The Government of Senegal has made the extension and strengthening of social protection a fundamental element of its economic and social development strategy, a vision strongly reflected in the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS 2017-2035).

As part of its strategic objective 4 (“establish an integrated social security system for people with disabilities and invalids”), the NSPS organizes initiatives to support people with disabilities around the flagship programme Equal Opportunity Card  (Carte d’Egalité des Chances – CEC). The programme initiated in 2012 with the signing of the first implementing decree of the Social Orientation Law (No. 2010-15 of July 6, 2010) relating to the promotion and protection of people with disabilities.

The CEC, which had around 50,000 holders in 2019 (ESS, ILO 2019), is defined as a social protection system that provides beneficiaries with benefits in the areas of health, education, training, transportation and income security. According to the 2013 General Census (RGPHAE), the prevalence of disability would be 5.9% or 927,836 individuals in 2018. The NSPS aims at scaling up the CEC program to reach at least 90% of eligible individuals by 2025.

A comprehensive review of the social protection system, carried out by the ILO in 2019-2020 with funding from the European Union, identified certain shortcomings in the coverage and implementation of the CEC, including insufficient and unstable resources, the precariousness of benefits and their total effectiveness, the weakness of effective coverage, and the lack of institutional coordination. The recommendation is to continue the deployment of the CEC and to expand the enrolment of people living with a disability to cover at least those with severe disabilities.

Study objectives

With this in mind, the present study has been launched with a view to drawing up an accurate inventory of the CEC, to carry out an in-depth diagnosis of its design, adequacy, effectiveness, efficiency and governance, and, finally, to make concrete recommendations for its improvement and extension.

The general objective of the mission is to draw up an inventory of the gaps and obstacles encountered by the CEC program to fully fulfill its role in the development of an inclusive social protection system and the constraints encountered by the beneficiaries in its use, and to identify the measures to be applied to remedy them and to improve and extend the program with a view to achieving the objectives set by the NSPS.

 

More information will follow.