The EU Emergency Trust Fund for Migration in Africa: €1, 8 billion to address the root causes of migration

The pressure that the EU is facing to cope with the increased flow of migration from Africa has been translated in the establishment of a Trust Fund which will help targeted countries to deal with this phenomenon. The Trust Fund has three operational windows in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and Lake Chad region and the North of Africa. As of May 2016 the European Commission has approved a total of 50 projects worth over €730 million.

In particular, the Trust Fund will help address the root causes of destabilisation, forced displacement and irregular migration by promoting economic and equal opportunities, strengthening resilience of vulnerable people, security and development. These priorities are being translated into projects which focus on food nutrition and security, access to health and public services, employment creation, protection of the most vulnerable including child and women and capacity building to improve migration management and governance.

The management and implementation of these projects will be mostly carried out by International Organisations and Member States Development Agencies. However, there are also direct business opportunities through the launching of call for proposals and tenders by the European Commission. It is worth highlighting that contrary to traditional European Development Fund (EDF) projects which have a project life of 5-6 years – the ones under the Trust Fund will have a life cycle of 1-2 years. Some of the first projects approved are already well advanced and International Organisations working in indirect management with the Commission are ready to deploy in most of the cases.

The graph below shows an aggregation of the funds allocated to countries.

For more information on the Trust Fund and business opportunities for your organization please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.