Dakar - A joint United Nations mission (from 11 to 15 December 2023) reaffirmed the relevance of the Global Accelerator for employment, social protection and just transitions for Senegal and resulted in the official commitment from the country to join the initiative.
All the partners engaged (ministries, social partners, private sector, and other key national stakeholders), agreed unanimously about the potential of the initiative to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on national priorities and to promote coherence and integration of current policies and initiatives.
This mission was jointly led by the ILO, UNICEF, WFP and UN-WOMEN, with the support of the Resident Coordinator, and contributions from IOM, FAO, UNIDO, ITC and UNDP. The Accelerator is one of the five SDG acceleration pathways selected in Senegal in the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. A UN Interagency Working Group to support the implementation of the initiative in the country has been established.
As mentioned by the UN Resident Coordinator, Aminata Maïga, "Senegal has already made significant progress with several reforms. The objective is to support the implementation of these reforms, enhance their ongoing development and to help ensure their coherence." The mission enabled genuine interagency work with a gradual rise towards a common understanding of what the Accelerator can bring to the country, and what the response of the United Nations system could be for the implementation of the Global accelerator in Senegal.
The previous mission, in November 2022, confirmed the relevance of the Global Accelerator in Senegal. The latest mission went further through high-level meetings with the government, social partners, the private sector, development partners and the World Bank, to gain a better understanding of the objectives and added value of the Global Accelerator for Senegal.
“The more participatory the process is, the more the social dimension is taken into account from the outset in the formulation of the initiative, and the higher are the chances of achieving the Global Accelerator's objectives” acknowledged Djibril Dione, Coordinator of the General Directorate of Planning and Economic Policies of the Ministry of Economy Planning and Cooperation at the opening of the National Workshop held on 14 December 2023.
In addition, the mission made it possible to confirm the high-level commitment of the government of Senegal through discussions with the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Cooperation (MEPC) and its strong involvement in the technical exchanges and workshops that took place during the week. The development partners and the World Bank also met during the mission and expressed their interest and intention to contribute to the Global Accelerator through existing programmes and new initiatives.
Discussions with government representatives and social partners have enabled the identification of concrete entry points for the Accelerator and mechanisms to evaluate it. Therefore, the Global Accelerator will contribute to strengthening labour market and social protection institutions as well as to the effective implementation of current national strategies and initiatives by ensuring complementarity, coherence, and a human-centred approach, enabling just transitions. The mission facilitated the identification of multi-sectoral initiatives linked to the Priority Action Program (PAP3) of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE), in which integrated approaches would allow the creation or formalization of jobs and the extension of social protection to target groups who are currently excluded, aiming to ensure just transitions for all.
As pointed out by the Ministry of the Economy: "In Senegal, 3 percent of companies contribute to the state budget and are able to provide decent jobs. The informal economy is structural, acting as both a valve and a bottleneck. Formalization is at the heart of the PAP3 and the PSE." The agro-industrial sector, which is one of the national priorities (including through the development of "agro poles") and aims to ensure food security and sovereignty as well as the country's autonomy, has emerged as one of the key sectors selected by all stakeholders. This is because it offers great potential for the creation of decent jobs, formalization, the extension of social protection, inclusive development, the transformation of the care economy and facilitating the ecological transition.