The Foundation derives its name from the Brazzaville Protocol official agreed upon on 13 December 1988 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. This agreement has been considered critical in the eventual settlement of conflicts in southern Africa, guarantees for the independence of Namibia, the liberation of Nelson Mandela and negotiations leading to the dismantlement of apartheid. Jean-Yves Ollivier, a French businessman with long experience in paralleldiplomacy, worked actively in persuading the key figures to meet in Brazzaville as described in the award-winning documentary “Plot for Peace”. He launched the Foundation in 2014 with the goal of maintaining “the spirit of the Brazzaville Protocol."
Actions
The Foundation principal initiatives include the following:
Peace and Reconciliation
The Foundation engages in discussions for peace and reconciliation in Libya. The Foundation helped arrange a summit in Dakar on 11–13 May 2018 allowed actors from different Libyan groups to meet and to engage in preliminary dialogues. The Foundation has stated that it intends to organise a “Dakar 2” meeting to "deepen" the dialogue." In an interview with Forbes about the summit, Jean-Yves Ollivier declared that these exchanges were “complementary to and supportive of the United Nations, the African Union and others for bringing peace and stability to the country.”
Sustainable Development
The Foundation developed the idea of a Congo Basin Blue Fund in 2015. In the aim of directing financing toward programs that promote a ‘blue economy’ in the region, emphasizing the sustainable use of river waters and the natural ecosystems of the forest, the proposal for a Congo Basin Blue Fund was formally launched at the UN Climate Change Conference COP 22, in Marrakesh in 2016. At a special meeting in the margins of COP 22, the African Union adopted it as one of Africa’s priority climate change initiatives. In March 2017 at a meeting in Oyo in the Republic of the Congo, ten countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which they committed themselves to establishing the Blue Fund for the Congo Basin. In 2018 the United Nations Development Programme prepared a tender for a major feasibility study which will make detailed recommendations on how the Fund will operate and be financed. The Foundation has collaborated with , by encouraging African countries to commit to the with an aim to putting an end to the ivory trade.
The fight against falsified and substandard medicines
The Foundation has worked to raise awareness on the topic of substandard and falsified medicines. This work has resulted in the organization of a side event at the 71st World Health Assembly in partnership with the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on falsified medicines or medicines of inferior quality, entitled: “Medicines that lie: a deadly public health crisis”. “The more we looked at it, we felt that this is an issue that simply wasn’t getting the attention it deserved and needed, given the huge human and other consequences that arise from it,” declared Sir David Richmond, CEO of the Foundation, during the conference.
