Skills profiling and data governance in Senegal
Senegal is a regional pioneer in diaspora engagement and is expanding its efforts and innovation in this field. In 2006, it became one of the first African countries to adopt a diaspora engagement policy and has since recognised its diaspora as the “15th region” of the country, ensuring civic and political participation. With the recent decision to position the Direction des Sénégalais de l’Extérieur (DSE) as the coordinating body of institutions active in diaspora engagement, Senegal is taking a strategic step to improve its knowledge of the diaspora and advance its Vision 2050 objectives.
With support from EUDiF, the DSE seeks to strengthen its capacity to profile diaspora skills and enhance policymaking and programming around human capital transfer. The CDL project will support this by providing training on diaspora skills profiling and an accompanied pilot profiling exercise, as well as by developing a data governance framework and delivering related training.
By complementing the preparation of a “guichet unique” and the first Diaspora Day in December 2025, the project will consolidate Senegal’s leadership in this field. In the long term, it will contribute to evidence-based policymaking and reinforce diaspora contributions as a driver of economic growth, social equality, and institutional reform.
In partnership with
The needs assessment will be conducted through a series of interconnected sub-activities in order to prepare the rest of the project’s activities to meet the needs of DSE. In particular, it will include review of existing diaspora data and systems coordinated by DSE and its institutional partners so as to adapt the EUDiF diaspora skills profiling methodology to the national context and institutional capacities.
Through in-person workshops, the DSE and selected participants will develop capacities to run a diaspora skills profiling exercise and analyse the results, based on EUDiF’s diaspora skills profiling methodology. Core topics covered will be: Research methods, Communication with the diaspora, Data analysis, Data governance and Good practice in skills transfer.
In coordination, the DSE, embassies, relays, EUDiF and its expert(s) will run a skills profiling campaign to identify the skills of the Senegalese diaspora in France. This activity will use the profiling tools tailored and refined in A1 and employ the knowledge and skills developed with the participants during to leverage their networks for the dissemination step, and subsequently analyse the results of the data collection.
The project closes with a reflection and restitution workshop in Dakar with DSE, institutional partners, EUDiF and its expert(s) to discuss the process and results of the skills profiling. It will explore how to use the results to improve existing diaspora engagement programmes, and/or design additional initiatives to maximise the potential of diaspora skills for Senegal’s economic growth. It will also include reflection on the profiling exercise to inform the lessons learned for DSE and partners.