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

Baltics-EU-Africa Trialogue

2021-2022 // Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

Africa is high on the EU Agenda and Baltics can bring their fresh perspective to the table. AfriKo embarked on a new journey of policy exploration, with the aim of co-creating tangible policy tools for active Baltic participation in the EU-Africa relations.

Digital Explorers // Female Track

2019-2020 // Nigeria, Lithuania

The next journey of Digital Explorers aims to support women in tech and contribute to closing the global tech gender gap by offering tailored data analysis / data science traineeships. Embark on a journey to perfect your data skills in Europe’s tech powerhouse, Lithuania.

DE // Institutional Knowledge Exchange

2020-2021 // Nigeria, Lithuania

Being the first of its kind to offer a digital economy development pathway linking Nigeria and Lithuania, the Digital Explorers programme also strives for wider impact and aims to connect policy actors for mutual growth.

Education // “Africa Is Not a Country”

2020-2021 // Lithuania

The story told about ‘Africa’ is often uniform and filled with outdated stereotypes, as if this diverse continent was one country. AfriKo together with a collective of journalists NARA initiated an educational project for Lithuanian school students aiming at crafting stories to shift the narrative away from a single story.

Research Paper // OECD DAC & Baltics

July 2020 // Vilnius, Lithuania

AfriKo conducted research of Icelandic and Czech development cooperation in the context of DAC, aiming to identify lessons for the Baltics. Based on reflections of DAC reviews and interviews, we provide 8 recommendations for Baltic policy makers to enrich their conversations on national agendas.

ICT4D // Digital Generation Youth

2019-2021 // South Africa, Nigeria, The Netherlands, Lithuania

Digital transformation has disrupted life on both sides of the Mediterranean. It creates new jobs, promotes economic mobility and improves public services. Nonetheless, a lot is still to be done in making digital skills more accessible and recognisable, especially for the young and underprivileged.

The Baltics in Africa // Policy overview

2018-2019 // Vilnius

AfriKo presents the first of this kind comparative overview of Lithuanian and Estonian foreign policies towards Africa with the intention of setting the stage for broader discussions on the role of small states in a globalised world and perspectives of the Baltics as a new actor in the region.

Digital Explorers // Join the Journey!

2019-2020 // Nigeria

Built on a strong public, private and non-profit partnership, Digital Explorers programme offers a unique chance to make an unexpected connection between Lithuanian and Nigerian ICT sectors: find a talent, discover a new market, build long-term partnerships.
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ICT4D Project // Digital Explorers

2019-2020 // Nigeria

New initiative brings together Nigerian techpreneurs and Lithuanian ICT sector to advance cooperation between the two countries. The career advancement programme will provide opportunities for tech-savvy Nigerians and open up new markets for Lithuanian ICT companies.
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Biz&Breakfast // Nigeria

October 2018 // Vilnius, Lithuania

Did you know that: The startup ecosystem of Nigeria’s financial capital Lagos alone is worth 2$ billion, putting it above South Africa’s Johannesburg and Cape Town? Nigerian online e-commerce platform Jumia has 3 million customers, 3,000 employees, and operates in 23 countries?

Hackathon // Smart Cities

April 2018 // Klaipeda, Lithuania

This hackathon, organized by iamus, AfriKo and NNVBO platform, will be looking for tech-drive solutions to advance the SDGs with a particular focus on SDG 11 – make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable – and we therefore call it Smart Cities Hackathon.

Hackathon // Sustainable Development Goals

October 2017 // Kaunas, Lithuania

Bringing together technology and development, the Hack for World Hackathon empowers tech-savvy youth to actively engage with some of the most pressing global challenges. The Hackathon, seeks innovative tech solutions to address human trafficking and sustainable energy.
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ICT4D in Africa // FinTech

May 2017 // Vilnius, Lithuania

Faced with the demand for FinTech solutions in African countries where access to finance hinders development, what role can Lithuanian ICT sector play in assisting financial inclusion? This conference addressed the market’s needs in the context of international development agenda.
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ICT4D in Africa // Step in

May 2016 // Vilnius, Lithuania

What connects Africa and the Baltics? These two seemingly separate regions are both witnessing rapid growth of ICT sectors. The potential for developmental impact rises as a result, as do opportunities for mutual benefit. A panel of experts offered context and guidance to Baltic techpreneurs.

Networking // Baltic Africanists

May 2016 // Vilnius, Lithuania

The Baltic Africanists network envisions closer cooperation between the Baltic states-based academics and professionals engaged in Africa-related areas of work. The aims is to strengthen knowledge and capacities, based on mutual assistance and joint participation.
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Panel discussion // Elections in Africa

May 2015 // Vilnius, Lithuania

The year 2015 was one of elections for almost a third of African countries, yet many important aspects were missing in their coverage in the mainstream media. To fill this gap and expand the public’s knowledge of the context, an expert panel analysed election landscapes in Africa.

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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