Paris – Thursday, Oct 19th – The French Development Agency and the Senegalese government signed a convention worth more than 9 billion FCFA (€ 14 million) to co-finance, with the European Union, Senegalese diaspora initiatives in favor of development.
The French Development Agency, the European Union and the State of Senegal will co-finance during 4 years, Senegalese diaspora development initiatives, for more than 9 billion FCFA (€ 14 million). This four-year project aims to “enhance the technical and financial resources of the diaspora for the development of the home jurisdictions”. It builds on “a well-organized and active Senegalese diaspora in Europe and particularly in France, being an important source of external financing for Senegal (10% of GDP or 1.5 billion USD on average over the last years)”. The Senegalese Minister of Economy, Amadou Ba, spoke on this subject: “This co-financing will cover 150 development projects to meet the needs of the territories in agriculture, education, health sectors and even access to drinking water. It will serve as a financial backing for 300 companies and the deployment of services and financial tools necessary for their development, as well as at least 100 expert missions” The project will be implemented by the unit of the Support Program for Solidarity Initiatives for Development (PAISD) within the Direction of Technical Assistance (General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal), the development and supervision Agency of SMEs (ADEPME) and the General Department of Senegalese Diaspora (DGSE). Previous projects (2006-2013) had mobilized € 6 million from the Senegalese diaspora in France.
The European Union is the first financial contributor to the project with a € 10 million grant under the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. This fund is an instrument set up by the European Union at the end of 2015 to help the most fragile African countries deeply affected by migration crises. The FDA general manager Rémy Rioux declared: “This project puts the new migration and governance skills transferred to FDA at the heart of the new mobility challenges that link Europe and Africa”. According to him, “the Agency acts in a balanced way to make migrations a factor of territorial development while fighting the causes of forced migration.”