SnT4Dev in West Africa

The general strategy of Luxembourg Cooperation encompasses digital for development and local growth, through capacity building.

Within this framework, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade (MFA) and the University of Luxembourg – through its interdisciplinary SnT centre – and with the support of LuxDev, intend to further develop cooperation with West African universities.

The aim is to help develop the skills and build the human capacity needed to promote local economic development in information and communication technologies (ICT) and research.

In this context, the SnT4Dev initiative aims to remedy the shortage of scientists qualified to conduct research and teach at local universities, in particular by disseminating a research culture in the private sector, building private sector capacity and supporting local government policy in favour of higher education.

The SnT4Dev project is being implemented in Senegal and Benin, but with a flexible geographical scope, in order to achieve its objective of being relevant to West Africa in general.

In order to increase the impact of the initiative, close coordination between SnT and LuxDev is necessary to align research projects and related activities with the needs of local socio-economic players.