
Director for Africa at Friends of Europe
Paul Walton is Director for Africa at Friends of Europe and coordinating fellow for the Africa Europe Alliance. He has extensive international experience in leading organisations and multi-country programmes including more than fifteen years working and living in Africa and the Middle East.
Paul has been in the vanguard of inter-regional cooperation and was former director of strategy at the first EU-Mediterranean Foundation for dialogue, working from its international headquarters in Alexandria, Egypt. He has held advisory roles with multi-lateral institutions and was nominated to the task-force to create structures for dialogue among the EU, Civil Society and Authorities following the historic events of the Arab Spring. At the international level, he has been a leading advocate on youth-led peacebuiding as member of the steering group mandated by the UN Security Council to produce the first global study on “Youth, Peace and Security” and has been involved in developing global governance practice with the World Bank. Paul began his international career as founding director of the landmark UK Millennium Project “Youth 2000” and was Executive Director of the international NGO “Global Voice” which pioneered award-winning projects in the domain of civil society development, digitalisation and climate resilience.