Governance

A Sahelian country located in the extreme west of the African continent, Senegal is bounded on the north by Mauritania, on the east by Mali, on the south by Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of Guinea and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Gambia forming an enclave in the centre. Senegal has a population of 8.5 million inhabitants and an area of 196,722 Km2.

Senegal was very early in contact with a number of civilizations, and this have given it a rich cultural and civilizational heritage. Formerly, during the colonial period, the capital of French West Africa, Senegal acquired very early on democratic and pluralist society. Following independence in 1960, Senegal continued to pursue this same approach, progressively strengthening its democratic system. Thus, out of concern to associate citizens more with the management of the city, the state has expanded the competence of the local communities with respect to economic and social development.

Senegal has a presidential regime. The executive is headed by a Prime Minister and Head of Government appointed by the President of the Republic. The legislature consists of a National Assembly elected by direct universal suffrage. The judiciary is organized around three major institutions: the Constitutional Council, the Court of Appeal and the Council of State.

Senegal also has advisory institutions such as the Economic and Social Council, the National Youth Council and the National Consumer Council. The existence of the National Ombudsman, who is perceived as a facilitator in relations between the administration and citizens, is also to be noted. The political landscape, with 26 parties, is both rich and varied. Lastly, the existence and development of diversified and dynamic private printed and audiovisual media should be noted.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Senegal's economy was characterized by poor economic performance. The various programmes implemented between 1982 and 1992 were unable to reverse the trend. In addition, the high rate of population growth counteracted the efforts to improve and distribute income. In 1992, a little more than a third of the total population (34%) was not receiving the minimum adult allowance of 2,400 calories equivalent per day, and unemployment (10.3 per cent overall and 14.8 per cent for those aged under 30) is still the daily lot of young people. Additional factors are the pronounced disparities in population distribution, which give rise to major difficulties kin achieving school and health coverage, and rapid urbanization heavily centred on the Dakar region. The internal adjustment in August 1993, followed by the January 1994 devaluation, enabled Senegal to resume growth: the real growth rate of GDP rose from 2.0 per cent in 1994 to 5.2 per cent in 1996, with inflation, at less than 3 percent, well under control.

This performance has been achieved thanks to the strengthening of the democratic heritage and the concern to maintain social peace and social stability in the country. It has become increasingly clear the Senegalese society, as a whole, moving in the direction of a far-reaching transformation. The extent of the crisis is now widely understood, and critical but constructive debate on the country's economy is taking place both in the State-owned media and in the private press.

According to Mr. T. Gordon-Somers, Special Adviser of the Regional Bureau for Africa, UNDP⁽¹⁾ defines governance as the legitimate exercise of political, economic and administrative authority through decision-making mechanisms and processes, institutions and management of development which reflects the requirements of participation, transparency, responsibility, efficiency and the primacy of the law.

On the basis of this definition and the Senegalese context, the Government's National Good Governance Programme covers the following areas:

- Economic management, based on the need for the State to initiate and conduct sustainable human development so as to improve the living standard of the population.k Economic management includes formulation and implementation of policies, allocation of resources, production and dissemination of economic and social information and regulatory activities;

- Decentralization based on redefinition of responsibilities with a view to better involvement of the local level in the conduct of local affairs and greater support of the population for the national development strategy;

- The civil service: this is the framework through which the State exercises its authority over the citizens and provides services to the population. For the State, the problem is to provide high-quality services to the citizens (economic agents - household s and institutions) and to haver motivated and competent personnel to perform public service functions.

- Strengthening of democracy, based on the need to strengthen republican institutions and promote the full exercise of sovereignty by citizens.

"Competitiveness and sustainable human development" - so reads the objective of the ninth economic and social development plan, for the period 1996-2001. To attain this objective, Senegalese society will have to meet five challenges: competitiveness of the economy, building an attractive space, construction of a strategist State, human development and sustainable development. Each of these challenges forms a part of good governance. However, the construction of a strategist State, human development and sustainable development. Each of these challenges forms a part of good governance. Following decentralization, which entails a reduction in its powers, the State should increase the effectiveness of its actions and the transparency of its functioning.

