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Country Assessment: Africa

Senegal has been implementing a national urban upgrading and land legalization policy since 1987 in order to respond to the rapid and uncontrolled urban growth of its sprawling squatter areas. In the past, the Government applied a policy of successive slum evictions (deguerpissement). In 1985, there was strong reaction against the massive slum clearances implemented in Dakar, and as a result, the deguerpissements were stopped. 

Faced with the magnitude of the growing informal areas and the negative social reaction to the clearance policy, the Government decided to apply a new "urban upgrading and land legalization policy" with the support of the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). This upgrading policy has over time become one of the main components of the national urban policy developed in order to resolve the strong demand for housing for the poor. 

Set up by a unit of the Directorate of Urban Planning (DUA) and the GTZ, the urban upgrading and land legalization policy was established in 1987, and has been regularly applied since. The policy was first used experimentally in the Dalifort neighborhood (1987-1990); was later set up as a national policy by two Presidential Decrees in 1991;1 is being extended to nine neighborhoods in Dakar; and was duplicated and adapted by other development agencies. Recently, new institutional and financial instruments have been created in order to sustain this policy. During this process, evaluations have been made; and the lessons learned from both successes and failures have been incorporated in the approach for new projects.

Full Report: Upgrading of Low Income Settlements Country Assessment Report: Senegal  

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