Alara Mildon

In the year between 1990-2001s, the country of Senegal was fighting with the economical issues which were detrimental for the society and the future prospects. At the end of 2000s, Senegal government realized that the legislations must be corrected and reassigned again to have the stable economical standing. Besides, Africa economy and Senegal comparison demonstrated desperate outcomes, especially after 1992. The name of privatization brought its importance when the economy became irrevocably terrible. (Economist, 2018) Researchers concluded that the main reason for this irrevocably terrible that economy is unmashinable because of lack of agricultural technology. Agriculture is the main concern and the main source that can be utilized in a certain circumstances of Senegal (Amnesty International, 2018). However, to cultivate the existed resources and to refine them, complete agricultural background is needed. Besides, Senegal government was aware about that they are not currently having the technology they need either to process or to proceed. Thus, additional solutions, long-term or short-term was required. The short-term plan of Senegal was to proceed the upcoming elections to accomplish the agricultural -long and -short term solutions. To achieve the aim, Senegal government decided to design the future for Senegal with the legislations of enforcement for developing Senegal economy. Thus, Senegal government was taking significant decisions regarding the things related with short-term measurements, especially for the economical future of  Senegal. 

Privatizations were the foreseen solution for the survival of Senegal economy due to lack of economical power (New York Times, 2017). Privatizations started first for the partial factories such as peanut factories and/or electrical industry. Selenec, electrical company in Senegal, and its marketing body named as Sonacos were the primarily privatized, selected company. In the year between 1990-1995, overall IMF role was on the annual GDP growth of Senegal. According to IMF, the findings were more than 5 percent which was below the annual expected percentages. IMF role and political power had conflict and caused some dangerous circumstances related with the industrial establishments such as Senelec which is electrical company, and marketing body, Sonacos. (Financial Times, 2018). Not only the electrical companies, but also transportation company, Royal Air Maroc, were privatized and sold from Air Senegal as the percentage of 51% in 2000. 

The privatization brought the critical aspects in the government side because some problems occurred regarding the huge differences between expected and occurred promises. Although privatization was thought as the main solution, outcome was not the actual solution. For instance, Dakar-Bamako railway was in the line of privatization targets of the country where the government of Senegal was planning to do it as a due date to the end of June 2002. However, the privatization due date needed additional funding. Besides, regional stock exchange was still having the same problematic issues even though it had geographical advantages over West African countries. Some governmental decisions were made to compensate the late or non-acted steps. 

To understand the privatization impact on Senegal population and government, economy was not the only reason. Social and political aspects were also affecting the actual situation. Especially, imbalance in Senegal policy had impact on non-acted steps. Thus, elections were continous concern and the main reason for imbalance. Imbalance in the period of 1990 to 2003 for Senegal was almost economical but affect governmental legislations with heavily political aspect. Besides privatizations, the economical concerns of Senegal at the end of 2003, the election is occurred in 2012. In this election, 1 July 2012, the winner party newly elected President Macky Sall won 119 of the 150 seats in the Natural Assembly (Africa Confidential, 2018).  After the elections, Senegal faced some uncertain future in terms of growth of the terrorism. Neighboring countries of Mali and Mauritania, Senegal has so far not been affected by terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. However, by the candidacy of President Abdoulaye Wade, the concerns related with the Islamic terrorist groups are increased. Of course, the period between 2012-2016 and the reasons for 2017 elections or how Senegal enter the 2017 elections, in which situations, will be demonstrated by concepts and progresses in economy as well as politics. Another duty the new government was dealing with was recognizing the priorities. Poverty and cutting the down poverty and enhancing the well-being of the population is one the most important prior facts. For instance, Senegal was strongly dependent on import of rice (800,000 tons/year) and wheat (300,000 tons/year) for feeding the population while there should be management to get use of potentials of farmlands and guarantee the food self-sufficiency. The same or even more attention must be given to the education (UNDP, 2018). An important fact about political elections was the newly set rules which required an equal gender balance on party lists. Hence, women got an equal shot in this election. This plan came three months after Sall won the election while was long waited with Wade. Thanks to this rule, 64 women were entered to the assembly in 2012.

Increased terrorism and decreased annual budget per person in parallel affect the overall economical status. The need of privatization is thought to be the solution, but the political imbalance was not planned. Current economical aspect is still suffering from the political legislations, especially IMF pressure on Senegal government about non-acted steps. This changeover made economic interests cautious at first, but the private sector quickly adapted, especially as the new government clearly supports the sector’s growth and has taken on board several of its proposals, such as setting up a body to encourage small and medium-sized businesses. Investment has been made easier by a new investment promotion body, APIX, even though rigidities continue. Two obstacles remain however – the problem of land titles and heavy taxes. Lack of a national land register hinders the growth of farming, since land cannot be used as security, and private investment, because accession to and use of legally acquired sites cannot always be guaranteed.

Bibliography 

1. Economist. 2018. Senegal’s Democracy is Being Tested by Its President.
2. Amnesty International. 2018. Senegal: Unfair Trials of Senior Opposition Members Spark Human Rights Concerns Ahead of UN Review.
3. New York Times. 2017. Accused of Corruption on Multiple Continents, and Comfortably Defiant in Senegal.
4. Financial Times. 2018. Discoveries in Senegal.
5. Africa Confidential. 2018. President Plays by His Rules.
6. UNDP. 2018. Human Development Indicators: Senegal.