Senegal briefings
...poverty, food and energy in a changing climate
...poverty, food and energy in a changing climate
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| Makeshift coastal defence at St Louis © Phuong Tran / IRIN News |
Human development in Senegal in the years immediately prior to the 2012 presidential election has not kept pace with the relatively good rates of economic growth. Initiatives for rural development have tended to pursue food security without an over-arching vision of climate-sensitive water and soil management. To tackle stubborn poverty indicators, the incoming government should address widespread energy poverty and more effective social protection for vulnerable groups.
updated February 2012
Poverty Reduction
Senegal is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 155th out of 187 in the UN Human Development Index. Underemployment at home and the desperate search for work abroad betray the shortcomings of national economic management, to the growing frustration of a predominantly youthful population.
The most recent formal survey of poverty in Senegal dates back to 2005, taking no account of recent years of turmoil in the cost of food and energy. A poverty monitoring survey (ESPS II) was due for completion in 2010 but no results have yet been published.
The national poverty line is determined by the cost of basic food needs plus essential non-food items. In 2005, the proportion of the population below this threshold was 50.8%, down from 68% in 1994. The target for the purposes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is 34% by 2015.
Senegal's formal economic strategy review, Document de Politique Economique et Sociale (DPES 2011-2015), concedes that there was no improvement in the rate of poverty between 2005 and 2009. And poverty projections by the country’s National Statistics Agency show that the MDG 2015 target is not expected to be achieved.
The implication is that recent economic growth has not improved the lives of the poor. Government spending on subsidies for vulnerable groups has been poorly targeted and has lacked coordination with the wide range of international NGO programmes.
Poverty in Senegal is most prevalent in rural areas, amongst ethnic minorities and in the urban slum peripheries where employment opportunities are almost entirely limited to the informal sector. More than half of the country’s economic activity is concentrated in the capital, Dakar.
The Senegalese overseas migrant community is believed to number up to two million, despite the relatively small national population of 12.8 million. In 2010, remittances from this diaspora were estimated at $1.4 billion, about 10% of GDP, and more than the level of foreign aid.
The DPES 2011-2015 strategy paper continues to rely on high rates of economic growth to deliver poverty reduction. However, there is a generous budget line for "poverty and hunger," alongside commitment to invest in rural infrastructure and agriculture.
Food Security
Background Problems
More than 60% of the population in Senegal is engaged in agriculture, the majority dependent on small rain-fed family farms. The country’s rainfall is unpredictable and serious drought is a regular occurrence. These peasant growers are further hampered by poor infrastructure for storage and transportation of their produce.
The traditional model of food security in Senegal relied on the export of fish products and groundnuts to finance imports of rice and wheat. By 2007 the country imported 60% of its food needs, more than any other in West Africa.
This model collapsed in 2007 and 2008 when the price of rice in local markets tripled. Dakar suffered some of the most serious riots of the global food crisis, ended only by massive government subsidies of staple food prices.
Export markets failed to compensate. The groundnut industry suffered greatly though soil degradation, climate variability, falling global prices and lack of government investment.
Despite employing 17% of the working population and contributing a vital source of protein in the national diet, the fisheries industry was undermined by government agreements permitting modern European boats access to Senegal’s waters.
Senegalese rapper Didier Awadi investigates the impact of European fishing in Senegal. Film by ActionAid HungerFree.
Government Solutions
The government responded to the food crisis with a radical shift in strategy. The Grande Offensive Agricole pour la Nourriture et l’Abondance (GOANA) announced in 2008 triggered a massive boost in spending in agriculture with the aim of achieving self-sufficiency in food by 2015.
By bringing new land into cultivation and offering assistance with farm inputs, credit, modernised irrigation and water conservation, GOANA envisaged an exponential hike in food production, especially in rice.
The policy gained valuable endorsement with the 2009 announcement of a five-year award of $540m by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a major US government aid agency. The grant will improve the infrastructure of roads in poor rural areas and support the food security initiative.
