UNICEF in Senegal

Challenges for children in Senegal

Some parts of Senegal have made great strides in recent years improving the health, welfare and future for the nation’s children. But progress has been uneven. About half of Senegal’s children still live in poverty, with limited access to the resources they need to thrive and secure a healthy future.

Malnutrition remains common. More than half of women of childbearing age are anemic, and more than 1 in 5 are underweight. About 10 percent of children under age 5 are suffering from acute malnutrition, and 1 in 5 children under 5 have experienced chronic malnutrition, leading to stunting. Around 15 percent of the population lacks sufficient access to safe drinking water, and 67 percent do not have proper toilets. 

Access to secondary education remains limited. Nationally, only 17 percent of young children are enrolled in preschools, with large gaps between rural and urban children. And while roughly 63 percent of children completed primary school in 2022, almost 90 percent of adolescents were out of school, and unemployed. This leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and the worst forms of child labor and sexual exploitation continue to affect tens of thousands of children,

An estimated 30,000 children in the capital city of Dakar alone are subjected to forced begging; 1 in 3 girls marries before the age of 18. While the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) has declined, it continues to affect 20 percent of girls aged 10 to 14. 

Senegal is vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which has already begun to impact food security and water access, increasing vector-borne diseases like malaria. In October 2024, Senegal faced one of the worst floods in the last fifty years. More than 70,000 people, including children, were displaced as a result of the floods and schools were closed for more than a month.

How UNICEF is helping children in Senegal

Senegal has experienced far more stability than some of its neighbors in the Sahel, even when considering the protracted, low-level insurgency that took place in the West African nation’s southern Casamance region. As a result, Senegal has made steady progress in reducing childhood mortality, though the rate remains above the global average. Half of the childhood deaths recorded occur in the first month of life, mostly in rural areas.

UNICEF focuses attention on seven regions of the country, those with the highest levels of multi-dimensional poverty — i.e. areas where more than 78 percent of children are experiencing deprivation in essential services like education, health care, and sanitation, and often have limited access to schools, health facilities and clean water.

UNICEF’s targeted interventions in these regions aim to bridge these gaps, improve access to basic services and enhance resilience.

Border regions are also a key focus due to their unique vulnerabilities. Areas abutting Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau are all experiencing high levels of migration, resource scarcity and security challenges, which disproportionately affect children.

UNICEF works in the border regions to address these issues by improving access to health and education services for migrant and host communities, promoting social cohesion, and strengthening resilience to economic and environmental shocks. These interventions ensure that children in border areas are protected and supported, despite the complex challenges they face.  

Working to protect children and families from violence

No matter their story or circumstance, all children have the right to be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse. Child protection systems help children access vital social services starting at birth; and so UNICEF works in many countries to build the infrastructure needed to help children safe.

Robust systems that promote information collection and sharing is essential to these efforts. In Senegal, UNICEF is working with the government and other partners to strengthen civil registration systems and to roll out new technologies such as the Rapid Pro open-source platform that will facilitate better monitoring, reporting and advocacy.

UNICEF also provides assistance in developing policies, legislation and regulatory frameworks that strengthen the social service workforce, ensure a more child-friendly, gender-sensitive justice system and accelerate the elimination of harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM. 

There are programs that provide emergency assistance to young victims of violence and abuse that UNICEF supports. Championing education, especially for girls, is another form of protection.

Supporting every child's right to an education, advancing opportunities for girls

UNICEF works with the Ministry of National Education and leaders in local communities, including Qur’anic institutions, to develop programs that aim to jumpstart the education of out-of-school children, particularly in underserved and poor-performing regions.

UNICEF supports national efforts to implement the Education Sector Plan, an ambitious blueprint that aims to ensure that all children participate in at least one year of pre-primary education, and introduce a 10-year basic education cycle designed to improve learning outcomes for all children.

UNICEF has also been supporting efforts to implement new teaching and learning standards, strengthen teachers’ management strategies and facilitate learners’ acquisition of foundational skills, particularly in early grades.

