About us

AfriKo is a consultancy platform, incorporated in Lithuania, but uniting professionals from across the globe. At AfriKo we aim to bridge in – depth knowledge and expertise of our members with the needs of individuals, companies and institutions that seek to understand, engage, celebrate and learn more about Africa. To achieve these goals AfriKo provides tailored consultations, designs in-depth analysis, hosts events discussing the most current trends of various areas in Africa.

AfriKo seeks to become leading hub uniting Africa related professionals in the Baltic states – though partnering with specialists from Africa – and the

first choice for anyone either in business, politics, culture or academia who seeks to work closely with African continent.

Current members of AfriKo have Africa related academic background, with professional experience and research interests ranging from politics of the African Union, South African photography to resistance movements and e – Governance in Africa or conflicts in the Great Lakes Region, to name but a few. AfriKo, however, seeks new members and aspires to further their expertise and provide opportunities to participate in various international consultancy projects.

Our stories

What we do

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Research

AfriKo team perceives itself as a group of reflective practitioners who feel a close attachment to their academic backgrounds.  We are not only eager to actively engage in bridging Africa and the Baltic region, but also critically analyse both our implemented projects and environment, in which our organization operates. Our current research focus lies with two interrelated policy areas – the Baltic foreign policy in Africa and EU-Africa partnership-building. By stimulating research-based policy dialogues and collaborations with scholars in the Baltic region and globally, we are striving towards a more strategic and comprehensive Baltic approach on Africa.

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Consultancy

Our in-depth understanding of African affairs gained through our academic engagements allows us to provide consultancy services for governments, businesses, donors and NGOs that may be local-needs driven and leading to positive socio-economic impact. We focus on solutions that can drive inclusive and sustainable development, and run our projects together with partners and team members from African countries in order to ensure that. Having good and critical understanding of international development agenda we always thrive for African solutions to African problems rather than applying the so-called best international practices.

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Knowledge sharing

Afri|Ko can provide training, facilitate workshops and organize public events for various audiences: private and public institutions, NGOs working in the development field as well as academic institutions. We  train volunteers, public servants or business people who are planning to work in African countries, organize thought-provoking public seminars with international experts on both most-pressing and more contextual topics, and develop  longer term educational courses.

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Network facilitation

Having studied and worked in a number of countries, Afri|Ko team members have access to the best possible expertise and solutions through our global network. We help to find people for different types of engagements in African countries – be it simply local support, particular area of expertise needed for a specific project or a lecturer or trainer for your organization. Being strong believers in the power of professional networks we also position Afri|Ko as a hub uniting Africa-related professionals in the Baltic states.

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Arts & Culture

We see all forms of art – literature, photography, music, design – as a wonderful way for exploring and understanding the history and modern lives of people in Africa. We therefore not only research, but also engage in and organize  various artistic activities and have a number of African artists in our network as well as art critics in our team.
Throughout the years we have gathered  a collection of more than 200 Africa-related books – fiction, poetry, policy, academic – that will be soon available for borrowing from Afri|Ko at no cost for those based in Vilnius. As the world is celebrating African literature, we are happy to bring some of this celebration to Lithuanian audiences.

Our team

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Mante Makauskaite

is an international consultant with a particular focus on public sector-related projects. Mante’s experience and interests vary from e-Government reforms in Africa to politics of the African Union in the area of conflict resolution, and these are flavored with a great affection for African literature as well. Mante gained her MA degree in African Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
Being a strong believer in the value of interdisciplinarity and experiences from different sectors and fields, Mante pro-actively seeks to gain knowledge from public, private and NGO sectors, as well as academia.

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Eugenija Kovaliova

is an international development cooperation consultant with particular interest and focus on NGOs work in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Eugenija has a Master’s degree in African Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her interests range from the impact of multinational companies on local communities and local resistance strategies, to various human rights issues, as well as questions of humanitarianism, eco-feminism, and Western narratives about ‘Africa’.

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Egle Dmukauskaite

is cultural and innovation projects manager with an academic background in Art and Culture Management from Vilnius University, Lithuania. Besides being arts enthusiast she is also interested in merging arts and technology for sustainable development and therefore chose UPTEC – Science and Technology park of University of Porto – for her internship. At UPTEC Egle did research about relations among the start-ups that are based there and became interested in the development of tech-hubs. Given her background Egle mostly contributes to AfriKo’s ICT4D and arts related activities – running hackathons and delivering workshops on sustainable development.

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Žilvinas Švedkauskas

is a PhD candidate at the University of Tübingen (Germany) focusing on party politics and mechanisms of co-optation in the Middle East and North Africa. He also holds a joint M.A. degree in Comparative Politics from the University of Tübingen and the American University in Cairo. Working in the Lithuanian NGO sector for more than 5 years, Žilvinas has extensive experience in areas of development cooperation, civic education and policy analysis. In addition, Žilvinas writes about the Middle East, Lithuanian and international politics on a freelance basis.

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Lukas Ivanauskas

is responsible for developing AfriKo’s research capacities and activities including such topics as Baltic foreign policy in Africa and EU-Africa partnership-building. Lukas has an academic background in political science. In 2019 he received BA Cum Laude diploma from the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University, where he continues his MA studies in Contemporary Politics. In 2017 Lukas also spent one semester at Institute d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), where he got interested in African diaspora studies. With an academic interest in political theory, Lukas strives to examine his research tasks from different theoretical perspectives, raise fundamental questions and come up with original solutions.

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Kristijanas Kaminskis

is a project manager with experience in the fields of migration, city development and investor aftercare. Through his work as a migration consultant and project manager at a municipal agency, he developed an interest in topics like international specialist attraction and relocation, as well as city infrastructure development for both its residents and guests. Kristijanas also holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary Politics from the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University.

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