In an attempt to protect local coastal communities, fisheries agreements with the European Union have not been renewed since 2007.
As the cost of imported rice continues to rise, the Senegal government encourages more rice farming at home, from Al Jazeera English
Progress
Bolstered by seasons of favourable rainfall, initial results of GOANA were spectacularly successful. Output of grain doubled in the two years to 2009.
However, most of the advances in technology and infrastructure have been confined to the fertile Senegal River Valley. Almost 80% of planted crops continue to depend on natural rainfall. Fundamental problems such as degraded soil fertility and inadequate irrigation have not been overcome.
Unreliable rains during 2011 have duly exposed the continued vulnerability to food insecurity in Senegal. Yields of all staple crops will be significantly lower than in 2010. Poor households throughout the country will be affected by higher prices, especially in millet.
Pastoralists in northern and central areas are particularly affected and estimates by UN food agencies suggest that 850,000 people will require assistance in the hunger season in April-June 2012. Relative to other drought-affected countries in the Sahel region, the government response in Senegal has been slow.
Fisheries continue to struggle due to the continued presence of foreign trawlers, allegedly facilitated by corrupt local officials. And enforcement of regulations which limit the scale of domestic fishing is proving very difficult.
The proportion of young children who are underweight fell from 20% in 1992 to 14.5% in 2009, still with some way to go to achieve the MDG target of 10% in 2015. There is no recent data for monitoring the number of undernourished adults in Senegal for MDG purposes.
Biofuels and Land Grabbing
A single-minded drive to self-sufficiency in food in Senegal has been compromised not just by climate variability but also by contemplation of alternative land use policies. At one time the government boasted its ambition to cut oil imports through the production of biodiesel from countrywide jatropha plantations.
This vision appears to have fallen on stony ground but the insatiable interest in land from private foreign buyers is undoubtedly an issue in Senegal. Some reports suggest that as much as 17% of the country’s arable land may already have changed hands, mostly to fulfil European targets for biofuels.
It is possible that no single government agency in Senegal possesses a complete picture of the activities of these foreign investors. In a 2010 review of poverty reduction, Senegal’s Ministry of Economy and Finance acknowledged a fundamental lack of land management capacity, noting “the absence of a national land-use strategy ....and the proliferation of land conflicts due to reasons including lack of a reliable rural land registry.” The implications for national food and water security are unsettling.
Climate Change
Effects of Rising Sea Level
By general consent, the historic former Senegalese capital of St Louis, a World Heritage site, is the African city most threatened by rising sea levels.
From a more utilitarian perspective, the threat to Senegal’s coastline is most acute on the Dakar peninsular where the current capital city is located.
Weakened by its natural geological structure and by unregulated building and sand mining activities, the land is eroded by an average of 1-3 metres each year. Beyond the shoreline, tidal surges cause flooding and salinization of both freshwater and farmland.
These "slow onset" events frame the disaster risk that must be acknowledged in a location which hosts almost all of the country’s industry and where the population is most concentrated.
The main power station at Cap des Biches is less than a metre above sea level, as is Dakar’s wastewater treatment plant. Suburbs such as Pikine are home to hundreds of thousands of unregistered slum homes built in areas of high flood risk.
Economic appraisal of these risks has led to warnings that the cost of climate change could be sufficient to unwind Senegal’s prospective economic growth.
Terrible floods in Dakar's suburb of Pikine in 2009 were caused by urban planning weaknesses as well as climate change. Film by the Knight Center for International Media.
Adaptation
In view of these exceptional sea level risks, it was appropriate that the first project to be approved by the UN Adaptation Fund supports an $8.5 million package of coastal defences for Senegal.
The country’s climate adaptation problems are however by no means confined to the coastline. Senegal’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) stresses that it is the poorest rural and fishing communities which are most vulnerable to a warming climate.
