​Performance contracts with the eight universities: Dr Abdourahmane Diouf announces an envelope of 13 billion CFA francs 

  The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (Mesri) and eight (08) public universities in Senegal have signed performance contracts (Cdp). With a total budget of 13.7 billion FCFA over three years, these agreements are aimed at improving the quality of teaching and university governance, bringing additional financing and concrete results. At the signing ceremony, Minister Dr Abdourahmane Diouf stated that the CDPs constituted “a contract of objectives and means” whereby the State sets out the results to be achieved in exchange for additional funding. “In addition to the usual budgetary allocations, 13,762 billion FCFA will be injected into universities over the period 2025-2027”, it announced. The amounts vary according to the institutions: the ceiling amount is 3,3 billion FCFA for the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), the floor is around 1,055 billion FCFA for the Université du Sine-Saloum (USSEIN). “It is a question of conditioning the increase of resources to the obligation of performance”, insisted the Minister, underlining that this approach is part of a wider reform of the financing of higher education. In return, “the universities have committed themselves to improving their performance on the quality of teaching, internal and external effectiveness, the standardisation of university calendars, institutional research policy and university governance”, said Dr Diouf, noting that the agreements signed were the result of six months of discussions between the universities and the university administration. Technical services of the Mesri and the universities Piloted in the framework of the “ESPOIR Jeunes” project, co-financed by the World Bank and AFD, this device could become the norm. “Ultimately, each university will annually sign a contract with the State, with evaluation and adjustment of budgets according to the results”, explained Aboubacry Niang, coordinator of the project. With PressAfrik