We often speak of Africa as a continent to be rescued, but rarely as a continent that learns, equips itself, and builds its own autonomy.
And we almost never speak of one of the most constant actors in this quiet work: MASHAV (1), Israel’s international cooperation agency.
The agency was created in the late 1950s, at the very moment when many African countries were gaining independence. It was conceived by an Israel poor in natural resources, facing aridity, food insecurity, and public-health emergencies—precisely the same challenges confronting these newly independent states.
From the outset, MASHAV adopted a distinctive policy: to train rather than to fund, to transfer skills rather than to create dependency.
The objective is clear: to make aid unnecessary—by giving the means for autonomy.
For more than sixty years, tens of thousands of African professionals have been trained—agronomists, doctors, engineers, community leaders, and water managers.
And increasingly, actors of digital transformation as well, through training, academic exchanges, and technological partnerships.
The record is striking:
Kenya, Ghana, Malawi — In these three countries, cooperation is first rooted in agricultural productivity, water management, and the organization of cooperatives.
Training farms, sustainable livestock, rural entrepreneurship: the foundation is survival turned into production.
Then the movement extends into the digital sphere—tools to track crops and cooperatives, exposure to agritech, connected financial services, and data-driven planning.
Rwanda — A country marked by the 1994 genocide, where cooperation is at once rural, institutional, and memorial.
Agricultural productivity, local food systems, and public health form the base of a society engaged in reconstruction, where collective resilience becomes practical skill.
At the same time, the country has embarked on a strategy of digital governance and innovation. Partnerships with Israeli actors, through innovation hubs and professional exchanges, focus on digital health, technological training, and cybersecurity.
Senegal and the Sahelian arc — Cooperation is anchored in sustainable agriculture, water management, and income-diversification activities.
Technique spreads first through training networks and pilot projects.
Then it extends to training in digital administration, public-data management, and cybersecurity.
The village enters the state.
Ethiopia, Burundi, and Togo — The trajectory begins in hospitals and universities: training in ophthalmology and anesthesia, followed by cooperation on pilot projects introducing telemedicine and digital systems for managing care.
Continuity of treatment no longer depends solely on physical presence.
Everywhere, Israel advances the same approach: start in the field, move through the market, enter the network.
Cooperation is rooted in agriculture, water, and community health.
It then expands toward data, digital platforms, and connected administration.
Always the same rule: intervene on request, train locally, enable autonomy, withdraw.
No financial dependency.
No permanent presence.
No media spectacles.
The project is simple and radical:
if a village can irrigate, cultivate, care—and organize its systems—without you, then you have succeeded.
1) MASHAV (מש״ב)
מֶרְכָּז שִׁתּוּף פְּעוּלָה בֵּין־לְאוּמִי
Merkaz Shituf Pe’ula Bein-Leumi
In English: Center for International Cooperation
Officially: Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation
Marc levy, consultant, former lawyer at the Paris and Brussels bars. Human rights activist, founded the legal commission of the French anti-racist organization LICRA. He lives in Jerusalem since his aliyah a dozen years ago.