Charel Jans, who is a Political Attaché (JPD) at the European Union Delegation to Senegal, and a CIFE Alumnus of CIFE's Master in Advanced European and International Studies - Mediterranean Studies, shares insights into his professional activity and speaks about his study experience at CIFE.
What are the priorities in the cooperation between the EU and Senegal?
Cooperation between the European Union and Senegal is a structured and multidimensional partnership covering several key policy areas. A key feature of this relationship is the “Team Europe” approach, which brings together the European Union, the European Investment Bank, and EU Member States present in Senegal to coordinate their actions and maximise their impact. This framework supports Senegal’s national development priorities as outlined in the Vision Sénégal 2050 agenda.
The main objectives of this partnership can be grouped around three interconnected areas. The first concerns inclusive economic development, with a focus on growth, job creation, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. The second relates to human capital, particularly through education and vocational training in order to better align skills with labour market needs. The third area focuses on structural development, including governance, regulatory improvements, infrastructure, and the energy transition, which are all essential for long-term sustainability.
Beyond these priorities, an important dimension of the partnership is ensuring consistency between EU objectives and Senegal’s national development agenda. In a changing international context, this also requires maintaining a balanced and pragmatic relationship that delivers concrete results and supports stability, while taking into account both development needs and broader policy considerations.
What is your main role within the Delegation?
My core functions within the European Union Delegation are based in the Political, Press and Information (PPI) Section. In this role, I contribute to the Delegation’s analytical work, in particular through the preparation and drafting of political reports on key developments in Senegal. These reports aim to provide a clear and structured overview of the political situation and its relevance for EU engagement in the country.
A significant part of the work focuses on issues related to stability and security, as well as migration, areas in which I am particularly involved. This includes following relevant political, institutional, and socio-economic developments in Senegal, as well as monitoring the security situation in neighbouring countries and assessing potential risks and spillover effects for Senegal. The objective is to support a better understanding of the broader regional context in which EU - Senegal relations take place.
In addition, I make contributions to internal briefings and analytical inputs used to inform the Delegation’s work and ensure that decision-making is based on up-to-date and well-structured information. This includes synthesising information from different sources and presenting it in a clear and accessible way. Overall, this position provides direct exposure to the functioning of EU external action at country level and to the analytical processes that underpin it in practice.
In which way does your work contribute to these priorities?
My contribution to these priorities consists primarily in supporting the Delegation’s understanding of the political and social context in which EU-Senegal cooperation takes place. While political reporting is an important part of the work, equal importance is given to maintaining regular exchanges with a wide range of stakeholders. These include civil society organisations, researchers, international partners and other actors engaged in public affairs. These interactions provide valuable insights into how developments are perceived on the ground and contribute to a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the country.
In addition, we maintain regular exchanges with representatives of EU Member States present in Senegal. These discussions facilitate the sharing of information and perspectives on current developments and support a common understanding of the political environment. This also reflects the Team Europe approach among EU Member States present in Senegal, promoting coordination and information sharing in order to ensure greater coherence in analysis and engagement on the ground.
Through these different forms of engagement, the collection and analysis of information is supported in a way that contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of issues related to governance, stability, security, and migration. This in turn helps inform the broader work of the Delegation and its engagement with Senegal.
During your Mediterranean Master studies at CIFE you spent three weeks in Dakar and Senegal. Did this help you to gain a better understanding of the local circumstances?
The stay in Senegal during the Master’s programme helped develop a more concrete understanding of realities on the ground. It offered direct exposure to the political and social context, which complemented and strengthened the academic perspective of the programme.
In practical terms, it helped to better understand how political, economic, and social dynamics are experienced locally and how they interact beyond theoretical frameworks. This kind of field experience added a depth that would have been difficult to gain through academic study alone.
The collaboration with CIFE's partner, the Groupe Supdeco, was also particularly valuable from a student perspective. In both Senegal and the Gambia, sharing the classroom with students from the country created a meaningful opportunity to exchange views on local realities and everyday challenges. These discussions added an important practical dimension to the academic content and helped to better understand different perspectives on the ground.
On a more personal level, it is also striking to reflect on having visited the EU Delegation in Senegal as a student during the Master’s programme and now, one year later, working in the same environment. Many academic programmes provide strong theoretical foundations but often lack this type of sustained practical exposure. In this case, the combination of multiple study locations and an extensive study trip to Senegal and the Gambia ensured a strong link between theory and practice.
To what extent has your study experience at CIFE helped you in your current role?
The CIFE programme provided a strong interdisciplinary foundation that continues to be relevant in my current role, particularly through its combination of regional studies, political analysis, and applied perspectives on international affairs. One of its main strengths was the diversity of subjects covered within the Mediterranean Studies programme, which provided a broad understanding of the political, economic, and social challenges facing the region.
In particular, the programme gave me a deeper understanding of development cooperation and migration, two topics that are highly relevant to my current work. Migration was also the focus of my Master's dissertation, which examined migration governance and migration diplomacy in the context of EU-Tunisia relations. This research experience helped me develop a more nuanced understanding of migration as both a domestic and foreign policy issue, which is particularly relevant given that migration remains an important dimension of the EU's engagement with Senegal.
Beyond the academic content, the structure of the programme itself was an excellent preparation for working in an international environment. The regular rotation between different study locations required students to continuously adapt to new countries, cultures, institutional settings and working habits. More broadly, having studied and lived in several countries throughout my academic journey made it easier to adapt to a new professional and cultural environment in Senegal. This experience fostered openness, adaptability and the ability to quickly familiarise oneself with new contexts - qualities that have proven valuable in both personal and professional terms.
More generally, the programme encouraged us to approach regional and international issues from different perspectives and to understand the links between local realities and broader geopolitical dynamics. This way of thinking has been particularly useful in my current role, where political developments often need to be analysed not only within a national context, but also through their regional and international implications.