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Senegal has made significant progress in poverty reduction, with the proportion of its people living in poverty falling from 67.9% in 1994 to 50.6% in 2005 (République du Sénégal, 2008). There  has been economic growth, although below the 7% required to achieve the targets of the country’s second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) 2006–2010, and this shortfall challenges the country’s prospects of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Senegal has improved its human development  indicators, although national figures hide disparities across gender, regions and income levels, indicating the need for policy and programmes to close these gaps.

As part of a broader study on childhood poverty and social protection in West and Central Africa, this paper provides an overview of poverty, vulnerability and risk in Senegal and discusses the extent to which social protection systems and instruments are addressing childspecific experiences of poverty and vulnerability (UNICEF and ODI, 2009).