Projects in Senegal

Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture and Urban Agriculture are the two focus areas of Peace Corps Senegal’s Agriculture project. Urban Volunteers focus on micro gardening, school gardens, and community gardens. Sustainable Agriculture Volunteers, who work in rural areas, work to improve field crop production and harvests, long-term soil fertility, and vegetable gardens.

Agriculture Volunteers extend farming methods to community growers who work on smallholder family farms, which rely mainly on family labor. They assist smallholder farmers and their family members to adopt improved crop cultivation technologies and practices, particularly conservation agriculture, home gardening, improved soil and water conservation, improved post-harvest management, and better farm management.

Agriculture Volunteers are trained in and facilitate training on basic agriculture-related business principles, marketing, and promotion of income generating and projects that add value to crops cultivated in Senegal.

Additionally, Volunteers assist household members—particularly women—to access, and eat more diverse, nutrient-rich foods to improve their families’ nutrition. Volunteers and their community partners work with youth through schools and clubs to promote positive youth development and women’s empowerment while also promoting agricultural skills and garden development.

Environment

Environment Volunteers work to support environmental education, tree propagation/maintenance/diversification, and natural resource management. Volunteers collaborate closely with host communities and local technical partners to promote environmental stewardship and disseminate technologies that address relevant environmental issues while generating income and increasing access to nutritious foods. They also address waste management practices to protect the surrounding areas and keep communities healthy. Environment Volunteers link with partners and other Volunteers to promote food security, community resilience, and income-generating activities related to environmentally sound and sustainable practices.

Health

The Peace Corps has supported the Health sector in Senegal, particularly in rural areas, for decades. Volunteers work as facilitators, catalysts, and mentors to improve the organizational, management, and communication skills of community health workers. With their counterparts from the community health system, Volunteers also work with groups of new and expectant mothers to promote healthy pregnancies, safe deliveries, and healthy babies, with the goal of ending preventable maternal and child deaths. The project targets accelerator behaviors for behavior change while strengthening community health systems. As in all Peace Corps Senegal sectors, the Health project has a strong component of women and girls’ empowerment and youth leadership. Health Volunteers may also address income generating projects that have a dual benefit of enhancing disposable income while also benefiting nutrition, health and welfare of local communities.

Women and youth

Women and girls continue to lag behind men and boys in education, livelihoods, and health indicators. All projects in Senegal therefore include a strong focus on engaging women, girls, and youth to promote engagement of these groups to advance development objectives. Volunteers work closely with women's groups and extra-curricular clubs for school-aged children under their respective sectoral projects. Many Volunteers will also participate in secondary projects that include camps for girls and boys.