Stories from Africa: EU Trust Fund for Africa celebrates five years of activities

The European Union Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa (EUTF for Africa) has launched today a virtual exhibition to celebrate its five years. The virtual exhibition “Stories from Africa” displays the achievements of the EUTF for Africa in the fields of migration, governance and conflict prevention, resilience, and the creation of employment and economic opportunities.

The EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, introduced the virtual exhibition by highlighting the impact of the EUTF on the cooperation with African partners: “After five years, the EUTF for Africa continues to demonstrate its added value, from a policy and partnership building perspective, but also by making a difference where it counts the most: on the ground in the real lives of people. Its valuable experience will feed into future programmes focusing on root causes of migration and forced displacement.”

The EUTF for Africa was set up to help the most vulnerable and marginalised people, including refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants and members of host communities across three regions: Sahel and Lake Chad, Horn of Africa and North of Africa. Through the programmes it funds, the Trust Fund pursues a balanced approach that focuses on areas of mutual interest for the EU and African partners.

• Through the EUTF for Africa, more than 12 million people have gained better access to basic social services.
• Programmes funded by the EUTF for Africa have a strong focus on increasing the opportunities for women and youth, taking into account their specific situation and needs. By 30 June 2020, the Trust Fund had supported 2 889 901 young beneficiaries.
• In the past five years, the Trust Fund has helped create more than 73 400 jobs in the Sahel/Lake Chad and Horn of Africa regions, and assisted more than 367 400 people in developing income-generating activities for the benefit of the local economy.
• Under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative, the EUTF for Africa has supported over 85 000 vulnerable migrants with voluntary return to their country of origin and assisted more than 100 000 migrants after their return.

Moreover, since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the EUTF for Africa has supported several of its most vulnerable partners across the three regions mitigate the effects of the pandemic, in particular through a quick re-allocation of resources to address the health and economic crisis.

By pooling EU and other donors’ resources, the Trust Fund has been able to approve 254 programmes worth over €4.8 billion in total. At the end of 2020, 46% of funding was allocated to strengthening the resilience of affected communities and promoting economic and employment opportunities, 31% to improving migration management, and 21.4% to improving governance and conflict prevention.

The latest results are also available in the recently published EUTF 2020 Annual Report.

For more information: EUTF for Africa