The National Conference of Senegal
The National Conference of Senegal were held from June 1, 2008 to May 24, 2009.
Over a period of eleven months, throughout the country and in the diaspora, these citizen consultations provided a forum for debate on Senegalese social issues.
For its initiators, the aim was to: “to find a consensual, comprehensive, effective and lasting solution to the multidimensional crisis (ethical, political, economic, social and cultural) that is plaguing the country “.
The discussions and consultations carried out within the framework of the 8 thematic commissions, as well as the citizen consultations organized in the 35 departments of Senegal and in the Senegalese diaspora (France, United States of America, Canada), had four objectives:
- take stock of the different areas and sectors of national life;
- propose guidelines for national public policy;
- reflect on the conditions for refounding not only the state and its institutions, but also the economy and society, with a view to ́attaining the targeted objectives;
- provide the outline of a new shared social project for Senegal.
In their programmatic intentions, the Senegalese National Conferences were thus an attempt to reconstitute and consolidate a public space transcending political cleavages, economic interests and ethnic-religious affiliations.
The experience of National Conference of Senegal provides a historical and practical framework for rethinking African experiments in the production of political modernity and cultural refoundation.
That’s why, through a multi-disciplinary approach, this project has delved deeper into these various questions and provided answers co-produced in collaboration with the main organizers of the Assises.
The project was funded by The United States Institute of Peace (USIP), an independent, non-partisan institution created and funded by Congress to prevent, mitigate and resolve conflict without violence.
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