Simon recently hosted DfID's Joining up Africa event, with Jon Snow.  The event was a major international conference to promote better regional economic integration in sub-Saharan Africa.

The event - which brought 200 delegates from African politics, donors, business and civil society - was held in partnership with three key pan-African institutions; the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

Other partners were the World Bank, the European Commission, the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa and UK Trade and Investment. 

The objective of the event was to push for faster and more substantial progress on trade in the region.

It agreed:

• Commitments to improve the way more than $6 billion in multilateral aid to regional programmes is spent.
• Practical ways of working better with business.
• New actions to accelerate progress on regional trade, transport and energy programmes