The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced Wednesday that Spain will triple the funds it allocates to cooperation aid to Niger in the period from 2023 to 2027, reaching at least 60 million euros.
Albares signed in Niamey with his Niger counterpart, Hassoumi Massoudou, the new Country Partnership Framework that will cover the period 2023-2027 and will govern cooperation with this priority country for Spanish Cooperation, which has been present there since 2007.
In these years, 212.3 million euros have been allocated to Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, with almost 75% of its population living in poverty. The actions of the Spanish Cooperation are mainly focused on promoting food security and rural development, as well as health and gender equality.
From now on, with the new partnership framework, education will also be introduced as a new sector of work at the express wish of the Nigerian government, which wants to promote in particular the education of girls in a country where the average age is 15.1 years and the average number of years of schooling barely exceeds two.
The Minister highlighted the fact that Niger is «a stable and democratic country» within a context such as that of the Sahel and West Africa that is «extremely complex» and justified the increase in aid by the desire to continue accompanying the country in its development, since this is also «another way of fighting terrorism».
For his part, the Nigerian minister thanked Spain, «one of our main bilateral partners», for its support, and vindicated the efforts being made by his country, which have allowed it to be «a stable and democratic country in this very difficult environment».
SPAIN WILL CONTINUE SUPPORTING GARSI Precisely, in Niamey, Albares was able to visit the Gendarmerie school, where the GARSI-Sahel project is being carried out, managed by the FIIAPP with EU funds and in which the Civil Guard participates, which in the specific case of Niger is leading it.
This project, which also involves the French Gendarmerie, the Portuguese Republican Guard and the Italian Carabinieri, provides training to Niger’s security forces to ensure territorial control and the fight against organized crime and terrorism.
So far, two companies of 150 troops have been trained, some of whom the Minister was able to see, and the idea is to start training a third in the coming months. In this regard, the Minister assured that the support will be maintained.
«Given the situation of instability in the region and the fact that it is probably thanks to forces» such as those trained by GARSI that the country is an exception in the Sahel, «it is necessary to maintain and even reinforce this type of project that has given such good results in this country».
VISIT TO AN AGRO-FOOD PROJECT On the other hand, Albares has had the opportunity to see first hand one of the projects funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), in this case a peri-urban garden, located on the outskirts of Niamey and carried out by the NGO Conemund.
The aim of this project is to help combat the serious food insecurity problems facing Niger, with high malnutrition rates among children under 5 years of age, and to provide livelihoods for the inhabitants of the villages of Fandora and Ganguel.
The garden, which grows various cereals as well as tomatoes, lettuce and moringa – a highly nutritious vegetable that requires little irrigation and is an important staple of the local diet – employs 449 people, 55% of whom are women, but benefits the inhabitants of the two villages, some 2,000 people.
Part of the food grown is processed and used to feed the inhabitants of both villages, while the surplus is marketed, generating additional income and improving their resilience.
Albares, who will then travel to Nigeria, said that as a result of the good relationship with Niger, the African country plans to open an embassy in Spain in the near future.
During his visit, the minister met with the country’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, with whom he discussed «frankly» the situation in the region and how the president, whom he said is a key ally, sees it.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
