About Proudly Made in Africa

Proudly Made in Africa (PMIA) is an Irish-based Global Citizenship Education and Trade Justice organisation dedicated to promoting responsible business with and in Africa.

Founded in 2008, PMIA works to change the narrative on Africa from aid and charity toward innovation, entrepreneurship, responsible trade and shared value creation. Through lectures, conferences, workshops, research collaborations and long-term institutional partnerships, PMIA brings African scholars, entrepreneurs, experts and perspectives into Irish universities and business leadership circles.

For almost a decade, PMIA has maintained a strategic partnership with University College Dublin’s Quinn School of Business and Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, supporting Global Citizenship Education and responsible business engagement relating to Africa.

PMIA has delivered hundreds of lectures across Irish third-level institutions, reaching thousands of students and supporting a new generation of business leaders to engage with Africa in a fair, sustainable and informed way.

Our Vision

A world where African communities thrive, trading on equal terms with the rest of the world.

Our Mission

To promote responsible business with and in Africa by bringing African voices, scholars and perspectives into Irish universities and leadership circles, and by advocating for trade, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship as drivers of sustainable development.

What We Do

PMIA works to mainstream Africa-related Global Citizenship Education within Irish business education.

We do this by bringing African scholars, entrepreneurs, practitioners and perspectives into university classrooms, supporting lecturers to integrate Africa-related content into their teaching, and building long-term partnerships between Irish and African universities, institutions and education leaders.

Our work focuses on:

• Global Citizenship Education

• Responsible Business and ESG

• Trade Justice

• African Entrepreneurship and Innovation

• Research Collaboration

• Africa–Ireland Business Engagement

• Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Development

PMIA’s work is rooted in the belief that students, educators and business leaders need a more balanced, contemporary and informed understanding of Africa’s role in the global economy. Africa is too often framed through the lens of poverty, crisis and dependency. PMIA challenges this by highlighting African enterprise, innovation, creativity, leadership and value creation, while also engaging critically with global inequality, sustainability, responsible business and trade justice.

How We Create Change

PMIA’s approach is based on a clear theory of change: if African voices, scholars, entrepreneurs and practitioners are brought directly into business education, and if lecturers and business schools are supported over time to integrate these perspectives into their teaching, then students will develop a more informed, balanced and responsible understanding of business with and in Africa.

PMIA’s work begins with accessible guest lectures across undergraduate business, management, marketing, entrepreneurship, sustainability and international business programmes. These lectures introduce students to contemporary African business realities, challenge outdated narratives of Africa as primarily a place of aid and dependency, and highlight innovation, enterprise, trade, value addition and responsible business as drivers of sustainable development.

From this initial engagement, PMIA works with lecturers to deepen the integration of Africa-related Global Citizenship Education into course content, readings, case studies, assignments and classroom discussion. Over time, this helps move Africa-related GCE from the margins of business education into the formal curriculum.

At postgraduate level, PMIA supports deeper applied learning through seminars, live case studies, student consultancy projects and research collaborations. These engagements connect students with African entrepreneurs, businesses, scholars and institutions, enabling them to apply responsible business, ESG, sustainability and trade justice concepts to real-world challenges.

PMIA also works with business school management teams and university leaders to support longer-term institutional change. This includes building strategic Africa–Ireland partnerships, encouraging curriculum innovation, facilitating academic exchange, and supporting universities to engage with Africa in ways that are mutually beneficial, respectful and sustainable.

Through this progression — from introductory lectures, to deeper course collaboration, to postgraduate applied learning, to institutional partnerships — PMIA aims to mainstream Africa-related Global Citizenship Education within Irish business education.

Global Citizenship Education

For too long, Africa’s story has often been framed through the lens of poverty, conflict and dependency. PMIA believes this presents an incomplete and deeply unbalanced picture of a diverse, innovative and rapidly evolving continent.

We are committed to ensuring African voices, scholars, entrepreneurs and experts play a central role in shaping how Africa is understood within Irish higher education and business communities.

Through our Global Citizenship Education work, PMIA helps students, educators and professionals engage critically with issues of sustainability, responsible business, equitable economic development, trade justice and global interdependence.

We support Global Citizenship Education in business schools through a progressive model of engagement.

1. Introductory Lectures

PMIA delivers guest lectures that introduce students to contemporary African business, responsible trade, sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship.

These sessions challenge narrow or outdated narratives and encourage students to think critically about global business, value chains, inequality, sustainability and equitable development.

Introductory lectures are often the first point of contact between PMIA, students and lecturers. They create space for students to hear directly from African scholars, entrepreneurs and practitioners, and to encounter perspectives that may not otherwise feature prominently in their business education.

2. Course Collaboration

PMIA works alongside lecturers and academic departments to embed African perspectives and responsible business themes into existing modules.

This includes contributing guest lectures, case studies, classroom materials, assessment ideas and African scholar or practitioner perspectives across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Rather than treating Africa as a standalone issue, PMIA supports lecturers to connect Africa-related content to core business disciplines, including management, marketing, entrepreneurship, international business, sustainability, ESG, supply chains and responsible leadership.

PMIA has developed long-standing collaborations with Irish universities and business schools, particularly through its strategic partnership with University College Dublin’s Quinn School of Business and Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

3. Postgraduate Seminars and Applied Learning

At postgraduate level, PMIA supports deeper engagement through seminars, live case studies, consultancy-style student projects and research collaborations linked to African businesses, institutions and development challenges.

These initiatives enable students to apply responsible business, ESG, sustainability and trade justice concepts to real-world contexts.

PMIA supports student projects and collaborative learning opportunities that connect students directly with entrepreneurs, scholars and organisations across Africa. These initiatives help students build practical insight into African markets, enterprises and development challenges while also encouraging more responsible and informed business engagement.

4. Lecturer and Curriculum Support

PMIA builds long-term relationships with lecturers and programme teams to support more sustained curriculum integration.

The aim is not simply to add Africa as a topic, but to help business education engage more fully with global inequality, sustainable enterprise, responsible management, ethical trade, innovation and shared value creation.

By working with lecturers over time, PMIA helps ensure that Africa-related Global Citizenship Education reaches students who may never attend a voluntary event, join a campaign or actively seek out social justice issues. Embedding these perspectives into formal teaching allows GCE to reach a broader and more diverse student population, including future business leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and professionals.

5. Research and Knowledge Exchange

Through its networks across Africa and Ireland, PMIA facilitates research collaboration between universities, educators and institutions.

This includes supporting partnerships, visiting scholars, joint research initiatives and opportunities for academic exchange and cooperation.

PMIA’s research and knowledge exchange work helps create stronger links between Irish and African institutions, while ensuring that African expertise and lived experience contribute directly to teaching, research and public dialogue in Ireland.

6. Conferences and Public Dialogue

PMIA co-organises conferences, symposiums, lectures and panel discussions that bring together African and Irish voices from academia, business, civil society, diplomacy and entrepreneurship.

The annual Africa Business Conference provides a platform for students, lecturers, entrepreneurs, business leaders and policymakers to explore Africa’s role in the future of responsible and sustainable business.