FFM+ launches in Senegal and the Gambia

January saw the local launch of the FFM+ programme in Senegal and the Gambia, following the programme’s virtual launch event for the Western African region in May 2022. The launch events brought together horticultural sector stakeholders in each country. The events were also an opportunity to inform partners and potential partner-beneficiaries about the new programme; to meet entities that have recently applied for support under FFM+; and to meet with current partner-beneficiaries under the FFM SPS Programme to evaluate activities conducted under the programme and discuss the activities to be conducted in the coming months.

On 18 January 2023, a workshop was held in Dakar to launch FFM+, in the presence of a representative of the European Union Delegation to Senegal and the Coopérative Fédérative des Acteurs de l’Horticulture du Sénégal (CFAHS). The COLEAD team presented the evolution and requirements of the Senegalese fruit and vegetable market as well as the support offered by the FFM+ programme to help operators maintain their markets and identify new opportunities while improving their practices in a sustainable manner.

This event brought together some 40 actors from the Senegalese horticultural sector, both from the private and public sectors. The exchanges made it possible to identify some of the challenges facing the horticultural sector, and the support of the FFM+ programme for a better competitiveness of the sector.

In the Gambia, the FFM+ launch event was held on 25 January. The event, a workshop co-hosted by COLEAD and Gambia Investment & Export Promotion Agency, was again attended by around 40 representatives of the Gambian horticultural industry. Participants showed great interest in both COLEAD and the modalities of FFM+. Following the workshop, site visits and meetings have been held to further analyse requests for support under FFM+ that have already been received, and initiate the drafting of development projects.

This activity is supported by the Fit For Market+ programme, implemented by COLEAD within the Framework of Development Cooperation between the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union.