Scientists say that average temperatures in Senegal have risen by one degree Celsius since 1960 and are likely to increase by at least a further degree by 2060. The most direct impact will be seen in the shortened growing season of staple crops and the known sensitivity of fish stocks to higher sea temperature.
Although there has been a significant reduction in rainfall since the 1970s, prediction of change in overall volume remains less certain, due partly to the limitations of computer modelling. Increased variability of rainfall is however a more confident prediction.
Fearful for the viability of agriculture in the dry regions to the north of the country, adaptation programmes are dominated by improving management and utilisation of fragile water resources. The most extreme illustration is the imaginative pan-African Great Green Wall project for which Senegal has been a leading advocate.
The objective is to contain desertification from the north by planting a 15 kilometre band of trees stretching from Dakar to Djibouti in East Africa. Senegal claims to have planted nearly 8 million seedlings so far.
Despite dozens of smaller adaptation projects, the government’s overall response to climate change seems tentative. Climate change demands a systematic analysis of the risks with a comprehensive strategy integrated within the country’s development programmes. Senegal's National Climate Change Committee has not imposed its presence across the relevant ministries or within the DPES strategy for 2011-2015.
The government has not been an active participant in UN preparations for REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation). Senegal retains significant forest cover and could theoretically benefit substantially from REDD finance.
Planting acacia trees fights desertification and creates livelihoods, an example of climate adaptation reinforcing development needs - from UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Electricity Access
Dakar consumes two-thirds of the country’s available power. Electricity coverage in rural areas of Senegal was only 22% in 2009. However, even in the capital, prolonged outages have become a major restraint on economic growth and the source of public unrest.
Accountability lies with the state electricity company, Senelec, which presides over inefficient operations and a track record of difficulty in paying for its imported fuel. With two failed attempts at privatisation, the government has struggled to create an appropriate regulatory environment.
An electricity emergency plan 2010-2014 is the focus of fresh resolve to tackle the energy crisis. Senelec is to be restructured and a new coal-fired power station built by a Korean company by 2015.
The government also has an ambitious goal of creating 55% coverage in rural areas by 2015, largely through renewable sources. Electrification is undoubtedly a stepping stone to a revival of the rural economy.
The search is now on for a financial model to exploit Senegal’s considerable potential for solar energy and wind power.
Whilst remaining a significant factor in continued deforestation in Senegal, the use of charcoal and wood fuel for domestic energy fell from 92% to 41% in the period 1992-2009. However, this improvement reflects the alternative use of LPG or kerosene rather than a breakthrough in the household supply of electricity.
A German project demonstrates the potential of solar energy in a village in southern Senegal, from Deutsche Welle
Senegal is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 155th out of 187 in the UN Human Development Index. Underemployment at home and the desperate search for work abroad betray the shortcomings of national economic management, to the growing frustration of a predominantly youthful population.
|
| Village elders of Fandene, Senegal © Fid Thompson / IRIN News |
The national poverty line is determined by the cost of basic food needs plus essential non-food items. In 2005, the proportion of the population below this threshold was 50.8%, down from 68% in 1994. The target for the purposes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is 34% by 2015.
Senegal's formal economic strategy review, Document de Politique Economique et Sociale (DPES 2011-2015), concedes that there was no improvement in the rate of poverty between 2005 and 2009. And poverty projections by the country’s National Statistics Agency show that the MDG 2015 target is not expected to be achieved.
The implication is that recent economic growth has not improved the lives of the poor. Government spending on subsidies for vulnerable groups has been poorly targeted and has lacked coordination with the wide range of international NGO programmes.
Poverty in Senegal is most prevalent in rural areas, amongst ethnic minorities and in the urban slum peripheries where employment opportunities are almost entirely limited to the informal sector. More than half of the country’s economic activity is concentrated in the capital, Dakar.
The Senegalese overseas migrant community is believed to number up to two million, despite the relatively small national population of 12.8 million. In 2010, remittances from this diaspora were estimated at $1.4 billion, about 10% of GDP, and more than the level of foreign aid.
