Loading...
Information and communication technologies and social development in senegal
Sagna, Olivier Sagna, Olivier
Sagna, Olivier
Sagna, Olivier
Author(s)
Author(s) (Additional)
Illustrator(s)
Producer(s)
Contributor(s)
Contributor(s) (Other)
Editor(s)
Advisor(s)
Contact(s)
Data Collector(s)
Collections
Files
Loading...
sagnaeng.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.13 MB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Online Access
Abstract
"Given the development of infrastructure and telecommunications services, the proliferation of private radio stations, the diversification of the audiovisual landscape, with packaged satellite programming, connections to the information superhighway, and the growing use of information and communications technologies in different segments of the society, Senegal can be said to have entered the information society in the early 1990s. Since then, it has been faced with an information revolution, with its attendant social, as well as political, economic and cultural consequences. Thus, along with technological progress, we are witnessing the foundations for a societal revolution. A careful study of the causes and effects of this phenomenon must be made, in order to ensure that social development continues to be a concern of the highest priority. Senegal s entry in the information society is occurring against a particularly difficult economic and social background. The productive structure is dominated by services sector, providing 59.3% of GDP in 1998, while the primary sector, which employs 60% of the population, contributes only 17.4% to the formation of national wealth. Notable as signs of the worsening crisis are the following facts: informal sector workers continue to represent an increasing percentage of the population; the urban unemployment rate is 29%; the annual income of the average Senegalese is US$530; and 33% of the population lives below the poverty line. Although macroeconomic balances improved following implementation of the 1993 emergency plan and the devaluation of 1994, with a marked growth rate of 6.1% in 1999, Senegal is burdened with a large external debt (US$3 billion 865 million) and ever greater social deficits.1 The country s population, currently 8.6 million, is increasing at the rapid annual rate of 2.7%. The population is composed of a large proportion of young people and women: 58% of the population is under 20 years of age, with women comprising 52% of the total population. Forty-five percent of the population currently lives in the cities, but with the high rate of urbanization, projections suggest that this figure will reach 63% by 2025. There is also a severe imbalance in the spatial distribution of the population, with Dakar (which comprises 0.3% of the national territory) is home to 22% of the population. Rapid demographic growth, the low average age of the population, fast-paced urbanization, and the high proportion of women, create intense social demands that remain largely unsatisfied.2 Entire segments of the society are deprived of access to basic services, such as education, health, running water, electricity, etc., against the backdrop of widespread unemployment, with the supply of jobs unable to keep pace with the rising demand for jobs. Thus, in 1998, the rate of school enrollment was 65.1%, with a 65.4% illiteracy rate among adults. Health conditions are a source of concern: the country has high maternal and infant mortality rates; poor health coverage, according to standards recommended by WHO; a 52-year life expectancy at birth; and only 51% of the population with access to drinking water. Though women, who constitute a majority of the population, are heavily involved in agriculture in rural areas and in informal-sector work in urban areas, they are more vulnerable to poverty, disease, and illiteracy than any other group, since the allocation of funding and tools for economic and social development generally benefits others, to the detriment of women."(pg 4)
Note(s)
Topic
Type
Preprint
Date
2000-08
Identifier
ISBN
DOI
Copyright/License
With permission of the license/copyright holder