French financial aid

France and Cote d’Ivoire on Tuesday signed four agreements for 5.1 billion FCFA (US $7 million) intended to finance long-term programmes in health, agriculture, education and social development. The health sector will receive 1.8 billion CFA to support a four-year project aimed at strenghtening the national health system. The project’s key components are the fight against HIV/AIDs and related diseases, and support for NGOs, community organisations, and the Health Ministry, national media reported. One billion CFA goes to a three-year project destined to support agricultural organisations, agencies and farmers. “Project Sup 2000”, aimed at restructuring higher education, is to benefit from 800 million CFA. This would allow for the continuation of the project, which started in 1998. The remaining 1.5 billion CFA, also covering a three-year period, is to finance micro-projects and a poverty reduction plan. The agreements were signed by the Ivorian minister of economy and finance, Bouhoun Bouabre, and France’s ministers in charge of cooperation and economy and finance, Lionel Jospin and Laurent Fabius, who were in Abidjan to attend a meeting of finance ministers of the franc zone.