French agency backs important projects in Cuba

By María Josefina Arce

Committed to a more just and sustainable world, the French Development Agency, constituted in the 40s of the last century, supports more than four thousand initiatives in 150 countries, including Cuba.
  
Since 2016, this entity has been supporting Cuban authorities in important projects in key sectors such as rural, water and sanitation, energy, transportation and health.
   
In these years, more than 132 million euros have been invested for this purpose, which has made it possible to advance initiatives of economic and social impact.
  
Thus, through the Livestock Cooperative Development Project of the Central Eastern Region, together with the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Cuban government, the French institution is working to consolidate livestock and dairy production.
   
Last month, a project was also presented that will be implemented in four municipalities of Camagüey province and will favor science and innovation towards the sustainability of the agri-food industry to not only increase agricultural production, but also limit pollution.
  
Vital programs for the Caribbean nation, which has among its priorities the agri-food development, through the advancement of domestic production and thus be able to replace imports.
  
In the water sector, the initiative carried out in Matanzas to evaluate the city's aqueduct infrastructure and reduce the pressure and flow problems affecting the population stands out.
  
In the health sector, the contribution of the French agency has been extremely valuable. During the COVID 19 pandemic, it provided the Greater Antilles with pulmonary ventilators, protective equipment and material for diagnostic tests, in the face of the limitations imposed by the intensified U.S. blockade.
   
Even before the arrival of the disease caused by the new coronavirus, the entity was already committed to strengthening the capacities of three important Cuban health institutions: the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine, the Institute of Nephrology and the Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology.
     
Since the opening of an office of the French Development Agency in Havana in October 2016, cooperation with Cuba has been consolidated, which has described the projects supported by this institution in Cuban territory as very important for the advancement of the country and the improvement of the welfare of citizens.