Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The area that today is Senegal once was part of the West African Empire of Mali,
Ghana, and Tekrur. The country takes its name from the river that runs along its
northern and eastern borders, forming the frontier with Mauritania and Mali. A poetic
etymology from the Wolof people states that the name derives from the local term
Sunugal, meaning "our dugout canoe" (everyone is in the same boat). The Republic
of Senegal became independent in 1960 after three centuries of French colonial rule.
Dakar, the capital since independence in 1960, lies on the Cap Vert peninsula, the
most westerly point in Africa. Before independence, Dakar was the capital of French
West Africa , which included nine French-speaking West African states. Although
predominantly Muslim, Senegal is a tolerant secular state, whose peoples have lived
together peacefully for several generations and have intermingled to some extent.
Islam is a potential unifying factor. Wolof is the national language. Independent from
France in 1960, Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the nominal confederation
of Senegambia in 1982. However, the envisaged integration of the two countries was
never carried out, and the union was dissolved in 1989. Despite peace talks, a
southern separatist group sporadically has clashed with government forces since
1982. Senegal has a long history of participating in international peacekeeping.
These are how and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy.
Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labor law, environmental
law, trade restrictions, tariffs, and political stability. It will further depict how political
factors shape the labor after Senegal in market evolution in Senegal after evolution
1945? Its by Pointing out the political factors as a key element in the evolution of the
labor market since 1945. The change in the labor market is been mainly shaped by
political factors as illustrated by four cases:
The Union franchise : 1946 to 1956
The post independance State policy at the adjustment structural era: 1980 to 2000
This policy which affects the political factors of Senegal consists of 2 key issues-
The extension of the investment policy through the adoption of the FIDES (Funds
investment development economy society)
It introduced the breakdown of the French west federation and the drastic reduction
of industrial investment.
The major consequence was the loss of major markets i.e. guinea, Soudan and ivory
coast and the increasing obsolescene of production facilities.
The post independance State policy at the adjustment structural era: 1980 to 2000
The economic crisis that began in 1968, , as well as the effects of rapid population
growth and accelerated urbanization deeply compounded the problem of an
oversupply of unemployed and underemployed workers.
The adoption of structural adjustment policies led to the withdrawl of the state from
the labor market in 1980.
Thus we conclude that the change in the labor market was determined by political
factors as well as economic factors.
Social environment-
It includes the cultural aspects and includes health consciousness, population growth
rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. The key issue is safe
operation of the equipments. It also consists of
1)Symbol stratification: the society historically which was organized into a hierarchy
of castes, a rigid structure in which descendants of royal lines and nobles ruled over
artisan castes and slaves. After independence, a new set of status criteria emerged.
New means for achieving wealth, power, and status were introduced through the
market economy and the development of the education system.
2) Symbol of social stratification- During the colonial era, nearly all the profits
generated by the largest firms went to foreigners and the local nobility. The
nationalization programs led by the government after independence favored a small
number of citizens who entered into a new competition for status and power.
3)Social Welfare and change programs: Poor economic management has led to the
intervention of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in State
programs and policies. Two decades of structural adjustment programs have reduced
government spending in all public sector activities, including social services. Urban
and rural dwellers have adopted creative survival strategies, that have helped them
cope with difficult times.
5) Child rearing and education: . By the time a child is five or six years of age, he or
she is taught good values and etiquette. A child should greet elders, help parents
with household chores, avoid foul language, and listen to the wisdom of elders. In
their early years, boys and girls play together. As they grow older, gender roles
become more sharply defined, with the girls remaining more with their mothers to
learn household chores.
TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT:
It includes technological aspects such as R&D activity, automation, technology
incentives and the rate of technological change. They can determine barriers to entry,
minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions.
Furthermore, technological shifts can affect costs, quality and leads to innovation.
The African Regional Center for Technology, with 30 member states, has its
headquarters in Dakar. Most research facilities in Senegal deal with agricultural
subjects. Dakar has centers for mining and medical research and a research institute
on African food and nutrition problems. An institute of research for oils and oilseeds
is at Bambey. The Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research, with headquarters at
Dakar, operates a national center of agronomical research at Bambey, a national
laboratory of livestock and veterinary research at Dakar, an oceanographic center at
Dakar, and numerous other technical facilities throughout the country.
