Dakar

Dakar is the capital and largest city of the Independent Republic of Senegal and one of the chief seaports on the western African coast. It is located midway between the mouths of the Gambia and Senegal rivers on the south-eastern side of the Cape Verde Peninsula and is the westernmost city on the African mainland. The city itself was founded in 1857 and, as of 1902, it became the capital of French West Africa, and the later the capital of the failed Mali Federation, which existed only between 1959 and 1960.

Dakar (with the commune of Gorée) played a fundamental role in several different moments of world history: as a port for the slave trade of nations like Portugal, the Netherlands, and France, and as a territory to build a Free French nations stance against the Vichy government during World War II. Nowadays, Dakar is considered part of the World Heritage cities.

Culturally, Dakar has more recently been recognized for its Biennale of Contemporary Art called “Dak’Art”. It is also known for the Dakar Rally, a car competition that covered in its first year 10,000 kms, from Paris to Dakar. Until 2008, the rally had taken place between Europe and Africa, but has since moved to South America, retaining the name that echoes the Senegalese finish line.

Micro-gardens in Dakar

Summary

The city of Dakar is home to approximately 25% of Senegal’s population. Agricultural space is sparse, and food insecurity is a significant issue for the city government. In 1999, in order to to provide residents with alternative supply solutions, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in collaboration with the government of Senegal, the municipality of Dakar, and several NGOs, launched a micro-gardening programme.

Micro-gardening technology permits soilless horticultural production in small urban spaces such as roof tops, yards and vacant areas. Micro-gardening does not require expensive materials or intensive training. It provides families with fresh food and allows them to sell any surplus supplies for a small income.

Dakar’s population has increased for the last several decades. In 2011, the city housed 2.77 million residents in 550 square kilometres. As a result, the city has grown quickly and in uncontrolled ways with former agricultural land being settled and becoming part of the city and surrounding suburbs. This reduction in agricultural space has caused serious threats for those who suffer from insufficient food supplies.

When the Dakar micro-gardens programme was launched in 1999, it aimed to reduce poverty by enabling citizens to grow and consume fresh vegetables and broaden their income sources. A further objective of the project was to improve sustainable development by recycling material and diversifying water management. In 2009, the programme’s key focus became to increase and consolidate beneficiary groups and expand the vegetables being produced in order to commercialise the operation by opening a shop to sell micro-garden produce. Additionally, the  administrative unit of the municipality of Dakar took over  responsibility for managing and implementing the programme. This helped to increase capacity building within the city government and to secure financial sustainability of the programme after external funding ceased.

Implementation

Prior to the micro-garden programme launch, several preliminary actions were carried out.

• People charged with implementing the project, the Department of Horticulture Research Management and Agricultural Agency (part of Senegal Ministry of Agriculture) were provided with training. A technician from Colombia who had experience in micro-gardening trained future technicians for the Dakar programme.
• The newly trained technicians passed their knowledge onto beneficiaries of the project. One beneficiary group was the economic interest group (EIG) comprising 12 individuals, who joined forces to operate at a higher commercial level. Trainees were selected based on their economic situation and motivation to participate in the project. Mainly women applied to participate in the programme as their access to farming land and/or other income sources is limited. Individuals and private institutions were trained free of charge but were required to pay for the cost of materials. Agricultural technicians who provided the training were paid by the programme.

Long-term priorities were established and included further development of fixtures, buying and setting up of equipment, continuous production, compiling and maintaining a database, training technicians, trainers, and beneficiaries, and selecting new beneficiaries. Further action included research into reducing production costs, marketing and promoting micro-garden produce and a monitoring and evaluation process.

In 2001, the launch of a Special FAO Program for Food Security (SPFS) allowed for the expansion of the micro-garden project and it was replicated in other regional capital cities in Senegal. Subsequently in 2002, a workshop for regional technicians from all micro-garden projects around the country was held. In 2004, while FAO withdrew funding, logistic support for the programme was maintained. This enabled the project to be re-launched with financial cooperation between the City of Dakar, the City of Milan, and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Recently, however, funding has again ceased.

Financing and Resources

The first phase of the project was financed by FAO with funds of 250,000 USD.

The second phase, between 2001 and 2002, FAO provided 802,704 USD and from 2004 until 2006, 114,672 USD was provided.

Additionally, the City of Milan contributed 250,000 USD to the programme and during the last period of the programme, provided 450,000 USD, and the Italian government contributed 250,000 USD.

In 2008, prize money from the Dubai Award provided approximately 44,000 USD.

The programme has also benefitted from local support. The project office including a laboratory and reference garden site was provided by Horticultural Development Centre (CDH) at the Senegal Institute of Agricultural Research. Professional training for technicians for the project is provided by the Senegal national government.

Results and impact

The programme has been very successful with more than 4,000 families participating.

A high level of vegetable production has been achieved with a 2006 survey recording that one micro-garden can provide 6 cropping cycles per year and averages a yield of 30kg of vegetables per square metre annually. Families possessing micro-gardens consumed between 5 and 9 kg of vegetables per month, on average more than double the amount consumed by families not participating in the programme. Surplus crop yields also contributed significantly to income generation for participating families and thus strengthened their financial autonomy.

