Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at Bilateral Meeting with Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation of Senegal Oulimata Sarr

F.P. Report

DAKAR, Senegal: Economy Minister Sarr, thank you for welcoming me to Dakar today.

It’s a sincere pleasure to see you so soon following the U.S. – Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington in December. And it’s a pleasure to meet with you today – as the first women to serve in our positions.

As you know, the United States highly values our bilateral relationship with Senegal, and we view you as an important partner to the United States.

In our conversation today, we will speak about redoubling our efforts to expand economic opportunity to youth and women, which I know is an issue that you care about deeply.

Indeed, after our meeting, I will be visiting the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth, a flagship Senegalese initiative that demonstrates how the U.S. and Senegal have partnered together to advance economic empowerment.

Beyond that, I know that we have a lot to discuss, including how the multilateral development banks must evolve to better address cross-border challenges like climate change, conflict, fragility, and pandemics.

The multilateral development banks should adapt their vision, incentives, operational approaches, and financial capacity to respond effectively to cross-border challenges.

We will discuss how they can be most responsive to current and emerging needs without sacrificing their core goals of poverty alleviation and economic growth for developing countries.

I greatly appreciate being able to travel to Senegal – and making this my first stop on the continent.

Thank you, Minister Sarr, for the opportunity to discuss how the United States and Senegal can build a strong and more resilient global economy together.