Expertise France in Guinea
With the signing of the Ouagadougou Agreement on 15 January 2010, Guinea engaged in a process of political transition and a return to constitutional order which resulted in a revitalisation of economic life. The Ebola epidemic significantly slowed this dynamic. In 2017, Guinea saw an upturn in growth and developed its National Economic and Social Development Plan 2016-2020 which focuses on governance, economic transformation, the development of human capital and the sustainable management of resources.
A priority country for Expertise France
Expertise France operates in Guinea in the sectors of health, economic and financial governance, justice and human rights, education and sustainable development.
The agency works alongside the ministries of health, economy, finance and planning, and social action and vulnerable persons with financing from France and the European Union.
Expertise France focuses on working in partnership with the Guinean authorities to build customised projects.
Significant support for strengthening health systems
Expertise France has played a major role in the recovery of the Guinean health system in the Ebola and post-Ebola context. Indeed, in its Global Health Strategy for 2017-2020, France has largely made strengthening health systems the first of its four priority pillars.
With a financial volume of over €23 million committed and ongoing, the agency has been entrusted with several projects which have provided support to Guinea for the response to the epidemic and, especially, initiated substantive work on sustainably strengthening the capacity of the Guinean health system.
In this respect, through the PREPARE project, Expertise France has assisted with the nationwide deployment of eight multi-skilled Regional Epidemic Alert and Response Teams (ERARE).
The ERARE are today an operational national epidemic surveillance and rapid response mechanism in Guinea. They demonstrated their effectiveness during the resurgence of Ebola in February 2016 and are now deployed to combat all infectious diseases with epidemic potential which may affect Guinea, such as cholera, meningitis and measles.
In the same vein, the agency is continuing with the construction and rehabilitation of about 20 health facilities in the forest region and the strengthening of the health system via the PASA2, IPC, RAM and Urgences projects.
Further reading: Transfer to the Guinean authorities of the teams from ERARE
The projects implemented by Expertise France have also created a network of laboratories able to diagnose and monitor patients with the Ebola virus (with the K-Plan, LABNET and EUWAM-Lab projects), and have also strengthened hospital hygiene (TWIN 2H project).
This work ensures that health security is strengthened, in particular in terms of issues related to human resources, laboratory capacity, epidemic alert and response mechanisms and, more generally, health governance.
Strengthening economic and financial governance
In the economic and financial governance sector, Expertise France is assisting the Guinean Government, in particular the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning and the Ministry of Budget, with the implementation of the economic and administrative reforms set out in the Public Finance Reform Plan (PREFIP) of 2014.
The PACCAF project is supporting the operational development of the control bodies in Guinea. It is based on two objectives:
• Increase the mobilisation of government revenue to finance the priority actions for the development of Guinea
• Increase the control and transparency of public finance management by strengthening control operators.
Project sheet: PACCAF
The Project to Support Economic and Financial Governance (PAGEF) aims to increase the efficiency of public resource management.
The objective of this project is to build the capacities of the Guinean State via the three ministries responsible for economic and financial governance: the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning (MEFP), the Ministry of Budget (MDB) and the Ministry of Investments and Public-Private Partnerships (MIPPP).
Supporting the authorities and civil society in six Gulf of Guinea countries
The Project to Support the Fight against Human Trafficking (ALTP) continues the methodological and thematic approach of a previous French cooperation project (FSP – Priority Solidarity Fund to support the fight against human trafficking in the Gulf of Guinea) implemented in the region between 2013 and 2017 (Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo).
Working with the National Committee for the Fight against Human Trafficking and Similar Practices and 15 other ministries, this project is based on 4 components:
• Institutional and operational consolidation and preventive actions
• Application of laws
• Protection of victims
• Regional cooperation
Project sheet: ALTP
With ten projects, including PEFFAG, ProDEG and ASCAD, Expertise France is operating in five priority sectors in Guinea with a total financial volume of over €55 million.