Press release

United States provides Senegal with $37 million to fight poverty

DAKAR, July 12, 2006 – Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced development assistance to Senegal totaling $37 million dollars for 2006. This new package marks the official launch of USAID’s new strategy, which runs until 2011 and is in line with the Government of Senegal’s poverty reduction efforts.
This amount represents a 27-percent increase in USAID assistance over last year, largely due to an additional $12 million to support middle school education.

The government of Senegal will match that $12 million dollar-for-dollar out of funds made available through debt relief. In 2004, Senegal reached its Completion Point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, which has generated $80 million each year in additional resources to be used to reduce poverty in the country.

Over the past four years, USAID’s contribution to Senegalese development has on average exceeded $30 million. USAID’s new strategy seeks to alleviate poverty, conforming to the government’s priorities. The four agreements signed today include:

• Economic growth: $5.6 million to strengthen economic growth through reforms improving trade and investment, business development and public-private partnerships.
  
• Health: $13.7 million for maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and strengthening health services and financing at the community level.
  
• Education: $16.5 million to build rural middle schools, train school principals and teachers, and empower community management of these schools.
  
• Casamance: $803,000 to promote peace in the region following years of civil conflict.

  The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the lead agency for the U.S. Government providing economic development and humanitarian assistance to people around the world. As an active partner of the Government and people of Senegal, USAID listens to local concerns and priorities, and then responds with joint activities to help reduce poverty, promote democracy and economic growth, recover from disasters, and prevent conflicts. In Senegal, USAID has invested over $1 billion in a wide range of projects since 1961 to tackle constraints to national development.

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