Senegal is an agro-exporting country seeking to modernise its agricultural sector through a range of financing and commodity marketing programmes. However, efforts to achieve this objective have not yielded the expected results because of the diversity of risk affecting agricultural production and marketing activities at the micro and macro levels. Through the PARM Process, the Government of Senegal and key stakeholders have i) assessed and prioritized agricultural risks; ii) identified the right tools to manage agricultural risks; iii) developed capacities on ARM; and iv) mainstreamed ARM into policy.

Setting up

In February 2020, the Government of Senegal reiterated its commitment to participate in PARM Horizon 2 and continue the PARM Country process. This was confirmed by the subsequent nomination of the national ARM Focal Point.

PARM and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Equipment (MAER aka MoA) signed an Action Plan on March 2021, to implement the PARM Country Process.

This has allowed PARM to recruit local consultants to support the implementation of the PARM country process, and also launch the process to develop a feasibility study on capacity development on ARM in the country. More recently, PARM organized a Knowledge Management mission to Dakar to plan for the next steps of the country process and renew ties with in-country partners.

Risk Assessment

During 2016, PARM carried out: two risk assessment studies (RAS), complementing the risk analysis previously carried out by the World Bank (WB), which were validated at a meeting between PARM and the government in August of the same year.

The RAS provided modelling-based estimates of the economic impact of key risks and a prioritisation of risks at the national level on the assessment of risks in the livestock and fisheries sectors.  The analytics revealed five priority risks related to fisheries: (i) risk related to illegal or unreported fishing; (ii) risk related to exploitation; (iii) climate risk; (iv) risk related to variability of environmental conditions; and (v) risk related to losses. The RAS also identified four priority livestock risks: (i) bushfire risk; (ii) herd health risk; (iii) rainfall risk; and (iv) market risk.

In addition to these two studies, further research was conducted in 2017 on remittances in Senegal to better understand the impact of agricultural risk management. This highlighted three main challenges: (i) accessibility; (ii)product characteristics; and (iii) knowledge.

Design of Programme/Project

Based on the analytics and evidence of the RAS, the GoS provided  to PARM with guidance on the government’s priorities in selecting risk management instruments for an agricultural risk management investment programme. Subsequently, PARM-FFR, in constant dialogue with the GoS, and with broad consultation with internal and external experts, produced a concept note that formed the basis of the ARM investment programme. The concept note has been validated by the GoS.

In 2023, another milestone was achieved in Senegal as the Ministry Agriculture, Rural Equipment and Food Sovereignty (MAERSA) has integrated the Agricultural Risk Management Project for Sustainable Agriculture “Projet de Gestion des Risques Agricoles pour une Agriculture Durable” (PGRAAD) developed with the support of PARM, and in partnership with the IFAD Remittances Facility (FFR), in the Priority Action Plan (PAP 3) of the Emerging Senegal Plan. PAP 3 is the new framework for the implementation of priority investments over the next five years (2024-2028). Following this integration, the national technical committee on ARM organized a workshop from 21 to 24 August 2023, focusing on the development of an agricultural risk management action plan backed up by the PGRAAD. This workshop brought together representatives of sectoral ministries that are members of the national technical committee.

Learning

Within the PARM Capacity building process in Senegal, PARM organized, on 16 December 2021, a workshop in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture. The workshop aimed at raising awareness on the importance of integrating ARM into training activities and capacity building module and it was mainly addressed to trainers operating in ARM-related sectors at different level.

Following this first cycle of capacity building training, a new cycle on ARM was held in May 2022 in Dakar by PARM. The workshop gathered 45 trainers and experts and allowed to present the 4 training modules developed by PARM: (i) understanding the risk environment in agriculture; (ii) assessing risk in agriculture; (iii) agricultural risk management tools; and (iv) planning, implementing and evaluating ARM strategies.

The workshop was also attended by representatives from La Banque Agricole, the national insurance company for agriculture (CNAAS), and the agency for market regulation of the Ministry of Commerce, among others. Moreover, IFAD FFR (Financing Facility for Remittances) also intervened on remittances in Senegal as an ARM tool.

Following the CD2 workshop, participants will propose an action plan and budget for the institutionalisation of ARM into the curricula of universities and training centres as well as into the practices of Producers Organisations (POs).

Sharing

In March 2021, PARM organized a knowledge sharing and learning workshop to gather the members of the national technical committee and other members, collect the main initiatives on ARM linked to Access to information, Capacity Development and Remittances in the country, and to foster cross-fertilization and policy dialogue between key players in ARM in Senegal.

The workshop was immediately followed by another technical workshop to present and validate the results of the update of the Capacity Development Study in ARM in Senegal. The same day was dedicated to launch the ARM capacity development process that aimed to accompany Senegalese learning institutions from primary to tertiary to embed ARM curricula in their learning programmes.

Within the framework of the design mission planned in September 2022, a co-creation workshop was facilitated by PARM and co-organized with the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Equipment and Food Sovereignty (MAERSA) in Dakar, which brought together over 40 from the main actors of the agricultural, forestry, pastoral and fisheries sectors in Senegal. The active participation of the latter enabled to share best practices and lessons learned in ARM. During the workshop, the stakeholders shared their recommendations which were integrated into the investment project design report titled “Projet de Gestion des Risques Agricoles pour une Agriculture Durable (PGRAAD)”.

Download PARM Senegal Factsheet