Facilitating girls' access to education and related opportunities is a top priority. There are UNICEF-supported women's teachers’ networks that support educating girls in the country, and skills building programs for girls and young women interested in leadership, communication and entrepreneurship. 

BootCamp Salmaitou initiative, for example, has introduced hundreds of girls aged 10 to 18 to the fields of science, technology and digital innovation, including some who have never seen or touched a computer. The program includes 10 days of training in robotics, mobile application and website development, personal development and other areas.

Sixteen-year-old Adama, a refugee who lives near the nation’s southern border, had never before attended school before joining the program in Kolda, a region in the south that shares borders with Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia.

"Before coming to Kolda, we were in an area where there was no school,” Adama says. “I didn't even know what school was about. When I came to Senegal, I asked my father to enroll me in school or let me do at least sewing lessons, but he didn't agree. He asked me to go learn the Koran. That's why I'm really happy to have at least participated in this training with Salmaitou."

Adama continues: “I didn't know anything about robotics but now I have a little knowledge about it. In addition, I know how to make beautiful photos, how to film and how to use a camera in general. What I liked the most about the whole training was robotics. What I like about the robot is that I can make it do whatever I want. If I want it to turn, it turns, if I want it to move, it moves and if I want it to stop, it stops."

Seventeen-year-old Awa, a high school student in Kolda, already has a plan for her future. "I want to become independent and autonomous later,” Awa says. “I don't want to rely on anyone. And above all I want to take care of my parents and my sister who mean a lot to me. I want to become an engineer."

Improving child health and nutrition

Other top priorities for UNICEF in Senegal: improving access to quality health, nutrition, safe water and sanitation services for vulnerable children, adolescents and mothers.

With UNICEF's help, the country has been able to vastly expand access to safe water — an estimated 8 in 10 households now have access from an improved source. But major disparities still exist between regions. UNICEF is supporting a number of programs to address those.

UNICEF is also involved in efforts to eliminate open defecation. The practice remains common across the nation, especially in rural areas, where it heightens public health risks.

“Poor sanitation puts children at risk of childhood diseases and malnutrition that can impact their overall development, learning and, later in life, economic opportunities,” says Silvia Danailov, UNICEF Representative in Senegal. “Without basic sanitation services, people have no choice but to use inadequate latrines or to practice open defecation, posing a risk to health and livelihoods.”

An ongoing UNICEF-supported national initiative called Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) aims to eliminate open defecation by 2030 through education and community outreach to promote behavioral change.

UNICEF is also helping to educate and mobilize a new generation of leaders to tackle these problems. In 2022, Senegal hosted the 9th World Water Forum, the largest water-related event in the world, convening presidents, ministers, members of parliament, Young Voices from the Sahel, international organizations, and members of both public and private sectors in Diamniadio to discuss, advocate and propose solutions to water scarcity, mismanagement and related challenges.

“In Senegal, the mismanagement of water affects women and young people a lot,” says Maguette Ba, a member of Young Voices from the Sahel's Senegal chapter. “In 2020, Senegal was hit by heavy rains. It was the weekend before my high school exams. I remember having a quite chill day but when I woke up the day after, my house was under water. We were walking under water, cooking under water, and even eating under water. There I was wondering: what if today was my exam day? What would I do, how would I go to school to take my exam?”

While Maguette lost her house because of the flooding in the suburbs of Dakar, women in the Casamance region walk long distances to find water.

“As part of my research, I was in the islands of Casamance where many women travel more than 4 km daily and spend about 2 hours and 30 minutes on the road to collect water. And on their way back home, these women pay 300 francs for a 20L bottle of water,” Bouly, another YVS, shared.

Marieme Soda Ndiaye, a Member of Parliament in Senegal, supports the YVS group's advocacy. For her, she says, “Africa will be built by us young Africans. It is through our ingenuity, our energy, our will, our solidarity and our values and our local and continental models here in Africa that we will find the solutions that our continent is confronted with.”

Related: Five Ways UNICEF Supports Adolescent Girls' Health and Well-Being

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to create a more equitable world for children.

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