June 18, 2024

 

Five-year programme aims to make Senegal's livestock sector more competitive 

 

 

 

Partners in the first phase of Senegal's five-year National Integrated Livestock Development Program (PNDIES-P1) recently met at a workshop event in late May.

 

Workshop participants included Senegal's Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

 

The project's components — animal productivity, products and product processing, animal product marketing and skill enhancement, and project coordination and management — will help make Senegal's livestock sector more competitive and sustainably increase employment opportunities for young people and women in livestock value chains, according to AfDB. It will do so by sustainably increasing livestock productivity and production, improving the processing and marketing of animal products, and raising skills levels industry wide.

 

Phase 1 of the project represents an investment of €78.60 million (US$84.6 million). It will be implemented in the regions of Dakar, Diourbel, Fatick, Louga, Kaffrine, Kaolack, Kolda, Sédhiou, Thiès and Ziguinchor and directly benefit at least 32,000 people working in livestock value chains, including 16,000 women and young people. Another 950,000 people (51% of whom are women) will receive indirect benefits.

 

More generally, the project will help improve food security, nutrition and public health among Senegal's rural and urban populations by establishing a control system for food products of animal origin to ensure product safety. Veterinary services will be redeployed across the country and regional laboratories will be built or renovated to will help eliminate unsanctioned slaughtering and improve the hygiene and safety of animal products.

 

During the project's two-year participatory, holistic and inclusive design phase, the technical departments of relevant ministries participated along with organisations involving farmers and processors, women and youth groups, other civil society actors, the private sector and technical and financial partners.

 

Opening the workshop, Ousmane Mbaye, Secretary General of the Senegalese Ministry of Agriculture, stressed the importance of the programme for achieving food sovereignty and self-sufficiency in animal products. He acknowledged the support of the AfDB and thanked the organisation on behalf of the Senegalese government for "its constant support to the livestock sector."

 

Hatem Fellah, representing Mohamed Cherif, head of the AfDB country office in Senegal, praised the energetic cooperation among the three financing parties — AfDB, IDB and GCA — and the Senegalese government. He emphasised the importance that the AfDB attaches to the programme's efficient implementation and ultimate success, adding that the bank will do all it can to support the work of the ministry's teams during programme implementation.

 

- APO Group

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