OVERVIEW: ENGAGEMENT ON POST-2015 Senegal organized national consultations to ensure an inclusive debate on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. During these consultations, stakeholders identified four priority areas on which efforts need to be oriented: 1) reinforcement of the social base of human development, 2) promotion of a competitive economy to create decent jobs, 3) implementation of favorable governance for sustainable development, and 4) establishment of sustainable peace and security.
With respect to the data revolution, consultation with stakeholders revealed a number of broad expectations. Stakeholders argue that the data revolution in Senegal should: promote a culture of statistics within different groups of the population; encourage a more efficient use of new information and communication technology in the production and dissemination of data; facilitate the availability of reliable, comparable, relevant and periodical data; ensure the availability of funds to data producers for the collection of data; and promote the availability of disaggregated data, to satisfy sectorial and local needs.
NATIONAL AND GLOBAL POST-2015
PRIORITIES.
Senegal’s priorities are generally in line with those identified by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development (OWG). Plan Senegal Emergent (PSE), a flagship policy document, has set policy objectives for the country to ensure economic emergence by 2035. With PSE, some of the global minimum targets suggested by the OWG should be feasible at the country level. Simulations show that with the PSE it will be possible to have zero poor by 2030. However if business as usual prevails, the goal will be reached by 2040.
DATA AT THE COUNTRY LEVEL
One of the main challenges for implementing a universal but country-relevant post-2015 framework is the availability of reliable and accessible data that allows monitoring of progress. There is need to ensure sustainable resources are available to allow each country to show significant improvements in the collection, availability and accessibility of reliable and disaggregated data.
Senegal has seen improvements to its national statistical system. The main drivers of improved data quality, accessibility and transparency in Senegal relate to a priority shift and the provision of more human and technological resources. For example, the use of electronic devices during recent surveys has allowed the availability of preliminary results 3 months after the end of data collection. In addition, more power and resources were given to the national statistical agency 10 years ago and the national statistical system was reorganized, leading to significant improvements.
Despite significant improvements in the national statistical system in Senegal, there is still a lack of complete data at the sector level and at the local level. Apart from improved data availability in education and health, data is still incomplete in many areas such as culture, sport, environment and justice.
Disaggregated data are not available at the local level despite the process of decentralization in the country. Consequently, the production of data at the sector and local levels is challenging and resources are needed to meet the increasing requirements for more disaggregated data in Senegal. In the implementation of the post-2015 agenda in Senegal, considerable efforts should be made to address this issue.
One of the main institutional and policy challenges in the pursuit of a data revolution in Senegal relates to the institutional instability of line ministries due to various rearrangements ofthe government. It will be difficult to effect sustainable changes under the data revolution if key interlocutors at the institutional level change frequently. Another institutional challenge is the lack of statisticians in some line ministries and the lack of coordination in data production outside the main statistical agency. Moving forward, there is a need to align all line ministries to the same standards as the national statistical agency.
