The Senegal River Valley Resilience and Community Development Project (PRDC-VFS) held a pre-forum on Monday to discuss youth employability in the Matam region (north) and identify sectors to support to strengthen their resilience, APS noted. “Beyond the infrastructure and support provided, we decided to focus on young people and women, because the PRDC-VFS is a social inclusion project. We also know that the most vulnerable groups affected by climate change are young people, women, and people living with disabilities,” explained Lamine Dramé, in charge of development and social cohesion at the PRDC-VFS.

He was speaking at the opening of the pre-forum held at Matam town hall, in the presence of administrative authorities, young people, and local elected officials. He emphasized that the project is being implemented to help young people adapt and be resilient in the face of climate change, while taking advantage of this phenomenon to develop activities that will "fix them in the region." Mr. Dramé said that this activity was intended to allow stakeholders to reflect and share ideas to prepare for the major forum, which will be held next December. "Guidelines will be given to allow us to better understand the entire strategy for this major forum. We want to put all the assets on our side to make this event a success and not just another forum, which will ensure that solutions are found," said Lamine Dramé.

According to him, the project will target economic sectors, including sectors already identified by the Rural Agricultural Prospective Initiative (IPAR), namely production, maintenance of agricultural equipment and processing, across the entire value chain, including rice, onions and tomatoes.

The project aims to support 5,000 young people in the regions of Matam, Saint-Louis, and Tambacounda, the PRDC-VFS intervention areas. In the Matam region, the project is taking place in 15 municipalities, seven in the Matam department and eight in the Kanel department.