Our Senegal office

LuxDev's activities in Senegal started in 1990 with the rehabilitation and extension of the health structures of the Saint-Louis Hospital. Similarly, the first Indicative Cooperation Programme (ICP) between the Republic of Senegal and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, signed in January 2003, focused on the geographical axis Dakar - Saint-Louis. The sectors initially addressed were education and human resources training, health and access to drinking water and sanitation. Since then, many other programmes have been carried out in the context of ICP II and ICP III, which took place from 2007 to 2011 and from 2012 to 2016 respectively, each time expanding the geographical areas of intervention.

The ICP IV between the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Republic of Senegal was signed in December 2018. Within the framework of the ICP IV, the Senegal office oversees, with a common thread of capacity building, bilateral development programmes in two priority sectors:

• health and social protection; and 
• vocational and technical training and employability.

All of these programmes are strongly oriented towards, on the one hand, the territorialisation of public policies and, on the other hand, support towards reforms to modernise the state's public administration and the harmonised framework of public finances in the WAEMU. The aim of these activities is to improve the quality of public management and services rendered to the population in a sustainable manner. In addition to these areas, the programme is active on cross-cutting themes, namely gender and the environment. All the programmes particularly propose the enhancement of existing structures and frameworks, both at national and regional levels, in the management and implementation of actions with a view to greater alignment with national policies, such as the “Plan Sénégal Emergent”, in accordance with the Paris Declaration.

Programmes are implemented through three execution modalities, namely national execution via the budgeted aid instrument, the LuxDev implementation and the operational partnership agreements. However, national execution is not limited to one execution modality but implies full ownership and control of the whole process from planning to reporting by the actors.

The funds allocated to the bilateral programme by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg aim at sector support, capacity building and support to civil society. In terms of geographical coverage, the activities implemented cover seven regions in the northern and central zones of Senegal and one region in the southern zone in the health sector.

It should also be noted that LuxDev is currently formulating a new vocational and technical training programme under the framework of the Team Europe Initiative to support Senegal in drawing a legacy from the organisation of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympic event to be held in Africa. It brings together a consortium of three implementing agencies: the French Development Agency, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and LuxDev, which takes over the coordination the project.

Another Team Europe project currently being implemented in Senegal is VET Toolbox, which is a partnership between several European agencies: Enabel, British Council, GIZ, Expertise France and LuxDev. The initiative promotes inclusive and demand-driven vocational education and training. This action is funded by the European Union and the German government.

In addition, the country office oversees other operations from global initiatives in support of the private sector, academic cooperation, the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and support for food security.