Strategic meeting of the Board : What's next for the EUTF for Africa?

The European Commission convened the sixth meeting of the Board of the EUTF for Africa on 14 June 2019:

The Board expressed strong support for the developments of the EUTF for Africa and the remarkable results emerging from the monitoring and learning systems in place. Most delegations recognised once more the added-value of the Trust Fund as a valid implementing tool to build partnerships, produce concrete and visible results and promote the development-migration nexus. Overall, the Board confirmed that the strategic priorities approved in September 2018 remain valid.

Based on the level of resources currently available, the EUTF for Africa will not be able to make new commitments beyond the end of 2019. However, EU Member states and other donors highlighted that it would be essential to further pursuing the efforts of the Trust Fund to respond to existing and new challenges across the three regions, and expressed their concerns about the lack of funding to approve new programmes in 2020.

The Commission estimates that the EU will not be able to liberate sufficient resources to cover new pipelines of programmes in 2020, hence reiterated the urgent need for additional funding to be made available by EU Member States and other donors. With additional resources, the EUTF for Africa would be able to (i) address needs emerging from current crises; (ii) respond to challenges in the area of irregular migration and refugee management; (iii) further enhance the stabilization efforts (iv) address the root causes of instability and supporting the efforts of the G5 Sahel to tackle security challenges; (v) continue providing support to vulnerable migrants and refugees; (vi) further supporting the voluntary return and reintegration operations; and (vii) further enhancing anti-trafficking measures.

Minutes of the 6th Board meeting