Senegal

Senegal country profile

BACKGROUND

Senegal is in the westernmost part of the African continent and shares borders with  Mauritania, Mali, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. It completely surrounds The Gambia, a small Anglophone country. Senegal has a tropical climate with well-defined dry and humid seasons. Rainfall is highly variable throughout the year.

Despite significant economic growth and political stability in previous years, more than one-third of the 15.4 million people in Senegal live below the poverty line which exacerbates their vulnerability to climate shocks. Senegal is vulnerable to drought, flooding and related health epidemics, and bush fire. Nearly two-thirds of Senegal’s population lives near the coast, making the impacts of sea-level rise and coastal erosion much stronger. Locust invasions can affect a large portion of the agricultural sector which is dominated by subsistence farming.

INFORM RISK INDEX (2022)    

Hazard and exposure: 2.6  |  Vulnerability: 5  |  Lack of coping capacity: 5.5 |  Total: 4.2 (medium)  |  Rank: 68

HAZARDS COVERED BY ANTICIPATION    

Drought | Insect infestation (Desert locust)

EXPERIENCE ON ANTICIPATION 

• During Senegal’s 2019 agricultural season, it was estimated that nearly a million people could be affected by a predicted drought during the 2020 lean season, June through August. This triggered two parametric insurance pay-outs from the African Risk Capacity (ARC), totaling $23.1 million: a $12.5m pay-out to the Government of Senegal and a $10.6m pay-out to their ‘replicating’ civil society partner, Start Network. The Start Network’s ARC Replica pay-out provided assistance for vulnerable households in communities across seven regions of Senegal.
• FAO has activated early actions in response to predicted desert locust invasions in 2020 across six countries in the Sahel. The regional appeal primarily targeted Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Senegal was targeted as a second-line country with Burkina Faso.