benefits our climate.
A group of students and lecturers from AP University College collaborated with researchers from VUB and KU Leuven, a local university in Uganda and Join for Water on a measuring device that monitors the climate and helps predict floods. In the next phase, AI will also be added. The project could develop into a warning system that could save lives on a large scale – in Uganda and other vulnerable regions, such as Madagascar and Haiti, where researchers from UCLouvain are developing a similar system. The technology could also be applied in Belgium, where heavy rainfall is increasingly leading to flooding. Ugandan and Belgian companies are showing interest.
In Niger, UCLouvain is strengthening local capacity for conflict management and peacebuilding to promote stability in the Sahara-Sahel region, an area severely affected by terrorism and migration crises.
The examples given are just a small selection of the research and education organised by Belgian universities and colleges funded by Belgian development cooperation together with their local partners. In a world of shifting power relations, Belgium must not isolate itself. Academic cooperation is not a cost, but an investment that pays off — geopolitically, socially and economically. Those who disinvest now will make Belgium smaller and less influential.
Academic cooperation with the Global South is a lever for knowledge, stability and influence — precisely the instruments with which we, as an open economy, secure our place in the world. It is time we saw development cooperation for what it is: an investment. An investment in security, in opportunities for our young people, in sustainable relationships and in solutions to problems that we are better off anticipating than enduring.
Everyone must contribute to the savings efforts that lie ahead, including development cooperation. But sensible policy looks beyond today. Those who make substantial savings on development cooperation now are not saving on expenditure, but on our own future.
Prof. Mieke Van Herreweghe, chair of VLIRUOS
Prof. Éric Haubruge, chair of the ARES International Cooperation Committee
Photo : Haïti / Sandra Soares-Frazao
