LVIA presence in Guinea-Conakry

The LVIA has been present in Guinea-Conakry since April 2005 following an invitation from the Justice and Solidarity Foundation, these representatives alongside those from the ONG CISV united for a mission whose goal was to identify the roles and the missions that could possibly be assigned to these two organisations within the scope of FOGUIRED (Guinean-Italian Fund for Reconversion of the Debt) activities to favour the fulfilment of their mandate and also to identify possibly collaboration areas intended to create sustainable partnerships in Guinea.

The burden of debt constitutes a real obstacle in the development of Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, this part of the continent annually devotes large sums of money to the payment of debt interests instead of financing priority sectors such as healthcare or education. To reverse this tendency, the Italian Church, in reply to the Pope's appeal during the Jubilee 2000, initiated a fund collection campaign with which we had the intention of advocating the justice in favour of poor countries, this action particularly helped Guinea.

A farmer

As requested by the Italian Church, The Justice and Solidarity Foundation also participated in the operation by the collections of funds during the Jubilee campaign; they also played an active role in perfect harmony with the Italian law, (L n. 209/2000) in the repeal of the debt.

The scope of LVIA's mission hence established, the collaboration between the Italian and Guinean Churches, with the Justice and Solidarity Foundation and civil society, laid the foundations for FOGUIRED: a bilateral agreement concerning debt reduction and conversion, through poverty reduction programmes, was signed the 10th of April 2003 by the Italian and Guinean governments.