Community action bolsters Senegalese rural community

In most of Senegal’s 12,355 villages, people still fetch water for drinking, bathing, and washing clothes the old-fashioned way – from hand-dug wells. The difficult and time-consuming chore of drawing and transporting it falls mainly to women and girls, many of whom walk long distances with buckets of up to 25 liters balanced on their heads. Getting water is often deemed a higher priority than school, homework, other chores, and play.

Just 30 miles from Senegal’s bustling capital of Dakar lies Diass, one of the West African country’s 320 rural collectivities. Here, improving access to water is a concern shared by citizens and local government leaders. Though strategically located along a busy highway in a coastal zone that enjoys a burgeoning tourist industry, until recently Diass struggled to raise enough revenue to meet basic needs and seize economic development opportunities.

With technical support from USAID’s decentralization and local governance program, Diass’ rural council and citizen’s groups came together in 2001 to set community priorities. At the request of community leaders, USAID carried out a series of training and information activities over the next two years that strengthened the council’s ability to prepare realistic budgets with strong citizen input, identify and analyze revenue sources, and develop strategies to improve tax recovery.

A key to improving revenue collection in Diass was clarifying roles and building cooperation between the rural council that approves and executes the collectivity’s annual budget, and state financial service agents who alone are empowered to actually collect revenue.

Consultations between the two parties organized by USAID in 2002 revealed promising new ways to work together. While state treasury and tax services in Diass were responsible for collecting various taxes from citizens and businesses, their limited manpower and funding had often prevented them from conducting censuses of taxable businesses and buildings. As a result, local revenues went uncollected. The rural council had enough people to conduct censuses, but it had been unaware of how it could help the state.

Beginning in 2002 the council gathered data that allowed the treasury service to update its tax rolls. This new collaboration, along with a public outreach campaign to inform entrepreneurs and citizens about how local taxes are collected and spent, has paid off in Diass.

In 2001, prior to USAID’s technical assistance, Diass’s rural council approved an annual budget of $69,000 but brought in only $39,000. Two years later, however, Diass nearly tripled its revenue, collecting $104,400 in 2003. Beginning in 2002 the council gathered data that allowed the treasury service to update its tax rolls. This new collaboration, along with a public outreach campaign to inform entrepreneurs and citizens about how local taxes are collected and spent, has paid off in Diass.

Attitudes have also changed. Residents and business owners understand that their taxes are being used to fund projects such as well construction and repair, or school and sport supplies for youth, and therefore they are much more willing to pay. This could be the first of many positive changes in Diass.

"People in Raffo know that there is a link between their payment of rural taxes and the improvements in their community,” says Chief Ibrahima Seck of Raffo Village, Diass Rural Collectivity. “Even the World Bank recognizes the change. They built our first classrooms this year. The people of Raffo will keep paying the yearly tax.”