Within the framework of its Project “Promoting Gastronomy Tourism for the Destination Senegal,” SESRIC will organise a Workshop on “Enhancing the PPPs in Gastronomy Tourism in Senegal” on 1-3 September 2025 in Dakar, Senegal. This project has been successfully listed for funding by the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) under the 12^th Call for Project Proposals.

The workshop aims to bring together representatives from the public and private sectors who are responsible for tourism development in Senegal, along with prominent speakers and competent experts from relevant partner countries and institutions. The main objective of the activity is to discuss mechanisms of enhancing public-private partnerships (PPPs) towards the advancement of tourism sector, with particular emphasis on gastronomy tourism. In addition, various sessions will discuss the role of digital transformation and exploring new trends in digital culinary marketing, as well as the adoption of sustainable and eco-friendly practices from the partner countries.

This workshop is the second capacity building activity of the Project after the successful implementation of the Training Course on ‘Enhancing Gastronomy Tourism Promotion in Senegal: Marketing and Branding’, on 8-9 July 2025. The workshop will also include a ceremony commemorating Dakar as the OIC City of Tourism 2025, in line with the relevant resolution of the 12^th Session of the Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers (ICTM), held in Khiva, Republic of Uzbekistan, from 31 May to 2 June 2024.

The COMCEC Coordination Office (CCO) launched the COMCEC Project Funding (CPF) in 2013, a financing mechanism that funds projects submitted by the OIC countries and relevant OIC Institutions. The funding is provided in the form of a grant through the Development and Investment Bank of the Republic of Türkiye, a main body in the CPF scheme. Since the initiation of CPF, SESRIC has implemented 16 projects -under various cooperation areas and sectoral themes determined by the CCO.

Under the 12^th Call for Project Proposals of CPF, the CCO has completed the evaluation process and announced the Final List of successful projects. Three SESRIC projects were selected for funding in the 2025 implementation period. These projects, designed in collaboration with relevant national institutions in member countries, aim to strengthen human resources and institutional capacities in agriculture, poverty alleviation, and tourism cooperation areas.

For more details about SESRIC projects funded by the COMCEC, please visit: https://www.sesric.org/tcd-activities-projects-funded.php.