Senegal has made great progress in economic and human development. It will be the fifth African country to leave the Least Developed Countries (LDC) category, after Botswana, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

In December 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to remove Senegal from the LDC list after a five-year preparatory period, ending in December 2029.

“The UN General Assembly has adopted resolution A/79/L.49, Graduation of Cambodia and Senegal from the least developed country category. The two countries will graduate from the LDC category on 19 December 2029 after being granted, on an exceptional basis, an extended preparatory period of five years (the standard period is of three years) to enable them to effectively prepare for graduation and ensure a smooth transition out of the category,” the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs stated.

The UN urged Senegal and Cambodia to create national strategies to manage this transition, with support from UN agencies and partnerships with regional, bilateral, and multilateral stakeholders. It also described the removal from the LDC category as a landmark achievement, reflecting significant progress toward development goals.

As a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Senegal has made remarkable advancements in economic growth and human development over recent decades. Between 2014 and 2019, the economy grew at an average rate of 6% annually. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and domestic political tensions slowed growth, which fell to 4.1% in 2023 and 5% in 2024.

Despite these challenges, Senegal’s economic outlook is promising, driven by the start of hydrocarbon exploitation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts a growth rate of 10% in 2025.

Senegal’s Human Development Index has also improved significantly, increasing from 0.371 in 1990 to 0.517 in 2022 on a scale from 0 to 1.

The LDC category, created by the UN General Assembly in 1971, is designed to provide special international support to the world’s most vulnerable nations. This status allows access to preferential markets, development aid, technical assistance, and technology capacity-building programs.

Countries are added to or removed from the LDC list following reviews by the UN Committee for Development Policy. The committee evaluates socioeconomic factors such as gross national income per capita, which must exceed $1,306 for removal, human development indicators like child and maternal mortality rates and literacy, and vulnerability to economic and environmental challenges, such as reliance on agriculture and susceptibility to natural disasters.

Since its establishment, eight countries have graduated from the LDC category: Botswana in 1994, Cabo Verde in 2007, the Maldives in 2011, Samoa in 2014, Equatorial Guinea in 2017, Vanuatu in 2020, Bhutan in 2023, and São Tomé and Príncipe in 2024.

Currently, there are 44 countries in the LDC category, with 32 in Africa, 8 in Asia, 3 in the Pacific, and 1 in the Caribbean. Some countries, such as Zimbabwe, Bolivia, and North Korea, have chosen not to be included in the LDC list.