Globally Interconnected
Supporting better frameworks for free trade agreements with Africa
About Globally Interconnected
Globally Interconnected is a 2023-registered consulting firm invested in building capacity to inform and support policymakers, nonprofit organizations, and business stakeholders on free trade agreements that optimize African countries’ international trade profitability with the rest of the world.
Globally Interconnected recognizes the economic and diplomatic tool that international trade represents in the development of nations. Thus, the organization welcomes the opportunity to create or participate in various engagements aimed at fairly posturing African nations as equal and valuable trade partners on the global market for mutually beneficial economic gains.
Globally Interconnected does so by providing subject matter expertise in the ecosystem of trade agreements between Africa and its main global trade partners: China, the European Union, and the United States. It offers lectures to provide a baseline of key knowledge to drive win-win trade collaborations. It performs presentations to discuss current loopholes and corrective measures to improve the efficiency of international trade with Africa. The organization arranges and/or project manages summits as well as missions for trade between African countries and the state of Minnesota.
Globally Interconnected has supported Minnesota trade missions of nonprofit organizations and their partners in Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, and Ghana. Globally Interconnected has participated in trade and investment business meetings with the government of Malawi, the embassy of Rwanda in the US, and the ministry of trade of Namibia. Global Interconnected has sent representatives at trade summits in Malawi, Botswana, and locally within the US.
About the FOUNDER
Dr. Divine N. Arpellet, DBA, PMP
Dr. Divine N. Arpellet, DBA, PMP is the founder and Chief Economist of Globally Interconnected. Adjunct professor in Economics, Dr Arpellet also teaches macroeconomics, microeconomics, and US economy at the college level. She has 15 years of finance leadership in US multinational corporations such as Thomson Reuters, Target Corporation, United Health Group, Ceridian, and Accenture.
Dr. Arpellet is proud to be both a Minnesotan and a national of ECOWAS by way of its country member – the Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer of cocoa. Thus, she aims to promote economic opportunities that are mutually beneficial to the US and Africa. With her doctoral findings centered around the impact of US free trade agreements (FTAs) on Africa’s economy, Dr. Arpellet engages civil society organizations, policymakers, and governments in capacity-building to improve US FTA frameworks to support an economic equity when trading with African countries.
Like most global citizens, Dr. Divine Arpellet wants to leave the world a better place. As such, Dr. Divine Arpellet is the advisory board chair of Africa Partners Medical that is essentially a pathway for African physicians in the US to recurrently donate their medical services in West Africa. Dr. Divine Arpellet is also the vice chair of Axis Medical clinic, a community clinic geared to providing medical care that integrates cultural adaptations when serving immigrant patients. Dr. Divine Arpellet is a board member of the African Descent Chamber of Commerce (located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) that aims at simplifying the pathway of the African diaspora wanting to do business in Africa.
In the past, Dr. Divine Arpellet has been the vice chair and trade committee founder at the Minnesota African United that specializes in connecting African and Minnesota business stakeholders. Dr. Divine Arpellet has also been the Governance board director of Merrick Community Services, a nonprofit protecting the elderly within Minnesota against poverty agents such as hunger and unemployment.
