In 2025, Senegal experienced a minor downturn in its execution of UEMOA’s community reforms, policies, programs, and projects. This occurred even as authorities generally deemed the outcomes satisfactory.

During the political segment of the 11th Annual Review of UEMOA community initiatives, hosted by Senegal, the nation’s average implementation rate for 2025 was officially recorded at 76.45%. This marks a decrease of 2.14 percentage points from the 78.59% achieved in 2024. This year’s assessment encompassed 145 reforms, an increase from 132 in the previous cycle.

These findings emerged from discussions that brought together Senegalese government officials and representatives from the UEMOA Commission. The session was presided over by Cheikh Diba, the Minister of Finance and Budget, who was joined by Abdoulaye Diop, President of the UEMOA Commission.

Minister Cheikh Diba attributed this overall decline primarily to observed retreats in economic governance and convergence reforms, which saw a 1.3 percentage point reduction. Additionally, sectoral reforms experienced a significant drop of 6.03 points. However, positive strides in the common market, registering a 0.91 point increase, helped temper the overall negative performance.

The Minister elaborated that challenges within economic governance and convergence stemmed largely from the delayed submission of the 2024 report from the Single Window for Financial Statements Deposit (GUDEF) to the UEMOA Commission during the technical review phase.

Notwithstanding the overall downturn, several critical areas demonstrated commendable progress. Noteworthy advancements included the harmonization of legal, accounting, and statistical frameworks for public finances, which improved by 1.83 percentage points. The customs union saw a 4.55-point increase, while the agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and environment sectors collectively rose by 2.12 points. Human and social development recorded a substantial gain of 6.58 points, and the energy and mining sectors advanced by 3.33 points.

Cheikh Diba specifically highlighted culture, tourism, craftsmanship, quality standards, and the business environment as areas where structural reforms yielded particularly significant outcomes.

Commitments unveiled to reverse the trend

According to the Finance and Budget Minister, these outcomes necessitate immediate and focused attention, along with urgent corrective actions. The Senegalese government has pledged to implement the necessary strategies to reinforce existing achievements, enhance overall performance, and systematically address the identified deficiencies.

He stressed that substantial work remains, particularly in finalizing document validation procedures, ensuring the timely submission of supporting documentation, and diligently executing and monitoring community-level programs and projects.

This political review phase successfully affirmed the findings from the technical assessment, simultaneously reinforcing the commitment of the Senegalese administration and its senior leadership to implement UEMOA’s community reforms.

Cheikh Diba noted that while there is still scope for improvement, Senegal’s performance aligns with a wider trend observed across UEMOA member states, many of whom have also made considerable strides in their reform implementation efforts.

The Minister reiterated Senegal’s unwavering commitment to strengthening regional integration as a paramount national priority. To this end, the conclusions from this political phase are scheduled to be presented to Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko during an upcoming meeting with the President of the UEMOA Commission.