The DPES 2011-2015 strategy paper continues to rely on high rates of economic growth to deliver poverty reduction. However, there is a generous budget line for "poverty and hunger," alongside commitment to invest in rural infrastructure and agriculture.
Food Security
Background Problems
More than 60% of the population in Senegal is engaged in agriculture, the majority dependent on small rain-fed family farms. The country’s rainfall is unpredictable and serious drought is a regular occurrence. These peasant growers are further hampered by poor infrastructure for storage and transportation of their produce.
The traditional model of food security in Senegal relied on the export of fish products and groundnuts to finance imports of rice and wheat. By 2007 the country imported 60% of its food needs, more than any other in West Africa.
|
| Dakar food protests 2007 © Amath Thiam / IRIN News |
Export markets failed to compensate. The groundnut industry suffered greatly though soil degradation, climate variability, falling global prices and lack of government investment.
Despite employing 17% of the working population and contributing a vital source of protein in the national diet, the fisheries industry was undermined by government agreements permitting modern European boats access to Senegal’s waters.
Senegalese rapper Didier Awadi investigates the impact of European fishing in Senegal. Film by ActionAid HungerFree.
Government Solutions
The government responded to the food crisis with a radical shift in strategy. The Grande Offensive Agricole pour la Nourriture et l’Abondance (GOANA) announced in 2008 triggered a massive boost in spending in agriculture with the aim of achieving self-sufficiency in food by 2015.
|
| Dried-up rice field in Senegal © Mamadou Alpha Diallo / IRIN News |
The policy gained valuable endorsement with the 2009 announcement of a five-year award of $540m by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a major US government aid agency. The grant will improve the infrastructure of roads in poor rural areas and support the food security initiative.
In an attempt to protect local coastal communities, fisheries agreements with the European Union have not been renewed since 2007.
As the cost of imported rice continues to rise, the Senegal government encourages more rice farming at home, from Al Jazeera English
Progress
Bolstered by seasons of favourable rainfall, initial results of GOANA were spectacularly successful. Output of grain doubled in the two years to 2009.
However, most of the advances in technology and infrastructure have been confined to the fertile Senegal River Valley. Almost 80% of planted crops continue to depend on natural rainfall. Fundamental problems such as degraded soil fertility and inadequate irrigation have not been overcome.
|
| Goat herding in northern Senegal © Jane Labous / IRIN News |
Pastoralists in northern and central areas are particularly affected and estimates by UN food agencies suggest that 850,000 people will require assistance in the hunger season in April-June 2012. Relative to other drought-affected countries in the Sahel region, the government response in Senegal has been slow.
Fisheries continue to struggle due to the continued presence of foreign trawlers, allegedly facilitated by corrupt local officials. And enforcement of regulations which limit the scale of domestic fishing is proving very difficult.
The proportion of young children who are underweight fell from 20% in 1992 to 14.5% in 2009, still with some way to go to achieve the MDG target of 10% in 2015. There is no recent data for monitoring the number of undernourished adults in Senegal for MDG purposes.
Biofuels and Land Grabbing
A single-minded drive to self-sufficiency in food in Senegal has been compromised not just by climate variability but also by contemplation of alternative land use policies. At one time the government boasted its ambition to cut oil imports through the production of biodiesel from countrywide jatropha plantations.
This vision appears to have fallen on stony ground but the insatiable interest in land from private foreign buyers is undoubtedly an issue in Senegal. Some reports suggest that as much as 17% of the country’s arable land may already have changed hands, mostly to fulfil European targets for biofuels.
It is possible that no single government agency in Senegal possesses a complete picture of the activities of these foreign investors. In a 2010 review of poverty reduction, Senegal’s Ministry of Economy and Finance acknowledged a fundamental lack of land management capacity, noting “the absence of a national land-use strategy ....and the proliferation of land conflicts due to reasons including lack of a reliable rural land registry.” The implications for national food and water security are unsettling.
