Members of Senegal’s HCDS participate in technical training to promote sustainable funding of social protection, November 2022.
A three-day technical training in November for 26 members of the High Council for Social Dialogue on social protection financing and advocacy strengthening led to a Note of Commitment to promote sustainable funding and for the Council to become the major architect of the national dialogue forum to foster national consensus on social protection finance.
SP&PFM organized the training (22–24 November) to respond to several pressing issues: budgetary space and increasing it for social protection; the different measures and options to extend the budgetary space; the projected budgetary space for Senegal (until 2035); the returns on investment in social protection; and advocacy techniques and the need for a national dialogue to facilitate political decision-making in relation to the measures for extending the budgetary space.
The High Council for Social Dialogue consists of representatives of employers’ and workers’ organizations, government agencies, civil society organizations, the Office of the Presidency of the Republic and other local experts.
Guided mainly by the International Labour Organization Country Office for Senegal’s publication on financing social protection in Senegal and its returns on investment, specialists from the ILO local team and from ILO headquarters in Geneva facilitated the training workshop.
The High Council for Social Dialogue’s Note of Commitment advocates the increased financing of social protection, with a road map for bilateral consultations (involving the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministries of Finance, Economy and Community Development, the National Assembly, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, etc.) and the creation of a national forum on social protection financing. The Note will be submitted for approval by the Council’s authorities in a forthcoming meeting.
Watch the remarks of Innocence Ntap Ndiaye, President of the High Council for Social Dialogue here.
Read more about the SP&PFM in Senegal here.