The regional headquarters of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) in Dakar pre-inaugurated the new offices, located in Fann Résidence, a historic neighborhood of the Senegalese capital.
The event was attended by the Director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), Marco Rusconi, the Italian Ambassador to Dakar, H.E. Caterina Bertolini, the General Director of the General Directorate for Development Cooperation of the MAECI, Stefano Gatti and the Head of the AICS office in Dakar, Marco Falcone. At the same time there was a delegation of senior officials from the Italian Cooperation system, the staff of the Embassy and the AICS headquarters in Dakar and representatives of the Italian civil society organizations present in Senegal.
The move to a larger and more functional location responds to the need to strengthen the Agency, called to an increased role with the recent Mattei Plan. Furthermore, the new headquarters is proposed as a strengthened pillar of the Italian System in Senegal and an even more efficient point of reference for cooperation entities, from CSOs to Universities, Territorial Bodies and Public Administrations as well as the private sector oriented towards cooperation development.
The architectural design of the new headquarters, which recovers a residence in the Senegalese capital, is inspired by volumes with large openings and views onto the outside with typical styles of Senegalese architecture of the 70s and it is characterized by large windows to symbolize the transparency with which the headquarters and the Italian Cooperation operate.
The AICS regional headquarters in Dakar is the center for planning, monitoring and coordination of initiatives of interest to Senegal, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone, Gambia and, more recently, Mauritania.
Senegal is one of the most strategically important countries for Italian Cooperation as well as one of the main beneficiaries of Italian public development aid. For Senegal, the financial allocation of AICS Dakar reached the amount of 191 million euros, divided between the bilateral channel (176 million), the multi-bilateral (3 million), the delegated cooperation (12.5 million). At the regional level, AICS Dakar is involved in the sectors of rural development, private sector and vocational training, education, gender and human rights, with a financial allocation of 35 million euros.
A network that brings together skills, planning and participatory work as also represented by the exhibition: “Or Dur” on the recoverers of the Mbeubeuss landfill in Senegal, presented yesterday during the event.
The photos, by Mattia Alberani for Off Road, were taken as part of the project for the Promotion of formal, innovative and sustainable entrepreneurship in Senegal and Gambia, PIFIS/PROMEFI, supported by AICS in partnership with the International Organization of Work (ILO) and the OSC LVIA, on the component of formalizing the work of landfill recovery workers.