Implementation of the good governance programme calls for the active participation of different public and private partners and actors involved in development management.

Under the leadership of the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Planning (MEEP), it will be necessary to identify and reinforce key functions articulated in the homogeneous modules. These coherent modules, whole construction must be based on principles relating to the programme approach, national execution and subcontracting, will be able to offer a flexible and effective framework for the execution of the National Programme.

Two main actors are at the centre of economic management, namely the Government and the private sector.

- The low capacity to absorb the loans and assistance made available to Senegal (Government, non-governmental organizations);

- The absence of coordination and/or the non-functioning of the frameworks for dialogue among actors;

To strengthen the Government's ability to communicate its objectives and actions in the economic sphere;

Strengthening the capabilities of the private sector by means of a restructuring of the economic and institutional environment of companies through dialogue, modernization of justice, direct technical and financial support for companies, employees' organizations and professional associations and effective and transparent speeding up of the disengagement of the State.

This module offers a framework for partnership between applied research and institutions and technical departments. Relationships formalized in protocols will permit greater involvement of these research bodies in the execution of the technical departments' work programmes.

Reorganization, by giving local elected officials responsibility for the promotion of local development, aims at better distribution of the decision-making centres in order to bring them closer to the people. Its implementation calls for local structures to be given human resources well trained in formulating the managing projects local interest.

To give the Regional Development Agencies a good grasp of regional and local policy formulation and management by improving the regional and local planning instruments and implementing the National and Regional Development Plan;

To complete the process of decentralization so as to ensure that better account is taken of the needs of the population.

Grass-roots development were promoted through the local community support structures.

This module will also permit the research organizations to take better account in their activities of the activities programmed by the technical departments in relation to physical planning and regional and local development, within the framework of a partnership formalized in protocols.

The continuous deterioration of the civil service has become a brake on the successful implementation of policies and programmes. It results simultaneously from the absence of real human resources management and from the inadequacy of these resources. The absence of career development plans, the systematic failure to apply positive and negative sanctions, and the absence of forward-looking management of human resources demotivate the staff and limit their effectiveness.

In order to achieve sustainable human development, the Government will need a modern public administration governed by rules of efficiency and productivity that will enable to promote devolution to the private sector and the provision of high-quality services in an effective partnership with the various development actors.

More efficient utilization of resources through the development of subcontracting.

The evolution of the democratic process is necessity in order to attain the objectives of good governance. The task is to strengthen the republican institutions in their role and ensure greater transparency and efficiency in the exercise of power and the rule-of-law State.

Over and above the political parties, the people as well should participate more in the exercise of power, in that enabling them to feel a sense of ownership of the development policies is an important prerequisite for their success.

Lastly, strengthening of the democratic process also necessarily entails the organization of free and transparent elections.

To promote Parliament's expertise so that it can play effectively the role of monitoring the executive and acting as a source of proposals;

To promote the involvement of civil society in the management of public affairs;

The weaknesses apparent in development management are a direct consequence of the inadequacies identified in the capacity of the public administration to assume its many functions. The implementation of good governance thus entails carrying out a set of structured activities in the training field. The aim will be primarily to ensure:

An improvement in the Government's institutional capability to promote and support the development of the national private sector;

Better organization of the internal structures of MEFP through rationalization and readjustment of existing instruments, as well as through training of its officials in modern techniques for managing the economy;

Strengthening of the capabilities of the technical ministries in the areas of sectoral strategy and policy formulation and project and programme preparation, follow-up and evaluation;

Adaption of the techniques thus developed to the regional level in order to give the future Regional Development Agencies and the community-level services better skills in formulating and managing projects of regional and local interest.

