Raïssa Malu and Bruno Aubert discuss the possibility of France supporting basic education in the DRC

On Monday, July 29, 2024, Raïssa Malu, Minister of State and Minister of National Education and New Citizenship, received Bruno Aubert, France’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was accompanied by a delegation from the French Development Agency (AFD). They primarily discussed issues related to basic education.

According to Ambassador Bruno Aubert, this was his first meeting with Minister of State Raïssa Malu, and the aim was to discuss AFD cooperation projects in the education sector as a priority in relations between France and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a priority that, according to the French diplomat, has been strongly emphasized over the past three years, following the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Kinshasa and that of President Félix Tshisekedi to the French capital.

The ambassador further explained the main purpose of this meeting with the head of national education and new citizenship in the DRC.

“Basic education, for which she is specifically responsible, constitutes a major part of our presence as well, in terms of cooperation across the entire education continuum, which also covers vocational training and higher education; however, the minister’s area of responsibility lies at the heart of our cooperation’s primary objectives. And we needed to take stock of the various cooperation projects we wanted to present to her, so to speak, and discuss with her the key principles and broad guidelines of the strategic framework for our joint actions,” stated Bruno Aubert.

According to the French diplomat, Minister of State Raïssa Malu was supportive of the AFD’s approach.

“And her reaction was very positive; she was obviously well-informed, and it was good that we could establish together the way of working, the way of developing a roadmap. And then, there is one issue that is still important: that we can effectively manage and monitor our projects jointly and consistently,” he concluded.

Christian BELLA