On 2nd and 3rd February 2026, the Ministry of Employment and Technical and Vocational Training and the National Agency of Statistics and Demography of Senegal presented a diagnostic analysis of the labour market. The study was carried out under the project “Boosting the creation of decent jobs by improving the placement system for young women and men and the formalization of enterprises in Senegal,” coordinated by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and funded by Italian Cooperation through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).
The document provides updated data and an analysis of companies’ skills needs, while also offering an overview of the main territorial and sectoral challenges, together with concrete recommendations for more targeted and inclusive employment policies. The study represents a key step toward the validation of the new National Employment Policy and the strengthening of the sectoral strategic framework, within which Italian Cooperation supports the competent Ministry.
A further step forward in the territorialization of employment policies was taken on 12 February 2026, when agreements were signed in Dakar between the Ministry and the 14 Regional Development Agencies (ARDs), within the framework of the Project supporting the territorialization of employment placement policies. This step makes the Territorial First Employment Mechanism operational across the entire national territory—an innovation introduced by Italian Cooperation in 2020 and now recognized by the Ministry as an established good practice.
The collaboration between Italian Cooperation, the Ministry of Employment and Technical and Vocational Training of Senegal, the International Labour Organization, and the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin—key partners in the ongoing initiatives—will enable, over the next three years, the placement of 10,000 young graduates and women in an equal number of local enterprises. The concept of first employment thus becomes a strategic lever for aligning young people’s skills with the needs of priority economic sectors within the Territorial Hubs.