Senegal is a West African country, spanning from the Atlantic Coast (west) towards the Sahel (east). Senegal plays an important role within the region and the continent and represents a strategic partner for the EU.
The government led by President Macky Sall has put the national economy on a path of sustainable, inclusive and job-creating growth. The government’s priority is job creation and the socio-economic integration of young people.
Our partnership
The EU supports Senegal on its path towards economic growth , in line with national strategies like the ’Plan Sénégal Emergent‘, the ’Programme d’Urgence Jeunesse‘ and the EU Global Gateway Strategy. EU action builds on Senegal’s ambitions in key sectors such as pharmaceutical production, agricultural industrialisation, urban development and digitalisation. The country is also central in the strategic transport corridor Praia-Dakar-Abidjan, which the EU also supports.
The EU, together with 16 Member States, adopted a Joint Programming Document for the period 2021-23 under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI-Global Europe). In this framework, the EU allocated €222 million in grant funding to the partnerships with Senegal over 2021-24. Senegal also benefits from a number of multi-country EU programmes.
Multiannual Indicative Programme 2021-2027 for Senegal - annex (French)
Annual action plan 2023 for Senegal (French)
Our flagship initiatives
Team Europe is active in Senegal in several key sectors. They are all part of Team Europe Initiatives (TEI): the national TEI 'Green economy in Senegal' covering green agriculture and sustainable and digital cities, the continental 'Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies' TEI, the regional Western Mediterranean and Atlantic migration routes TEI. And Team Europe is mainstreaming youth in all its interventions.
- Youth – to support the socio-economic integration of Senegalese youth through a comprehensive approach. Team Europe is seeking to increase employment opportunities for young people and to become active actors of their own country development. Our goal is to:
- Strengthen youth employability through technical and vocational education and training, for instancing taking the opportunity of the Youth Olympic Games foreseen for 2026 and building new curricula in the sport, culture and green sectors
- Promote entrepreneurship and create decent jobs in green and digital sectors, for instance enhancing the digital startup ecosystem
- Promote girls economic and civic empowerment
- Pharmaceutics – mobilising private and public funds behind the Pasteur Institute so that Senegal can become a pharmaceutical regional hub,in the context of the continental Team Europe Initiative on ’Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies‘ - MAV+,
- Transport/mobility – to invest in green urban mobility in Dakar and other cities. As part of its support to the strategic transport corridor Praia-Dakar-Abidjan (one of the EU-Africa strategic corridors), several Team Europe projects contributes to make traffic more fluid, to improve air quality and to enhance the living conditions of urban populations:
- Bus Rapid Transit Project (electrical buses crossing Dakar),
- Restructuring Dakar Public Transport (gas bus lines connecting the peripheric neighbourhoods of Dakar with the Bus Rapid Transit and the Train Express Regional).
- Agriculture and environment – to support Senegal to reach food security and sovereignty and become an important regional player in the agro-industry sector. The EU supports the agro-ecological transition and the industrialisation of agriculture, while paying attention to the creation of decent jobs and environmental protection. Team Europe support focuses on:
- Value chains: transforming, with industrial ambitions, selected strategic value chains such as peanuts, cereals, onions and bananas into means for creating jobs, increasing food security and local consumption while expanding export opportunities;
- Access to credit for very small, small and medium-sized agriculture enterprises and cooperatives;
- Management of protected areas, especially in the coastal regions;
- Regreening the country: strengthening and expanding the Great Green Wall;
- Sanitation: depolluting the Hann Bay in Dakar to offer better living conditions to urban population as well as to restore the marine ecosystem of the bay.
- Digital – to support a sustainable and human-centred digital transition and to build an inclusive digital society. The EU works on a strengthened governance of the sector, promoting an enabling digital entrepreneurship ecosystem and fostering digital inclusivity targeting young people and women. This would be done through, amongst other, training of rural youth and women on the digital opportunities, supporting e-trade and fintech, and enhancing the State-citizens interface to improve access to public services for vulnerable population.
- Energy – to support the Senegalese Government efforts under the frame of the Just Transition Energy Partnership (JETP) signed in June 2023. Through this partnership, Senegal has committed to increase the share of renewable energy in installed capacity to 40 % by 2030, while the EU and other international partners have promised to contribute with €2.5 billion to finance major investments.
- Security and stability – to help Senegal address its exposure to security and stability threats and the spill-over of terrorism from the Sahel, particularly in the country’s eastern region. EU support focuses on:
- Security in the isolated south-east area of the country;
- Border management and fight against terrorism and all kinds of trafficking (including smuggling of migrants);
- Peace and stabilisation in Casamance.
- Migration – to support the country in its migration policy and to increase job opportunities in the country. The TEI for the Western Mediterranean and Atlantic routes, promotes an holistic approach on migration management, return and reintegration, fight against migrant-trafficking and smuggling, and the role of the diaspora. Working on root causes of migration is also central in the EU’s intervention, by focusing on youth and women and on remote and fragile areas of the country.