Senegal
- 1.3 million
- people faced acute food insecurity during the lean season in 2023
- Nearly 250,000
- schoolchildren (including 54% girls) in vulnerable rural areas received school meals in 2023
- 18 million
- population
Senegal faces worrying levels of food insecurity, due to a combination of factors including inadequate access to food, inappropriate infant and young childcare and feeding practices, poor hygiene and sanitation practices, and insufficient access to drinking water and health services. In total, 1.3 million people faced acute food insecurity during the lean season in 2023.
Climate change has damaged food production through frequent heatwaves, droughts – particularly in the north – and flooding. This combines with poor land management and other factors such as deforestation in the south. At the same time, cumulated crises, from the war in Ukraine to poor harvests and regional instability, have driven up the price of food and transport services.
World Food Programme (WFP) support includes providing emergency assistance, for example through digital transfers, while building resilience to climate shocks through supporting sustainable livelihoods. We support the government’s national social protection programme, which aims to tackle chronic poverty and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities.
What the World Food Programme is doing in Senegal
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School meals
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WFP provides daily hot meals to schoolchildren from vulnerable households. Schools are supported with digital cash transfers, to provide the canteens with locally produced food. This in turn encourages local agricultural production and thereby increases incomes among the local community. However, challenges in securing prompt, flexible funding has particularly affected our school meals programme, forcing us to halve the number of schools supported.
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Nutrition
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WFP works with government institutions, civil society, the private sector, UN agencies and donors to provide specialized nutritious food, among other products, to people living in vulnerable areas, including children aged under 5, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people living with HIV. In addition, WFP also offers communication activities for behaviour and diet change, for example through radio broadcasts.
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Resilience
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WFP's resilience interventions help communities exposed to climate shocks, building resilient livelihoods and ecosystems needed to develop sustainable food systems. In practice This includes building half-moons, stone barriers and dykes to collect and control rainwater, training farmers in biopesticide-production techniques, tree cultivation and water management, creating green jobs for young people, and creating village savings and loans associations.
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Capacity strengthening
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WFP works to strengthen the capacity of the Government and partners at all levels to manage food security and nutrition strategies by providing training and technical support in food security and nutrition analysis, early warning, insurance, supply chain management and emergency preparedness and response, with a special focus on gender.
Senegal news releases
Go to pageIn focus
What a difference a year can make
Nutrifami, an innovative approach from WFP to reinforce and build cooks and managers capacities in senegalese school canteens
Video: WFP Senegal Country Strategic Plan
My trip to Senegal's Sahel as alarm bells ring
Vouchers to fight food insecurity in northern Senegal
I am 10 years old and I am the Minister of Communication
Partners and donors
Achieving Zero Hunger is the work of many. Our work in Senegal is made possible by the support and collaboration of our partners and donors, including:
View all
Find out more about the state of food security in Senegal
Visit the food security analysis pageContacts
Office
Route du Méridien Président, Almadies BP 6902 Dakar Etoile, Senegal
Dakar
Senegal
Phone
+221 33 859 75 50
Fax
+ 221 33 820 70 24