From a socio-economic perspective, the programme helped to provide fragile and disadvantaged groups with access to income and nutrition sources.

In terms of environmental protection, the programme has achieved positive results including recycling agricultural waste as a solid substrate, using old wood and other materials to build planting basins, and by resettling unused space.

A further benefit is the educational impact the programme has generated by providing schools and colleges with access to micro-gardens.

The programme has made an institutional and integration impact with several organisations from different levels of government (national, regional, local), non-governmental (NGOs), and private actors (EIGs, individuals) collaborating within the programme, and a new administrative unit within the city government has been created.

In 2008, the micro-gardening programme won an award from the municipality of Dubai for best practice projects in horticulture.

Barriers and challenges

Initially, some challenges arose around training and access to equipment for beneficiaries. With only one reference garden site, training opportunities were limited and external training was organised for technicians that was not budgeted for. Another challenge was securing funding to ensure continuous operation of the programme due to changes of donors/sponsors.

Other barriers are lack of production spaces, marketing micro-garden products and some technical and material constraints, such as durability in planting bins etc. Until recently, the greatest challenge has been the lack of local institutional infrastructure to maintain the programme in the absence of international support.

A barrier to transferability of the programme is the high cost of chemical fertilisers which need to be imported from abroad and are sold by only one supplier in Dakar. The micro-garden programme is currently involved in researching other possible solutions and vending sources in other Senegal regional capitals.

Lessons Learned and transferability

Several lessons have been learned regarding employing the technique of micro-gardening.

For example, optimising the planting process to increase the frequency of yields and revenue.

By developing and strengthening partnerships with a broad scale of actors, the programme succeeded in improving and expanding into other areas and contexts, including in schools and hospitals. Partnerships have been established with the American Peace Corps; Oxfam UK; Resource Centre for Social and Participative Emergence; LEGTA, Figeac, France; Pugnac Learning Centre, France; SOS Sahel International / Louga and the Association of Professors in Life and Earth Sciences.

In 2004, the programme was transferred to other cities in Senegal and Africa and a programme is currently being implemented in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

With the support of Oxfam, transferability of the programme has been achieved with technicians from neighbouring countries such as Mali, Niger, and Mauretania receiving training  from Senegalese Agricultural Services’ technicians familiar with micro-gardening techniques.

    

City Profile

Size and population development

The city of Dakar has an approximate population of 1,056,009 inhabitants, according to a UN census carried out in 2011. The Metropolitan area of Dakar, however, has a population of 3,732,284 inhabitants according to Senegal’s National Agency of Statistics and Demographics. In Metropolitan Dakar, 1.85 million inhabitants are male and 1.87 million are female. It has a surface of 547 square kilometres, which indicates a great population density in comparison to the rest of Senegal, since Dakar represents only 0.3 percent of the country’s surface and twenty percent of the total population.

Population composition

There are a great variety of Senegalese ethnicities living in the region of Dakar. The wolofs are the most prominent, but the city is composed of a diversity of pulaar, sérère, mandingue, diola, soninké. There is also a sizeable community of Lebanese descent which dates back to the 1920s, as well as various people of European decent. Around 90 percent of Dakar, as in the whole of Senegal, follow Sunni Islam with Sufi influences.

Main industries/business

As the capital of Senegal, Dakar represents the centre for economic activity and cultural gathering. It is the headquarters of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) as well as of the Fundamental Institute of Black Africa. Economically, it concentrates 80 percent of the activity of Senegal.

The traditional main industries of Dakar have been suffering difficulties, with the chemical, textile and wood industries in decline. Some of the problems have been attributed to the importation of products cheaper products from Asia or the acquisition of national companies by Asian conglomerates (e.g. Industries Chimiques du Senegal was bought in 2014 by Singapore-based Indorama). Formal and informal tertiary sector industries are developing more rapidly, with telecommunications, commerce, transportation and construction as the clearest examples of this rise. Dakar is also known for its trade of agricultural and fish products.

Sources for city budget

The city of Dakar receives its budget from the federal government of Senegal. It is comprised of tax revenues, loans and contributions by international organizations, and loans solicited to the banks. The budget is partly decentralized with a portion of it being given to the municipalities for its distribution. The local institutions are meant to use it in matters of public health, education and culture. When the unexpected arises and the budget does not reach the necessary levels, it is complemented with the taxes collected from places such as markets.

Political structure

Dakar is understood differently from a political than from an administrative perspective. Its political structure is that of a commune de ville. It is governed by an elected municipal council that is chosen every 5 years, which itself chooses the maire (mayor), who will serve as its head. In its current state, the mayor is Soham El Wardini, the first female mayor to Dakar in the history of the Independent Republic of Senegal.

Administrative structure

As one of Senegal’s 14 regions, the region of Dakar is divided into 4 arrondissements: Almadie, Dakar-Plateau, Grand Dakar, and Parcelles Assaines. Each arrondissement encompasses a number of the 19 communes d’arrondissements that serve as political structures of the city. The region approximately makes up the city, as well as its various banlieues, or to inexactly translate the word, suburbs.