Trade union project supported by Institut Belleville selected at Africa Forum - 100 Innovations for Sustainable Development

The project "Supporting trade union action on economic matters to make decent work a reality in Africa" was selected by the Africa Forum - 100 Innovations for Sustainable Development, held on 5 December at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This innovative trade union cooperation project led by the CFDT’s development cooperation institute, Institut Belleville, developed in partnership with ITUC-Africa and the CGT, was among the 21 projects selected out of the 800 presented.

The project, supported by the French Development Agency, AFD, intends to develop effective trade union expertise on social and economic matters so that trade unions can become influential players at national and regional level. The project is being implemented in seven countries of French-speaking Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo).

The project selection committee included personalities such as Jean-Michel Séverino, a member of the United Nations High-Level Panel on post-2015 and former AFD director, Esther Duflo, economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International.

The Forum on 5 December brought together "technological, economic, social and environmental innovators" from Africa. The projects selected covered a wide range of fields, from High Environmental Quality (HQE) construction, to micro-finance and food, information systems, recycling, agroecology and transport.

Kouglo Lawson Body, an economist at ITUC Africa and the project coordinator, presented the trade union cooperation project. A CFDT delegation attended the Forum.

The selection of this project bears witness to the recognition earned by trade union actors and the importance of trade union development cooperation.

- Watch the video summarising the project

By Frédérique Lellouche, Institut Belleville/CFDT