Business Environment and Competitiveness: Donors Boost Youth Employment in Senegal

The U.S. government-led Enabling Environment and Competitiveness Donors Working Group (GEAC) and its stakeholders, including private sector and government counterparts, convened on May 27^th. The meeting, hosted by the Government of Senegal, seeks to foster an open discussion on current issues pertaining to employment, vocational training, entrepreneurship development initiatives, private sector engagement, and integration related specifically to youth.

The GEAC, chaired by the United States, supports Senegal’s efforts to strengthen the enabling business environment and economic competitiveness in the country. The GEAC

The Minister of Employment, Vocational Training, Practiceship and Integration, Mr. Dame Diop, and the Delegue General a l'Entrepreneuriat Rapide, Mr. Pape Amadou Sarr, attended as special guests of the first extended GEAC meeting in 2021 to discuss the implications of the new Programme d’Urgence pour l’Emploi et l’Insertion Socio-économique des Jeunes (Emergency Program for Youth Employment and Socio-Economic Integration).

The Minister of Employment, Vocational Training, Practiceship and Integration, Dame Diop, chaired the extended meeting while the Mission Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Peter Trenchard, represented the U.S. government as chair of the GEAC.

This meeting provided an opportunity to identify shared priorities for the GEAC to address in its 2021 annual work plan, namely youth employment, entrepreneurship and vocational training. It also provided an opportunity for government representatives to present the recently established Government’s Emergency Program for Youth Employment and Socio-Economic Integration.

It should be noted that in April, President Macky Sall re-oriented budgetary allocations, in order to fund the Emergency Program for Youth Employment and Socio-Economic Integration, budgeted at 450 billion FCFA over the next three years (150 billion for this year), to address the needs of youth in skills development, employment adequacy, informal sector inclusion and and support for entrepreneurship.

The GEAC, formerly known as the Private Sector Working Group, was established in 1998 by the principal donors supporting the development of the private sector to enhance government, private sector, and donor dialogue on private sector development policies for increased competitiveness of Senegal’s economy.