EU - Eritrea Partnership

Rural village in Eritrea. The European Union's partnership program with the country will focus on providing sustainable and effective energy access. Photo by: USAID /CC BY-NC-ND The EU has been supporting the State of Eritrea since independence in 1993. Under the previous cycle of funding from 2009-2013, the EU dedicated EUR 53.7 million to food security and rural development programs. The new agreement signed last January, officially called National Indicative Program (NIP) 2016 -2020 for Eritrea will focus on the following focal sectors: - Energy for Development: aiming to improve socio-economic development through usage of clean, reliable, sustainable and affordable energy. - Governance: with focus on economic governance. A limited access to energy is one of the most crucial impediments to broad-based social and economic development. Recognizing the key role of energy for socio-economic development, this component will bring affordable, clean and reliable energy to rural areas hitherto without electricity and enhance overall electricity production. The indicative allocation for the energy focal sector is EUR 175 million and the expected activities for 2016 are: - Increased generation capacity and access (number of users) in the Interconnected System (ICS). (EUR 50 million followed by additional EUR 25 million to be disbursed in 2018-2019) - Rehabilitation of distribution grids in Asmara and Massawa (EUR 20 million) - Expansion of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage and distribution (EUR 4 million). The indicative timetable for commitments in 2017 regarding the energy component includes: - Energy access for farming and fishing communities, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and social sector institutions through Photovoltaic (PV) and wind standalone systems. (EUR 50 million to be complemented with EUR 10 million in 2019) - Studies and exploration phase for Alid geothermal field (EUR 8 million) - Introduction of energy saving technologies (e.g LED lamps) (EUR 3 million) The indicative budget allocated for governance and Public Finance Management activities, EUR 20 million, will be disbursed in different phases in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The aim is to support the Government of Eritrea expertise and capacity building to improve financial management, modernize its financial sector, enhance economic planning and put it on a sound statistical basis. This program is funded under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), but is also complementary to other areas of cooperation such as the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). Blending of EDF funds with European Investment Bank (EIB) loans will also be explored. The agreement between the EU and Eritrea also envisages that a second allocation can be established to cover unforeseen needs such as humanitarian, emergency and post emergency assistance. However, this allocation does not constitute part of the programming. Contact Email: