APA-Dakar (Senegal) – The long-term goal is to make Senegal’s local administrations more efficient.
As part of the Adapted and Accelerated Priority Action Plan (PAP2A), many activities are aimed at promoting the digital economy through the Senegal Digital Strategy 2025, with several projects and actions already implemented or under development. Better still, through the digital strategy, the government aims to make Senegal a hub for technological innovation, with digital for all and for all uses. This strategy aims to digitally transform Senegal by putting digital technology at the heart of socio-economic development.
“The Local Development Agency (ADL) has launched the E-Territoire programme to strengthen governance, inclusion, the transformation of our local authorities and their openness to the outside world through digital technology,” said Mamadou Talla, Minister of Local Authorities, Regional Planning and Development, in Dakar on Tuesday.
Talla launched the first edition of the E-Territory Days on the theme: “Digital intermunicipality as a tool for building territorial networks and pooling resources; what response for Senegalese local authorities.”
In his address, the Minister for Territorial Communities, Planning and Development stressed that the Senegalese state’s strong ambition, as expressed in Law III on decentralisation, is to “build viable, competitive territories that are conducive to sustainable development.” Mamadou Talla added: “Digital technology plays a central role in this option,” recalling that a National Digital Territorial Master Plan (SDNT) has been developed as part of E-Territoire and will be validated in June 2022.
According to Talla, the aim of this plan is to use digital technology and support its integration to modernise the way local authorities operate and facilitate access to public services; to use digital technology as a lever to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the regions; and to implement the projects resulting from the local digital plans drawn up by the three pilot communes of Sandiara, Bargny and Mont Rolland, with a view to scaling them up for other local authorities.
“Digital technology has the potential to improve the quality of the relationship between local elected representatives and citizens. It also represents a major opportunity to save time and resources through online communication and commerce. The use of digital technology is essential, if not necessary, for the development of our regions,” he said.
In his view, if local and regional authorities are to meet the challenges of the digital transition, they must resolutely combat digital illiteracy, i.e. “the state of a person who has not mastered the skills needed to use and create digital resources”.
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