One month on from the Euro-Africa summit in La Valletta, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica and MFAIC Director General for Development Cooperation Giampaolo Cantini signed the first contract within the context of the EU Trust Fund regarding the deep-seated causes of migration from Africa.
By this agreement, the European Commission delegates to Italy management of one of the projects financed by the Trust Fund, valued at 20 million euro.
This is important both for Italy and the European Commission, whose principal objective has been precisely to rapidly transform the political pledges of heads of state and government into concrete measures. Launched at the Valletta summit as the European Union’s response to the migration emergency, the 1.8 billion euro fund is earmarked for 23 African partners in the Sahel, Horn of Africa and North Africa.
Italy has believed from the start in the EU Trust Find on migrations, and at La Valletta announced a bilateral contribution of 10 million euro from the Development Cooperation budget. The Italian Cooperation has presented projects also in Sudan, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger.
The project assigned today is known as SINCE: “Stemming irregular migration in Northern and Central Ethiopia”.
Its aim is to create favourable conditions for the socio-economic and employment development of four regions of Ethiopia. Young people and women are the main beneficiaries of the initiative, which provides for job training, support for small business, women’s entrepreneurship and access to microcredit.
The final goal is to improve the living conditions of local communities, migrants in transit and refugees in neighbouring countries, at the same time ensuring a more favourable environment for the return and, above all, the reintegration, of those who have left.
