West Africa | Support for the Development of a Regional Cooperation Program in Civil Protection

Since 2013, several civil protection strengthening projects have been implemented across nine West African countries. Civil security cooperation has now become a strategic and structuring priority for the DCSD in a context of growing risks and increased needs for regional coordination.

In this context, DCSD commissioned Groupe TDS to conduct an opportunity study aimed at preparing the development of a regional cooperation programme in the field of civil protection. The objective was notably to design concrete avenues for cooperation and to promote regional exchanges between civil protection institutions, including through the pooling of training and capacities.

TDS’s contributions focused on:

• Analyzing the current situation, particularly in Burkina Faso and Djibouti
• Identifying effectiveness criteria and optimization levers for training systems, in order to strengthen the skills of civil security actors
• Proposing areas of work for a future cooperation program aimed at creating a high-performing and interconnected network of national training schools in six countries along the African Atlantic coast

At the end of the study, TDS submitted a report with concrete recommendations for the project’s development. Its implementation, expected by 2026, should enable the training of nearly 20,000 civil firefighters. This will make a decisive contribution to building multidimensional expertise in support of the operational capabilities of the region’s Civil Protection services.