Dakar, Senegal , 24 August 2026 (ECA) -Sixty senior Senegalese officials have completed an intensive two-week executive training course designed to change how the country plans, funds and coordinates social protection — shifting it from a line item for vulnerable groups to a strategic lever for economic transformation.
The course was organised by the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), the training arm of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), together with Senegal’s General Delegation for Social Protection and National Solidarity (DGPSN) and the Regional Consortium for Research on Generational Economics (CREG). It ran in two back-to-back cohorts of 30 participants each — 10–14 August and 17–21 August 2026 — bringing together senior officials and managers responsible for designing, financing, implementing and evaluating social protection policy nationwide.
The numbers behind the urgency
The scale of the challenge was laid out in stark terms during the training:
- 37.5% of Senegal’s population lived in poverty in 2021 — with rural communities accounting for 75.4% of the poor.
- Senegal’s Human Capital Index stands at just 0.42.
- Fewer than 1 in 10 working Senegalese have any social protection coverage.
- Only 15% of older people receive a pension.
As the training made clear, the challenge is no longer simply to expand existing programmes, but to rethink the system’s overall architecture — its funding, its coverage, and how it connects to national development policy.
From safety net to strategic investment
The training linked social protection directly to Senegal’s long-term development roadmap. It sits at the heart of the human capital and social equity pillar of the Senegal 2050 Vision, the country’s plan to become a “Sovereign, Just and Prosperous” nation — a pillar organisers describe as cutting across the whole economy by protecting households, easing the shift from informal to formal work, and fueling inclusive growth.
That framing marks a deliberate break from the past: social protection reframed not as spending to manage vulnerability, but as an investment in human capital and long-term national resilience.
Senegal already runs a wide array of social protection tools , the National Social Register (RNU), the National Family Security Grant Programme (PNBSF), universal health cover, pension and health insurance schemes, nutrition and food security programmes, school canteens, and support for people with disabilities. Two flagship programmes show how far — and how fast — the system has grown:
- The National Social Register, Senegal’s core targeting tool since Decree No. 2021-1052 of 2 August 2021, nearly doubled its reach — from 541,192 households in 2023 to 1,000,632 in 2025. It now feeds 32 different programmes and operates offices in all 14 regions of the country.
- The National Family Security Grant Programme grew more than sevenfold, from 49,967 beneficiary households in 2013 to 354,984 in 2023 — driving gains in household consumption, dietary diversity, school enrolment, beneficiary dignity and local economic activity.
That growth is also the source of a new problem: coordinating a system with so many schemes, actors and funding streams is becoming increasingly complex.
Financing remains the central constraint. Social protection spending rose from 2.18% of GDP in 2018 to 2.35% in 2022 — after spiking to 2.93% in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its share of the national budget climbed from 7.65% to 8.8% over the same period, peaking at 9.7% in 2020 — a trajectory that reflects real progress, but also underscores how much work remains on sustainable financing.
Betting on Senegal’s youth — and preparing for its future
The course went beyond auditing current programmes, introducing a forward-looking lens grounded in generational economics and the life-cycle approach — a natural fit for a country where 75% of the population is under 35 and the median age is just 19, even as planners must also prepare for an eventual ageing population.
Drawing on National Transfer Accounts (NTA) and National Time Transfer Accounts (NTTA) methodologies, alongside Senegal-specific research on the demographic dividend, youth and ageing, participants examined how resources actually flow between generations — and what that means for smarter policy design.
The training drew on three complementary sources of expertise: Senegal’s Ministry of Economy and Finance situated social protection within the country’s broader development planning; DGPSN presented the national strategy, its structure and the real-world challenges of implementation; and CREG brought more than a decade of research on generational economics and intergenerational transfers to the table.
This initiative reflects IDEP’s core mission of bringing together development planning, applied research and institutional experience to build stronger African institutions. The goal is a social protection system that is broader in scope, better coordinated, more financially sustainable, and more firmly grounded in data and evidence.
By training two cohorts rather than one, the programme built the capacity of 60 national officials and stakeholders at once, while keeping each session small enough for genuine discussion, peer exchange and hands-on practical work.
IDEP and its partners are betting that social protection in Senegal can do double duty: reducing poverty and managing vulnerability today, while building the human capital, resilience and economic transformation the country needs for tomorrow.
About IDEP
Established in 1962, the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) is the training institution of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Based in Dakar, IDEP builds the capacity of African member states in development planning, economic policy management, and the design and implementation of public policies tailored to the continent’s priorities.Contact presse :
Press contact:
Zeynabou Kane,
Email : zeynabou.kane@un.org
Institut africain de développement économique et de planification (IDEP)
Commission économique pour l'Afrique (CEA)
Dakar, Sénégal
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Economic Commission for Africa
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Ethiopia
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