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AFD’s strategy aims at two ends

The first objective is to support the adaptation of Mauritius’s socio-economic model of society to the new global environmental context

The first objective is to support the adaptation of Mauritius’s socio-economic model of society to the new global environmental context, either through a transversal intervention with a Global Budgetary Aid, or through more targeted interventions (infrastructures, vocational training, support of the productive sector). The aim is to face the challenge of a fast-changing international context (end of the “accord multi-fibres”, radical changes in the UE sugar policy, rise of oil price).

The second objective of the AFD in the country is to promote a sustainable economic development, and the protection of the global public goods

The second objective of the AFD in the country is to promote a sustainable economic development, and the protection of the global public goods: its actions aim at preserving a fragile island environment that may be endangered by tourism plans of development or by a reduction of sugar cane plantations’ surface. At Maurice’s scale, the Economic Transition Plan presents risks concerning the preservation of some global public goods. The AFD will therefore support the public policies targeting sustainable development, focusing on sector-based programs aiming at upgrading the Mauritian economy that have a positive impact on the preservation of these global public goods :

>> Mitigation of climate change : promotion of energy efficiency and of the renewable energies, in particular with the use of part of the sugar cane production for production of electricity, and possibly bio-fuel, and with the reorganization of urban public transports into a cleaner and more performing public transports network.

>> Preservation of biodiversity : the displayed objective of almost tripling the number of tourists in the country by 2015 could be a real threat for marine fauna preservation – all the more that the lagoon has already been harmed in various places due to industrial and urban waste disposal (Mauritius is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with more than 614 inhabitants per square kilometre). Also, development of fishing activities will require a sustainable management of the halieutic resources.

These aims will be achieved through the fulfilling of four objectives, which are coherent with the pillars of the economic transition program defined by the government of Mauritius.