Twenty years after the independence of 1960 – this period is characterized by a significant centralization in the management of the economy and the use of planning. However the effectiveness of the government’s policies had been questioned when the country faced a sharp debt crisis in the 1980s. The austerity related to the adjustment programs following that crisis did not allow economic growth to take place. This shows that the government is unable to cope alone with the economic and social problems. Therefore, the macroeconomic policy formation in Senegal involves other actors than the public administration only. The international donors are also involved from the beginning to the end of the process of definition and application of the economic policies, and the Non State Actors play a more important role. The consequence is that the economy has been greatly shaped by the policies recently undertaken by the government and its institutional partners (IFM, World Bank, etc.) in conjunction with the private sector. The purpose of this paper is to present the framework of economic policy formulation in Senegal from 1960 to 2012 with special focus on the years since 2000, and to identify the political, social and economic objectives of these policies. The role of the stakeholders such as the government, the international financial and technical partners, the civil society, the local administrations is also identified and propositions for a better impact of the economic policies in the future are made.
