Talents in Common: promoting the mobility of expertise
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, has placed diasporas at the centre of relations between France and Africa. Among the solutions proposed in response to this priority, France and the partner African countries have set up “Talents in Common”, a new development tool that meets the need to promote the mobility of expertise, in particular of Euro-African diasporas in the short, medium and long term in Africa.
A tool to mobilise the expertise of the Euro-African diaspora
The “Talents in Common” programme was officially presented during the last stage of the Tour de France on the entrepreneurship of diversity and diasporas, organised on 5 February 2021 by the Presidential Council for Africa (PCA). On this occasion, Jérémie Pellet, Chief Executive Officer of Expertise France, said that the objective of this programme was “African talent for the benefit of Africa”.
An innovative tool, the “Talents in Common” programme allows experts and executives from the private and public sectors who have strong ties with Africa – including members of the Euro-African diaspora – to conduct a public service mission in an administration or public company at the request of a partner African country.
To this end, Jérémie Pellet says that “the role of Expertise France is to work at the request of partner African countries. We will subsequently mobilise the networks, all the networks available – those of the PCA, associations that work with the diaspora, institutions – to advertise this range of services and generate demand”.
Cofinanced by France with €1.5 million for a two-year pilot phase and by partner countries, “Talents in Common” has three objectives:
1. Support partner countries with the dynamics from the active contributions of Euro-African diasporas and/or experts with strong ties with Africa, in response to specific needs and the ongoing development processes.
2. Strengthen existing partnerships between French or European institutions and institutions in partner African countries through expert missions.
3. Strengthen African regional ties by mobilising Euro-African expertise.
“Talents in Common” is part of the solutions presented during the last stage of the Tour de France on entrepreneurship of the Presidential Council for Africa, in the same way as the MEET Africa 2 programme. Launched in December 2020 by AFD, the European Union and Expertise France, MEET Africa 2 is an initiative to support entrepreneurs from African diaspora in Africa.
Watch the replay (in French)