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Delegation Reports
Outward Delegation to Senegal
27 September to 3 October 2009 Report by Rt Hon Bruce George MP Delegation Rt Hon Bruce George MP – Leader (Labour) Our small delegation visited Senegal for just over a week, the first visit to this Francophone country in West Africa by the IPU British Group in over ten years. During our brief stay there, the whole delegation was determined to have a busy programme to make our visit as productive and demanding as possible. We ended up with a packed programme, holding more than forty meetings. We are extremely grateful to our Senegalese hosts and the British embassy for their assistance in this programme. Given this high number of visits instead of offering a day by day account of our visit I have grouped the meetings into four functional areas. We began, as is the tradition, with extensive briefings from our British representatives in Dakar. While the UK only operates a relatively small bilateral aid programme with Senegal, through the EU, we are significant contributors to the multilateral aid programme. On our first day of meetings we were met and briefed by the British Ambassador HMA Christopher Trott who not only covers Senegal but also Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mali. His contribution and that of his staff was exceptional. During this visit to the ebassy, and on a second subsequent visit, we also met the Serious and Organised Crime Agency who are working in the region to tackle the issue of drugs smuggling. We also met the British Council staff where we were briefed by their Country Director, Eric Lawrie, on their operations in the region and their English teaching programmes. The delegation was very impressed with their work. Later in the week, on 30 September, the Ambassador was kind enough to host a working dinner for the delegation at which we were joined by representatives from civil society who were able to give us an additional perspective on events in the region. We also met Ambassador Gilles Hervio, who heads the European Union’s mission to Senegal, to talk about the important work that the EU is currently funding. The government of Senegal was very generous with their time meaning that the delegation had the opportunity to meet Ministers and senior civil servants from across a broad range of departments. One of our first meetings was with the Minister for Health and Public Hygiene Mme Therese Coumba Diop. Our second full day in Senegal saw us visit four different departments, meeting senior officials from the Ministry of Tourism, M Faustin Diatta, the Minister for Social Affairs and Relations with Institutions, the Minister for Maritime Economy and Omar Samb the Director General of the Agency for the Development and Promotion of Artisan Work. In the following days, we were briefed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, the Minister of Finance, the Minister for Elementary Education, and Karim Wade (who is the President’s son), the Minister for International Co-operation, Air Transport and Infrastructure Planning. While the rest of the delegation visited a project run by women on tackling illegal immigration, in lieu of the traditional tour, I held parallel meetings with the Electoral Commission, UNDP and USAID. Given that this was a Parliamentary visit, it was extremely important for us to work closely with our Senegalese counterparts. Our first meeting in the Parliament was with members of the Senegalese IPU group chaired by M. Ndiawar Toure. We also met M. Pape Diop, the President of the Senate, and members of the Commission on Foreign Affairs, African Union and the diaspora. The Vice-President of the Assemblee Nationale was kind enough to invite us to dinner with a number of parliamentarians. During a visit to the British Embassy we also met a delegation of opposition parties. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, it was also important for the delegation to meet representatives from across Senegalese society and from outside government. So during our visit, we held meetings with Mame Less Camara, a journalist and commentator for BBC Afrique, Professor Penda Mbow a senior lecturer at Dakar University, representatives of civil society including WWF, Cabinet Conseil International, UNOCHA, and the Goree NGO on conflict prevention. Upon our return, we met the DfID Minister of State, Gareth Thomas, to discuss the problems we had ascertained during our visit and ways in which the British government could assist. The country has been one of the more democratic in Africa and one hopes the process will be sustained and deepened. International help is needed to solve the many problems that Senegal is currently facing.
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