Climate Change
Effects of Rising Sea Level
By general consent, the historic former Senegalese capital of St Louis, a World Heritage site, is the African city most threatened by rising sea levels.
|
| 2009 flooding in Pikine, Dakar © Nancy Palus / IRIN News |
Weakened by its natural geological structure and by unregulated building and sand mining activities, the land is eroded by an average of 1-3 metres each year. Beyond the shoreline, tidal surges cause flooding and salinization of both freshwater and farmland.
These "slow onset" events frame the disaster risk that must be acknowledged in a location which hosts almost all of the country’s industry and where the population is most concentrated.
The main power station at Cap des Biches is less than a metre above sea level, as is Dakar’s wastewater treatment plant. Suburbs such as Pikine are home to hundreds of thousands of unregistered slum homes built in areas of high flood risk.
Economic appraisal of these risks has led to warnings that the cost of climate change could be sufficient to unwind Senegal’s prospective economic growth.
Terrible floods in Dakar's suburb of Pikine in 2009 were caused by urban planning weaknesses as well as climate change. Film by the Knight Center for International Media.
Adaptation
In view of these exceptional sea level risks, it was appropriate that the first project to be approved by the UN Adaptation Fund supports an $8.5 million package of coastal defences for Senegal.
The country’s climate adaptation problems are however by no means confined to the coastline. Senegal’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) stresses that it is the poorest rural and fishing communities which are most vulnerable to a warming climate.
Scientists say that average temperatures in Senegal have risen by one degree Celsius since 1960 and are likely to increase by at least a further degree by 2060. The most direct impact will be seen in the shortened growing season of staple crops and the known sensitivity of fish stocks to higher sea temperature.
Although there has been a significant reduction in rainfall since the 1970s, prediction of change in overall volume remains less certain, due partly to the limitations of computer modelling. Increased variability of rainfall is however a more confident prediction.
Fearful for the viability of agriculture in the dry regions to the north of the country, adaptation programmes are dominated by improving management and utilisation of fragile water resources. The most extreme illustration is the imaginative pan-African Great Green Wall project for which Senegal has been a leading advocate.
The objective is to contain desertification from the north by planting a 15 kilometre band of trees stretching from Dakar to Djibouti in East Africa. Senegal claims to have planted nearly 8 million seedlings so far.
|
| Forest medicine, Senegal, CFU000354 © Roberto Faidutti / FAO |
The government has not been an active participant in UN preparations for REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation). Senegal retains significant forest cover and could theoretically benefit substantially from REDD finance.
Planting acacia trees fights desertification and creates livelihoods, an example of climate adaptation reinforcing development needs - from UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Electricity Access
Dakar consumes two-thirds of the country’s available power. Electricity coverage in rural areas of Senegal was only 22% in 2009. However, even in the capital, prolonged outages have become a major restraint on economic growth and the source of public unrest.
Accountability lies with the state electricity company, Senelec, which presides over inefficient operations and a track record of difficulty in paying for its imported fuel. With two failed attempts at privatisation, the government has struggled to create an appropriate regulatory environment.
An electricity emergency plan 2010-2014 is the focus of fresh resolve to tackle the energy crisis. Senelec is to be restructured and a new coal-fired power station built by a Korean company by 2015.
The government also has an ambitious goal of creating 55% coverage in rural areas by 2015, largely through renewable sources. Electrification is undoubtedly a stepping stone to a revival of the rural economy.
The search is now on for a financial model to exploit Senegal’s considerable potential for solar energy and wind power.
Whilst remaining a significant factor in continued deforestation in Senegal, the use of charcoal and wood fuel for domestic energy fell from 92% to 41% in the period 1992-2009. However, this improvement reflects the alternative use of LPG or kerosene rather than a breakthrough in the household supply of electricity.
A German project demonstrates the potential of solar energy in a village in southern Senegal, from Deutsche Welle
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