The University "Cheikh Anta Diop" at Dakar, founded in 1949, has faculties of
medicine and pharmacy and of sciences, and research institutes in psychopathology,
leprosy, pediatrics, renewable energy, applied tropical medicine, applied
mathematics, health and development, environmental science, adontology and
stomatology, applied nuclear technology, and the teaching of mathematics, physics,
and technology. The University of Saint Louis has an applied mathematics unit. Other
facilities for scientific training include a polytechnic school; an international school of
sciences and veterinary medicine, representing 13 French-speaking countries, at
Dakar; and an institute of nutritional technology at Dakar. In 1987-97, science and
engineering students accounted for 21% of college and university enrollments. In the
same period, four technicians and three scientists and engineers per million people
were engaged in research and development.
ECOLOGICAL/ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS-
Cultures are quite diverse in moral teachings or beliefs and vary in many ecological
aspects like climate, geography, population size, and social organization. The Wolof
culture is an African tribe located between the northwestern areas of the Senegal and
Gambia rivers. This entire area has a tropical climate and a flat landscape. The climate
is usually dry and the Wolof people generally depend on wells for their water needs
besides agriculture. The Wolof people are a dominant group in Senegal. The majority
of the Wolof is Muslim and is very religious. They are rural villagers and each village
may consist of anywhere from 50 to 150 people. Although French is the main
language spoken in Senegal, the Wolof language is quite popular. The division of
labor is based on social status and gender. The Wolof recognizes the patrilineage
descent among villages. The Wolof organizational structure is characterized by
bilateral descent. The Wolof group is ideal to study because they represent a high
percentage of Senegal's population and there are a lot of documented sources on
their culture. Identifying moral prohibitions and taboos concerning the Wolof culture
is pertinent in understanding ecological and social factors and moral prohibitions by
using the eHRAF database.
LEGAL ENVIRONMENT-
There are various legal factors which affect the environment of the country. The
various laws which are being updated in wide range of areas example consumer
protection legislation, environment legislation,Health, safety and employment laws
etc. corruption has also been the vital factors which affects the legal environment of
the country. There are a number of factors that facilitate non transparent and corrupt
governance practices in Senegal.
These include:
• Lack of sufficient regard for the law and inadequate application of existing laws
• The politicization of the State bureaucracy and its inability to effectively deliver
basic public services.
• The limited scope and capacity of civil society organizations involved in
anticorruption activities
• Widespread public tolerance and acceptance of corruption based on cultural and
social norms and traditions.
Based on an analysis of Senegal's political, institutional, legal and cultural context, it
identifies four major, overarching problems that need to be addressed to
significantly improve governance and reduce corrupt behavior:
1- factor conditions
2- demand conditions
DEMAND CONDITIONS- are the quality of the home demand for a product or service
in an industry.
RELATED & SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES- are defined by whether a nation has the
supplier and related industries are competitive.
FIRM STRATEGY, STRUCTURE & RIVALRY- conditions within a nation that administer
how companies are created, organized, and managed along with the type of
domestic rivalry.
Price and income elasticities of demand, as well as price elasticities of supply are
greater for manufacturing than other industries.
1) Gold Mining
Grand cote mineral sands project- development project with tier 1 pot
SABODALA PROJECT
communications-
For a developing nation, Senegal has a well organized infrastructure
The World Bank estimated that in 1995 there were 507 kilometers
(315 miles) of paved road per million people. The CIA World Fact Book
2001 notes that there are 14,576 kilometers (9,058 miles) of highway, 4,271
kilometers (2,653 miles) of which are paved. Although the railway system is
somewhat antiquated, it carries more than 3 million tons of cargo per year.
The railway network, which extends across 906 kilometers (563 miles), links
the major cities to Dakar and provides services between Senegal and Mali.
year and moving more than 20,000 metric tons of international airfreight.
There are direct flights to Europe and North America, along with frequent
20 airports in 1999.
By 1999 this share increased to 93 percent. Within this subgroup, substantial change
has taken place. In the 1970's, the groundnut oil sector dominated, with 56 percent
of manufactured exports in 1974. In the 1980s, with the creation of the ICS, coupled
with a decline in the groundnut harvests, the situation changed markedly. By 1999,
the groundnut industry's share had plummeted to less than 12.6 percent while
chemicals were up to 39.8 percent.
The fishing industry also experienced a large expansion, and accounted for just over
40.6 percent of manufactured exports in 1999.