Eradicating poverty and boosting development through agriculture and support for small and medium sized enterprises, without neglecting social safeguards and the defence of human rights, are Senegal\u2019s objectives, and Italy is ready to help. And Minister Emma Bonino brought concrete proof of that on her visit to Dakar: 45 million euro in aid over 3 years earmarked in the 2014-2016 country programme signed by the minister with Senegalese foreign minister Mankeur Ndiaye, confirming \u201cgood relations\u201d between the two countries that \u201ccan only improve\u201d, as Bonino pointed out; and also confirming Senegal as a priority of the Italian Cooperation, which has given 292 million euro in donations and 129 million in assistance loans since 1985.<\/P>
\n
Bilateral investment forum<\/STRONG> <\/STRONG><\/STRONG><\/P> Minister Bonino and President Macky Sall held a long and cordial meeting in which they underscored that relations had become so good that Senegal offered to organise a bilateral investment forum open to public and private concerns in the sectors of agriculture, energy, infrastructure, transport and healthcare. With regard to infrastructure, Bonino explained, the country \u201cintends to develop the railway between Senegal and the capital of Mali, Bamako, and that which connects the airport to the centre of Dakar, and from this point of view we are experts\u201d. Senegal confirmed its participation in the 2015 EXPO in Milan within the thematic cluster of \u201cagriculture and nutrition in arid areas\u201d, and various initiatives involving the Senegalese civil society are under way.<\/P> Security and stability for development<\/STRONG><\/STRONG><\/STRONG><\/P> But there is no development without security and stability. \u201cThe topic that most concerns us is the spread of terrorism, violence and fanaticism\u201d in the region, said Bonino, who is relying on the close collaboration of the Dakar authorities, who made it clear they do not intend to pull back. \u201cThe issue of peace and security remains central to our priorities\u201d, minister Ndiaye reiterated, \u201cand despite the efforts of the international community, the situation remains alarming\u201d. This meeting, he added, is also \u201can opportunity to ask the international community to make an even greater commitment to arrest the destabilisation threatening the countries of the Sahel\u201d.<\/P> Bonino comes out against forced marriages<\/STRONG><\/P> Women\u2019s rights are not only asserted through the fight against female genital mutilation, Emma Bonino\u2019s historic cause, but also through banning early and forced marriages. The minister touched on these topics in her meeting with Minister for Women and the Family Anta Sarr. \u201cThe harmful practices that need to be eradicated are not only FGM but also forced marriages, also because mutilations are an essentially African problem, while forced marriages are a global one\u201d, said Bonino during the meeting, assuring that this theme would \u201cremain among the Italian Cooperation\u2019s priorities\u201d. For her part, Anta Sarr underscored that underlying the problem of forced marriages was the \u201chigh rate of early school dropouts\u201d, but that \u201cthe Senegalese government is working to eliminate them\u201d. The minister also discussed women\u2019s rights with Prime Minister Aminata Tour\u00e9, the second woman ever to have filled the position in her country but, above all, is deeply committed to policies in favour of gender equality, the defence of human rights and the fight against female genital mutilation. She was also director of the Gender and Human Rights Department of the UNFPA.<\/P> Senegal\u2019s highest honour awarded to Emma Bonino<\/STRONG><\/P> In an unexpected side event, President of Senegal Macky Sall awarded Minister Bonino Senegal\u2019s highest honour, Grand Officer of the\u00a0Order of Merit.\u00a0 A \u201cmagnificent surprise\u201d the minister exclaimed, thanking Sall as he pinned the medal to her jacket. After having received Bonino yesterday, the president today skipped protocol and told the minister he was going to lunch with the Premier to confer the award. The convoy reversed direction amidst the traffic in Dakar and sped off to the presidential palace. <\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eradicating poverty and boosting development through agriculture and support for small and medium sized enterprises, without neglecting social safeguards and the defence of human rights, are Senegal\u2019s objectives, and Italy is ready to help. And Minister Emma Bonino brought concrete proof of that on her visit to Dakar: 45 million euro in aid over 3 […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31,29,43,76],"class_list":["post-14634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-approfondimenti","tag-africa","tag-cooperazione-sviluppo","tag-diritti-umani","tag-ministri-precedenti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n