The ‘India Africa Postal Leaders Meet’ was held in India from 21st to 25th June, 2024, with the objective of further strengthening relationships among the administrations of African countries and India in the postal sector. This was an initiative under the “South- South and Triangular Cooperation” programme of the Universal Postal Union, organized with the support of India Post and the united States Postal Service.
This Meet was also significant in the backdrop of India’s other farsighted initiatives of organizing the ‘Voice of Global South Summit’ and the India-Africa forum and inclusion of the African Union in the G20 during India’s Presidency in 2023. For this landmark meet, postal organizations of 22 African countries in the Global South sent 42 heads of postal administrations and other senior management personnel as delegates.
The key theme of the meet was capacity building, through study visits. The study visits showcase India’s successful model of service delivery through its extensive post office network. India Post’s unique approach of combining digital services with traditional postal service delivery to maintain the human touch has garnered international attention and inspired the coordination of this meet by the Universal Postal Union.
Postal services in developing countries face similar challenges and must play a critical role in sustainable development and financial inclusion by ensuring equitable access to communication channels and leverage their reach to support citizen-centric service delivery. Collaboration among postal administrations is crucial to address these challenges effectively. The Postal Leaders Meet provided a platform for mutual learning and exploration of new collaborative opportunities.
During the study visits, India Post is demonstrating the delivery of a wide array of services through India Post, including e-commerce parcels, Dak Niryat Kendras (postal centres supporting export) and postal financial services and the services provided by the India Post Payments Bank. Delivery of various citizen-centric services by India Post, such as Aadhaar enabled services, Passport services and Digital Life Certificate is also being showcased. Special focus has been given to the transformative Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar’s role in bolstering digital infrastructure in India.
Addressing the delegates during the meet at an event in New Delhi on 24th June, 2024 Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani emphasized that India has always advocated close cooperation to achieve UPU’s mission of the world becoming a single postal territory through seamless postal supply chains, with the strengthening of development cooperation activities to improve global postal services. He referred to India’s commitment towards the Global South and Africa in particular. He said that India Post will work closely with the Posts in Africa to find collaborative solutions to postal challenges at the global scale, specially in the fields of cross-border e-commerce and financial inclusion, with effective technology enablement. He also assured India’s continued support to the countries in Africa in the area of training and capacity building through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.
While appreciating the successful organisation of the Summit, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region shared, “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the Universal Postal Union and Indian Post for successfully organizing the ‘India Africa Postal Leaders Meet’ in India. This initiative underscores our commitment to fostering stronger Indo-Africa ties through the platform of postal services. I am confident that this program will not only facilitate exchange of best practices, but also enhance the global postal network for last mile delivery of services.”
The delegates expressed gratitude to the Department of Posts, Government of India for hosting a productive and forward-looking event that aligns with the shared vision and goals for the postal sector in the Global South.
The event was attended by senior representatives from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Customs, UIDAI, NPCI, India Post Payments Bank and Members of the Postal Services Board.