Together with AICS Dakar Director Marco Falcone, the Ambassador in Bamako Stefano Antonio Dejak and ILO Regional Director Frederic Lapeyre signed a financing agreement worth EUR 3.5 million for the “A Ka Baraa” project, which will be implemented by the ILO under the tutelage of the Malian Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Employment and Vocational Training.
The project focuses on the creation of jobs associated with the profits from the development of fruit and vegetable chains, with a particular focus on the mango sector. Indeed, the Malian mango is the best quality mango in the world and has the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs in the face of a current production that is 80% rotten due to the absence of adequate export channels. This is particularly important in a country like Mali, which suffers from very high youth unemployment rates.
The “A Ka Baraa” project is based on the contacts established over the last two years between the Italian companies involved in the great MACFRUT Fair and the fifty Malian companies that were able to take part in the Fair in 2022 and 2023 thanks to the action of the Italian Embassy in Mali.
