Digitalization as a lever for productivity and crisis response: Capitalization workshop in Dakar

From 14 to 16 March 2023, a capitalisation workshop was held in Dakar (Senegal), co-piloted by Enabel, Expertise France and Oxfam. The participants followed 9 activities in three days in order to capitalise on the actions undertaken within the DIRECCT programme, in the sector of support to small and medium enterprises.

The workshop focused on the agricultural sector and digital techniques as tools for resilience in the face of crises, and addressed DIRECCT’s cross-cutting themes of gender and human-centred technology.

The first day gave the floor to agricultural project owners and their use of different digital solutions, in order to have an overview of agricultural productivity, and to cross their feedback with macro visions. In the perspective of capitalisation, a point on the evaluation of programmes and projects was made.

During the second day, field visits took all participants on:

— The visit of Yeesal Agri Hub, which combats disinterest and devaluation in the agricultural sector by bringing technological innovations to rural areas.
— A meeting with farmers in the Thiés and Dakar region who are using some digital tools.
— The presentation of Startup BootCamp, which supports companies by offering them direct access to an international network.

This workshop is part of the DIRECCT project – Digital Response Connecting Citizens, an EU-funded initiative jointly implemented by Enabel, the Belgian Development Agency, and the French Development Agency (AFD) to support connectivity and the development of digital solutions in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in the health, education and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sectors in order to improve their resilience to current and future shocks.