The Ambassador of Italy to Mali Stefano A. Dejak attended – together with the Secretary General to the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Employment and Vocational Training of Mali Drissa Guindo, the IOM representative in Mali Boubacar Seybou, and the Governors of the regions of Segou and Kayes – a ceremony that reviewed the outcomes of the project “Seydama – Strengthening the economic autonomy of young people in two regions with high irregular migration (Segou and Kayes)”.
Funded through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation with a contribution of two million euros, over the past two years the project has provided around five thousand young people in the two Malian regions as well as another twenty thousand people indirectly (via social media) with the necessary vocational training to find concrete alternatives to irregular emigration.
The Seydama project, aimed at younger people, focused mainly on the sectors of sustainable agriculture, agribusiness and renewable energy in order to provide the vocational training necessary for the launch of new employment and entrepreneurial activities. To ensure the sustainability of the training, the project included on-the-job training sessions in existing enterprises, as well as specific technical and vocational sessions centred on local vocational guidance centres. Particular attention was paid to female participants benefiting from the project activities, who accounted for 50% of the personnel trained and introduced to employment and entrepreneurial activities.
The project also promoted the dissemination of media campaigns on the considerable risks of irregular emigration to Europe. In Kayes, the Seydama project enabled an Information Centre, already financed by the European Union in 2021, to be made operational so that detailed and continuous information on migration risks and employment alternatives on the local market could be provided.
