The second edition of the African Forum for the Social and Solidarity Economy (FORAESS) opened on Tuesday in Dakar, with strong mobilization from African ministers. Prime Minister Ahmadou Al Aminou Lô presided over the ceremony, emphasizing that the meeting must lead to concrete commitments to strengthen regional cooperation, create an African SSE observatory, and consolidate an ecosystem to measure the sector's contribution to development. He noted that official intra-African trade, which is below 20%, is misleading because the informal economy escapes statistical tracking. The EU Ambassador, Jean-Marc Pisani, praised Senegal's pioneering role and reaffirmed European commitment through the IYBA program, which has supported 2,500 women entrepreneurs and mobilizes 4.7 billion euros. He highlighted that the SSE is an economy of the future, creating jobs in agriculture, digital technology, and the environment, and noted that the EU remains Senegal's leading investor and trading partner.