Context

Sources: 1. IHME; 2. UNICEF, State of the World's Children, Childinfo, and DHS; 3. DHS; 4. WHO vaccine-preventable diseases: monitoring system 2018 global summary; 5. World Bank; 6. UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Senegal is a relatively small, predominantly Muslim country of 16 million situated on the Atlantic Coast of West Africa. Dakar, the capital, is the westernmost point of the African mainland. In an accident of geography and history, Senegal almost completely surrounds The Gambia, a former British colony and the smallest nation on the mainland.

In many ways, Senegal differs from its neighbors. The administrative center of the eight colonies that made up French West Africa until independence in 1960, the country is still considered the cultural and economic capital of Francophone West Africa.

Today, it is a stable democracy in an unstable and conflict-prone corner of the continent. It is significantly healthier than other countries in the West African Economic and Monetary Union¹ , according to various key metrics, especially child mortality (52 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to Togo, the next best performer, at 72 deaths per 1,000).²  Senegal’s stunting rate, at 17 percent, is also much lower than the regional average of around 30 percent³ .

Catalysts

Political stability and good governance

Senegal’s political stability has served as a strong catalyst in its efforts to reduce stunting.

The country has had four presidents since it gained independence from France in 1960, with each transfer of power being peaceful. Indeed, Senegal is considered unique in the region for the strength of its democracy and support for good governance. The World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators project tracks six dimensions of good governance. Since 1995, Senegal has been at or near the top of its region in five dimensions.

This stable, open governance has helped the country attract partners and donors, as has the country’s relative lack of corruption. Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Senegal as the 67th least- corrupt nation out of 175 countries (the least corrupt of the eight nations that once comprised French West Africa), with a rating that has been improving since 2012.⁴  This helps explain why foreign direct investment in Senegal has climbed steadily since 1995, and why the country has consistently received relatively high amounts of foreign aid compared to its neighbors.

Poverty reduction

Senegal’s GDP grew steadily from the mid-1990s through the mid- 2000s.⁵ During this period, which coincides with the fastest gains in stunting reduction, the rate of extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90/day, declined significantly. In 1991, 68 percent of Senegalese lived in extreme poverty. By 2005, the rate had fallen to 37 percent. Progress on reducing poverty appears to have levelled off since then.⁶

According to our decomposition analysis, improvements in Senegal’s wealth index – which is a useful proxy for reductions in poverty – explain 19 percent of Senegalese children’s change in height-for-age Z-score between 1992 and 2017. Wealth index is a composite indicator that includes a number of variables intended to capture standard of living, such as whether a family’s house has a dirt or tin roof or whether it owns a bicycle or other consumer goods.

What happened in the 1990s that triggered this period of relative growth and impressive poverty reduction? One explanation is the devaluation of the West African CFA (Communauté Financière d'Afrique; Financial Community of Africa) franc, used in 13 countries. The International Monetary Fund and other international institutions started advocating for devaluation in the 1980s because they believed that the high valuation of the currency stifled the growth of export sectors in former French colonies. In 1994, France bowed to the pressure. (Since 1948, France had guaranteed a fixed parity of 1 French franc for 50 African francs. In 1994, it changed this rate to 1 French franc for 100 African francs.) The immediate impact was extreme inflation. The price of consumer goods, including food, doubled almost overnight since people’s income and savings were suddenly worth half as much.⁷

Over the long term, however, there is strong evidence that the devaluation, as predicted, stimulated the economy and triggered the relative prosperity of the late 1990s and early 2000s. According to one paper, “The devaluation was a clear success from a macroeconomic viewpoint, as it entailed a significant turnaround from low and unstable growth to a sustained boom.”

The authors of this paper argue that the devaluation solved one of Senegal’s biggest economic problems, which was the fact that the wage bill for government employees was so high that it precluded public investment. After the devaluation, which “act[ed] like a tax on formal sector wages,” the wage bill decreased from 7.4 percent of GDP in 1994 to 5.2 percent of GDP in 2001, enabling “a public investment boom,” from 4.6 percent of GDP in 1991-1993 to 6.8 percent of GDP in 1996-2001. This, along with a relatively pro-investment business climate, led in turn to an increase in private investment in Senegal.⁸

These investments spurred growth in Senegal’s non-agricultural sectors first, so the impact was more immediate and ultimately greater in Dakar and other cities, but it also eventually trickled back to the rural economy. There is still a large gap between Senegal’s rural and urban areas, however, and the currency reform has not shrunk that gap. It does, however, seem to have improved the overall condition of the economy, driven down poverty, and contributed to reduced stunting.⁹

Early nutrition policy

The year after Senegal declared independence, the government issued its first national nutrition policy. After the Sahelian drought in the late-1960s and early-1970s, Senegal’s policies grew more ambitious, but implementation lagged behind. Actual programming remained small-scale and focused on food distribution until the mid-1990s, when Senegal began to engage in its pioneering multi-sectoral nutrition policymaking and programming.