Tailor-made training which targets the different modules of the programme (in the form of seminars and workshops) and is addressed to the staff of the different ministries;

Short-term full-time training delivered through local institutions on the basis of pre-established programmes;

Medium-length courses in international institutions (World Bank, IMF, ADB, etc.) for the development of expertise in specialized areas of economic analysis and project formulation and evaluation.

The training will be addressed to all State officials involved in development management, as well as to private consultants, local communities, economic operators and management and labour.

Lastly, the drafting of manuals will be encouraged, indeed promoted, in order to develop teaching aids and adapt them to local conditions. These manuals will where necessary be designed in partnership with training and research institutions and consultancy firms.

In the execution of this training programme, preference will be given to subcontracting with local training institutions.

The National Good Governance Programme is based on the concept of interdependence of the different functions. In the light of the fact that the activities identified will be executed by local structures with the support of donors, coordination of the activities among the various structures and coordination of the various sources of foreign assistance are of great importance. This coordination will be accompanied by the establishment of a system for the exchange of information between the different modules of the programme, on the one hand, and between the programme and decision-makers on the other.

The Government sees coordination as a requirement for ensuring the coherence of its won activities, but also as an imperative where donors are concerned, with a view to improving the coherence and effectiveness of their activities.

The Programme will be coordinate by the Ministry of the Economy, Fiance and Planning.

At the highest level, a National Steering Committee for the programme. It will consist of:

The National Good Governance Programme will be executed over a five-year period (1997-2001).

The Steering Committee of the National Programme will define the orientations of the Programme and ensure its proper implementation. In this respect it is responsible for supervising the overall execution of the Programme through planning, programming and follow-up evaluation of achievements; it will endorse the work plan and the budget. Auditing of the disbursement of resources will be conducted in accordance with the regulatory framework for national execution.

Evaluation of the National Programme will be conducted in two phases: a mid-term evaluation and a final evaluation. The modalities will be decided upon by the Government and donors.

	TOTAL	YEAR1	YEAR2	YEAR3	YEAR4	YEAR5
MODULE1	2,797,380	10,130,14O	6,080,440	6,373,040	3,413,040	1,800,720
MODULE2	3,227,180	678,040	859,540	689,040	491,040	509,520
MODULE3	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM
MODULE4	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM
MODULE5	3,733,000	1,184,000	1,283,000	1,266.000	0	0
OVERALL COORDINATION	3,090,960	1,099,856	497,776	497,776	497,776	497,776
SUBTOTAL	37,848,520	13,092,036	8,720,756	8,825,856	7,292,856	5,699,016

The private sector capacity-building project currently under execution is financed in part by the World Bank ($12.5 million), the Government of Senegal ($1 million) and the private sector ($6.8 million).

	TOTAL	YEAR1	YEAR2	YEAR3	YEAR4	YEAR5
MODULE 1- IDA Fin. State Fin.	12,500,000	4,950,000	2,860,000	2,250,000	2,020,000	420,000
MODULE 1- IDA Fin. State Fin.	8,800,000	3,720,000	1,592,000	2,488,000	0	0
SUBTOTAL	20,300,000	8,670,000	4,452,000	4,738,000	2,020,000	420,000

The module on reform of the civil service has not yet been costed. The amount for it will be communicated later.

	TOTAL	YEAR1	YEAR2	YEAR3	YEAR4	YEAR5
MODULE1	7,497,380	1,460,140	1,628,440	1,635.040	1,393,040	1,380,720
MODULE2	3,227,180	678,040	859,540	689,040	491,040	509,520
MODULE3	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM
MODULE4	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM	PM
MODULE5	3,733,000	1,184,000	1,283,000	1,266.000	0	0
OVERALL COORDINATION	3,090,960	1,099,856	497,776	497,776	497,776	497,776
SUBTOTAL	17,548,520	4,422,036	4,268,756	4,087,856	2,381,856	2,388,016

See the statement by Mr. T. Gordon-Somers, special adviser, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, IAD International Symposium, Dakar, 7-9 November 1966, "Good governance and development".