The Project to Support and Promote Women's and Youth Entrepreneurial Initiatives (PAVIE I) is the first phase of a programme named "Entrepreneurial Initiatives Promotion Programme (PROVIE)", which consists of two phases. It is thus in line with the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE) in that it will help Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship (DER) to build its capacity to finance youth and women's entrepreneurial initiatives in the priority sectors of the PSE. Indeed, the plan for the second phase (2019-2023) is to create the conditions for a very strong and dynamic private sector in order to push growth to very high levels through the establishment of economic poles. The three-year project designed based on a demand-driven approach and implemented in coordination with the private sector, in particular banks and microfinance institutions will help to finance women's and young people's entrepreneurial initiatives throughout Senegal while providing for trade-related and business management technical support. It is structured around three components based on the project's areas of intervention as well as the positioning of AfDB and AFD, which are cofinancing the project. The first component, concerning the promotion of entrepreneurship in agricultural and artisanal value chains with high job-creating potential will be handled by AfDB. The second, concerning the development of MSMEs with high value- and job-creating potential in the other priority sectors of the PSE, will be handled by AFD. The third component, concerning programme management and capacity building for DER, will be handled by AfDB and AFD together, to ensure compliance with these two institutions. Its total cost is estimated at UA 90.55 million.

The overall objective of the project is to support job creation for young people and women by promoting entrepreneurship. Specifically, it will help to promote entrepreneurial initiatives among women and young people by providing (i) access to financing and (ii) trades-related and business management technical support for entrepreneurs, with a view to ensuring the viability and sustainability of their enterprises.

The project has national coverage and targets young people (aged 18 to 40), 50% of whom will be young girls and women, an estimated population of nearly 7 million. Employability enhancement measures will reach about 30,000 people, nearly half of whom will be women. These people will benefit from technical and business management training to improve their productivity, for those already in business, and to create sustainable businesses, for neo-entrepreneurs. They will also be offered technical support throughout the project implementation period through strategic partnerships established between DER and technical and business management training entities. The technical training will cover the value chains of all the sectors targeted by the project, namely: milk, rice, inputs, poultry, fruit, market gardening, oilseeds, livestock, beekeeping, fisheries, aquaculture, salt, hides and skins. At least 14,000 projects involving young people aged 18 to 40 and women will be funded. For each sector, an estimate of the number of jobs to be created was made on the basis of DER project pipeline. Thus, the project will help to create or consolidate 65,000 direct jobs, including nearly half for women. Indirect employment is estimated at about 100,0000.

KITANE Souleye

s.kitane@afdb.org

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/.