Senegal’s initial nutrition-related policies, were in part an attempt to address the protests of citizens who said that the currency reform was driving them into hunger.

At that time, the government, with the support of the World Bank, launched the Projet de Nutrition Communautaire (Community Nutrition Program; PNC), which set up nutrition centers in urban communities. It also created the Commission Nationale de Lutte contre la Malnutrition (National Committee for the Fight Against Malnutrition; CNLM), a coordinating body that was designed to help different ministries within the government to work together effectively on nutrition issues. Although both the PNC and CNLM were eventually replaced, they laid the groundwork for the robust nutrition-related policies and programs that characterize Senegal today.

General Context

History and Politics

The French and the British vied for centuries over the important Senegal and Gambia rivers. The British retained the land around the Gambia River (now the country of The Gambia), while Senegal became the mainstay of French West Africa.

Senegal proclaimed independence in 1960 and elected the poet Léopold Senghor as its first president. Senghor was more tolerant of opposition than many African leaders of his day, although he did outlaw opposition parties from 1965 to 1975. In 1980, Senghor handed over power to his successor, Abdou Diouf, who helped the country evolve toward substantive democracy. In 2000, Abdoulaye Wade, a member of the opposition party, was voted into office in another peaceful transfer of power.

After a failed attempt at integration with The Gambia in 1982, a separatist movement arose in the isolated southern Casamance region of Senegal, fueled by feelings among the Diola ethnic group (mostly Christians and animists) that the riches of the region were being funneled to Dakar rather than benefiting local people.¹⁰  Violence in the region ultimately displaced 30,000 civilians. Peace talks resulted in a truce in 2004, but sporadic conflict continued until 2014, when the leader of the separatists and current Senegalese president Macky Sall conducted secret peace talks and declared a cease fire.

Other than the Casamance unrest, Senegal’s post-colonial history has been remarkably stable, with only four presidents serving since 1960, all democratically elected.

Economy

By far Senegal’s primary source of employment is agriculture, but the sector accounts for only 15 percent of GDP. Given the overall lack of investment and the difficulties of Senegal’s climate, there is little indication that agriculture is primed for growth. Farmers still overwhelmingly rely on rain, which disappoints regularly, to water their crops.¹¹

Reflecting the outsized influence and relative prosperity of Dakar, commercial services contribute more than 50 percent of GDP, with industry making up the remainder. The main exports are fish, phosphate, gold, and, in recent years, oil. ¹² Tourism accounts for approximately 5 percent of the economy.¹³

Notably, personal remittances received as a percent of GDP have grown from around 2 percent 25 years ago to just under 11 percent as of 2017. In 2003, remittances received totaled approximately $600 million. By 2008, that number was approximately $1.5 billion, and by 2017, it had reached $2.2 billion. Senegal is now one of the top ten remittance-receiving countries in the world.

Given the timing of the decrease in extreme poverty and the increase in remittances, it is clear that remittances have not driven reductions in extreme poverty, which has held steady at 37 percent since 2005. Nevertheless, remittances have provided an important safety net for many Senegalese. The evidence suggests that the vast majority of remittances are spent on food, education, and other necessities.¹⁴

Climate and demographics

Two thirds of Senegal’s population lives in Dakar and its surrounding regions. The rest of the country is predominantly agricultural, much of it within the Sahel region where the soil is poor and rainfall is irregular. With the changing climate, the environmental pressures on smallholder farmers, including both droughts and floods, are increasing.¹⁵

The frequency of climate shocks helps explain Senegal’s food insecurity. The nation suffered major droughts in the late 1960s and early 1970s that disrupted the food supply. Despite a handful of infrastructure projects to help address these challenges, such as the construction of several dams and irrigation systems, the country still struggles with food insecurity.

Rapid population growth also puts pressure on the food supply. Senegal, like other countries in the Sahel, is growing extremely quickly, having doubled in size from just over 8 million in 1992 to almost 16 million today. According to the UN, the population is projected to grow to almost 35 million by 2050.¹⁶