Senegal

• © UNESCO/I. Forbes
• Tostan Literacy Project, Non-formal education

Senegal joined UNESCO on 10 November 1960. The UNESCO Office Dakar, Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA), was opened in 1970.

The World Forum on Education, giving new impetus to the Education for All (EFA) programme, was held in Dakar in 2000. It set the specific goals of the Dakar Action Plan. These goals were reviewed at a follow-up EFA meeting in December 2007, again in Dakar.

In 2006, President Abdoulaye Wade received the Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize. It recognized “his contribution to democracy in his country and his mediation in political crises and conflicts in Africa.” The ceremony at UNESCO was attended by numerous international personalities.

Senegal is a member of the Intergovernmental Committee of the Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Senegal’s Gorée Island is a key site in the history of slavery. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978.