Sénégal: Réforme Territoriale Acte 4 Moves to Implementation

• The Senegalese government is moving to implement Acte 4 of its decentralization reforms, shifting from diagnostic studies to concrete legal, financial, and operational actions.
• The reform aims to address weaknesses identified in Acte 3, including insufficient local finances, difficulties with transferred competencies, and a fragile status for elected officials.
• Key objectives include strengthening local finances, establishing a territorial public service, improving the status of elected officials, and enhancing citizen participation.
• Financial strategies involve progressively increasing resources, indexing funds to VAT, and modernizing local taxation to ensure predictable funding for collectivities.
• A draft decree is already available to improve the status of local elected officials, aiming to protect their mandate while reinforcing ethics and accountability.

The success of any territorial reform hinges not solely on the quality of its legislative texts, but equally on the capacity of all stakeholders to grasp its objectives, understand its implications, and actively participate in its execution.

The Senegalese government is signaling a critical shift in its approach to territorial reforms, moving beyond diagnostic assessments to concrete legal, financial, and operational implementation. This pivotal moment for Acte 4 of decentralization was highlighted during the 44th Plenary Assembly of the High Council for Social Dialogue. The representative of the Minister of Urbanism, Territorial Collectivities, and Territorial Planning underscored the administration's commitment to this new phase.

The assembly, themed "Dialogue des territoires dans le contexte de l’Acte 4 de la décentralisation," convened as authorities actively shape the nation's new territorial architecture. The overarching ambition is to transform local territories into genuine engines for economic and social development. Government officials emphasized that the success of any territorial reform hinges not solely on the quality of its legislative texts, but equally on the capacity of all stakeholders to grasp its objectives, understand its implications, and actively participate in its execution.

The current Acte 4 initiative is designed to incorporate lessons learned from a comprehensive evaluation of Acte 3. Extensive consultations were conducted across the country, engaging a broad spectrum of participants including elected officials, administrative bodies, economic actors, workers, women, youth, and civil society organizations. These dialogues brought to light several critical weaknesses within the existing decentralization framework.

Among the significant issues identified were insufficient financial resources allocated to local entities, persistent difficulties in the effective exercise of certain transferred competencies, and the notable absence of a robust local public service. Furthermore, the consultations revealed the fragile status of elected officials and the inadequacy of mechanisms for citizen participation in local governance. The new reform explicitly aims to confront these systemic problems head-on.

To address the identified deficiencies, the government's reform agenda outlines several key areas of intervention. A primary focus is on strengthening local finances, ensuring that territorial collectivities possess the necessary means to fulfill their mandates. Concurrently, efforts will be directed towards establishing a dedicated territorial public service and enhancing the status of elected officials, providing them with better support and clearer guidelines. The reform also seeks to significantly improve and organize citizen involvement in local management processes.

A central concern for the success of this decentralization effort revolves around securing adequate financial resources. The government's representative highlighted that the President of the Republic has requested simulations for a progressive increase in funding allocated to territorial collectivities. Furthermore, plans are underway to progressively index endowment funds and certain financing mechanisms to the Value Added Tax (VAT), aiming to enhance the predictability of local resources and mitigate existing disparities between territories.

Parallel to these efforts, the administration is working on a comprehensive modernization of local taxation, introducing a series of measures to revise the fiscal framework applicable to collectivities. The success of this ambitious reform, however, will largely depend on its ability to equip local authorities with financial means that genuinely correspond to the competencies entrusted to them. Separately, a significant development concerns the status of local elected officials, with a preliminary draft decree already available. This regulatory acceleration, driven by a presidential directive, aims to better protect the exercise of their mandate while simultaneously reinforcing ethical standards, transparency, and accountability for officials in increasingly demanding roles.

Source: Original reporting via source article