The Senegalese government is launching an urgent project to reform the territorial administration. Following Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko's request in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, to establish a new territorial administration framework by February 2026, the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Public Service Reform organised a workshop to evaluate the implementation of the decentralisation charter this Thursday, December 4, in Dakar.

The decentralization charter, adopted by decree no. 2020-1784 of September 23, 2020, aimed at a better redistribution of administrative powers and local governance.

The ministry's secretary general, Thioro Mbaye Sall, regretted that this charter had remained "unimplemented for five years." She reiterated its initial objectives: a clear distribution of responsibilities at the decentralized level, a streamlining of public services through the development of territorial hubs, and the strengthening of human, financial, and logistical resources.

It is in this context that the ministry intends to "proceed with the updating and revision of this charter", in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic, who has asked for the establishment of local governance and an efficient and accessible administration.

Ms. Sall stressed the need to reach concrete solutions at the end of the work, emphasizing that there is "an urgent need to reach the conclusions of this work in order to move towards a re-evaluation and updating of this charter".

As a reminder, the development of the decentralization charter was one of the eight priority measures defined during the national forum for the modernization of the administration organized in 2016. The charter also provides for a monitoring and evaluation mechanism for public policies at the local level.