The Diplomat
This summer, the Cultural and Educational Cooperation Agreement between Spain and Senegal came into force, whose main objective is to strengthen and consolidate the bonds of friendship and understanding between the two countries by promoting mutual knowledge and understanding of their respective cultures.
The text was signed in Madrid on September 19, 2019 in order to replace the previous Cultural Agreement of 1965 and was approved by the Council of Ministers in December 2020. The agreement definitively entered into force last July 12, 2022, although it was not published by BOE until last September 3.
The agreement promotes cooperation between institutions and organizations in the fields of education, museums, libraries, archives, exhibitions, intellectual property rights, youth and sports, as well as participation in music, art, theater and film festivals and cultural events. Cooperation is also foreseen in the field of conservation, restoration and protection of cultural heritage, with special emphasis on the prevention of illicit trafficking in cultural property. The agreement also provides for the exchange of experiences in the creation and management of cultural centers in other countries.
Cooperation in the field of education is established through exchanges between institutions and bodies responsible for education in each of the countries, facilitating the teaching of the languages and literature of the other party, as well as the exchange of textbooks and other teaching materials, and studying the conditions necessary to facilitate the mutual recognition of diplomas and academic degrees, in accordance with the respective domestic legislation. The agreement does not contain financial obligations and the expenses that may derive from the activities carried out in its execution will be subject to the annual budgetary availability of each party.
Cultural exchange between the two countries is developed mainly through Dakar Culture, a project of the Spanish Embassy created in 2008 and funded by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) with the aim of fostering artistic creativity and cultural innovation and promoting the exchange of ideas and experiences between artists and the public of both countries.
In addition, Senegal is an important pillar for Spain’s cultural and educational cooperation in the African continent as a whole. Since December 2021, the country’s capital, Dakar, has the first Instituto Cervantes center in Sub-Saharan Africa, which teaches Spanish to students, provides training courses for teachers and offers cultural activities. Approved by Royal Decree in April 2019, the creation of the center had become one of the main objectives of the Instituto Cervantes as part of its expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region in which, until then, the institution only had two Cervantes Classrooms: the one in Dakar – created in 2010 as part of a collaboration agreement with the Cheikh Anta Diop University and still in operation – and the one in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), which was recently created. The director of the Cervantes Center is Néstor Nongo Nsala, a Congolese national who became a citizen of Spain.
