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Loi n° 2012-31 of December 31, 2012, establishes the General Tax Code (Code général des Impôts) of Senegal. The law aims to modernize the fiscal system by simplifying rules, expanding the tax base, and creating an 'incentive common law' to promote economic growth and improve the business environment. It covers direct taxes (corporate and income tax), indirect taxes (VAT, specific taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and petroleum), registration duties, stamp duties, and land taxes, while detailing administrative procedures for audits, recovery, and disputes.

Law No. 2021-31 (the Electricity Code) reforms Senegal's electricity sector by repealing previous laws from 1998 and 2010. Key changes include the restructuring of the national utility Senelec into a holding company with specialized subsidiaries, the end of Senelec's wholesale purchase monopoly, and the introduction of third-party network access. The law establishes an Integrated Least-Cost Plan (PIMC) for sector planning, promotes decentralized rural electrification via private concessions, and empowers an independent Regulatory Body to manage tariffs. It also sets significant financial and criminal penalties for illegal operations and electricity theft.

The document provides a comprehensive framework for Senegalese communities to understand climate change, assess their vulnerabilities, and take 'climate action' through legal empowerment. It details the specific climate risks facing Senegal, lists international and national legal obligations, and provides a step-by-step toolkit for advocacy, information access, and litigation.

Natural Justice is an African organisation dedicated to social and environmental justice, employing a "Litigation Plus" approach that combines legal empowerment, research, policy influence, and strategic litigation. In 2024, the organisation supported over 30 strategic lawsuits across Africa, including successful challenges against Shell's seismic testing in South Africa and the annulment of an Environmental Impact Assessment for Sosian Energy Ltd in Kenya. The organisation also focuses on securing land tenure, protecting indigenous biocultural heritage in Namibia and Madagascar, and defending environmental defenders, notably supporting 180 activists through an emergency fund, including those protesting the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Uganda. Additionally, Natural Justice engages in global policy advocacy at UN biodiversity and climate summits to promote human rights-based approaches to conservation and energy transitions.

The African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ) project, implemented by a consortium including Natural Justice, PACJA, Oxfam Novib, AYC, and FEMNET/RECODEF, reports significant progress between 2021 and 2023 in advancing climate justice. Key activities include legal training for judicial actors in West Africa, community-led audits of coal plants, and the creation of youth and women's climate networks. In Senegal, the project supported legal action against industrial pollution in Cayar, influenced the national environmental code, and trained over 700 people in legal empowerment to defend their natural capital.

The 'Three Ps' framework (Principles, Policies and laws, and Practicalities) outlines a community-centric approach to the Just Energy Transition in Africa. It argues that for a transition to be truly 'just,' it must move beyond simple decarbonization to address historical injustices, ensure energy democracy, and protect the land and human rights of local communities. The guide emphasizes the necessity of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), the implementation of community-owned renewable energy (CORE) models, and the provision of climate finance in the form of grants rather than loans to avoid further debt for Global South countries.

Between 2022 and 2024, the African Environmental Defenders Initiative documented 232 non-lethal attacks against environmental defenders, with 67% occurring in East Africa. Uganda was the most affected country, accounting for 42% of cases, largely driven by opposition to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The report identifies government (34%) and multinational/investment companies (20%) as the primary perpetrators. Women defenders face specific gendered threats, including the withholding of sanitary products during detention and social stigmatization. The document also details country-specific conflicts, such as conservation-linked violence in Kenya, industrial mining in the DRC, and illegal logging in Madagascar, while highlighting the role of the African Environmental Defenders Fund in providing emergency legal and psychosocial support.

The report analyzes the interaction between ICCAs and international law, national legislation, and institutional frameworks. It identifies systemic threats to these areas, including discriminatory law enforcement and a lack of secure land tenure. While noting positive developments like the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and specific national reforms in countries like Kenya and Bolivia, it emphasizes that state-led conservation often excludes indigenous peoples. The document provides comprehensive recommendations for legal reform, the recognition of customary land rights, and the implementation of non-legal support mechanisms to ensure the sustainability of ICCAs.

The document examines the critical role of community land in Senegal for family farming and pastoralism, noting that previous reform attempts—including the 1964 law on the national domain and the 2013 National Land Reform Commission (CNRF)—have remained unfinished. It highlights the risks of large-scale land acquisition and the marginalization of customary rights, proposing five key recommendations: legal recognition of community rights, strengthening the role of local authorities, establishing local land registers, ensuring gender and intergenerational equity, and adopting a multi-stakeholder participatory approach to reform.

The report identifies a systemic gap between the numerical presence of women in local decision-making bodies and their actual decision-making power, termed 'participation de façade'. This exclusion is driven by a deeply embedded 'patriarchal habitus', significant 'time poverty' due to domestic burdens, and a lack of legal literacy. While women are central to the fisheries and agricultural sectors, they are largely excluded from the governance of these resources. The study proposes a transition from passive resilience to active environmental citizenship through a three-pillar model of legal empowerment: critical legal literacy, climate conceptualization, and transformational leadership.

The study analyzes 285 conflict episodes to determine how natural resources affect the duration of postconflict peace. It identifies three primary mechanisms: distribution, financing, and aggravation. The findings indicate that while natural resource conflicts generally show shorter peace periods bivariately, only conflicts driven by disagreements over the distribution of resources and revenues significantly increase the risk of recurrence in a multivariate analysis. This suggests that resource-related grievances are a more persistent driver of conflict relapse than the mere opportunity to finance warfare.

The research examines the transition from Yahya Jammeh's autocracy to the 'New Gambia' under President Adama Barrow, noting a surge in public accusations of 'tribalism'. The authors argue that these accusations are 'anticipatory and speculative', driven by fears of future ethnic monopolies on power rather than current organised mobilisation. Historically, Gambian politics has largely downplayed ethnicity, with the exception of the late Jammeh era where he used anti-Mandinka rhetoric. In the 'New Gambia', the discourse focuses on the moral character of political actors, where accusing an opponent of tribalism serves to delegitimise them as 'indecent' or 'uncivilised'. The authors conclude that while ethnic identification exists in daily life and is linked to livelihoods, it remains a marginal tool for formal political power compared to the potent use of tribalist slurs as a meta-political weapon.

The research examines 'pirogue migration' from West Africa to the Canary Islands, arguing that migrants are not irrational or suicidal but make decisions based on a specific socioeconomic and moral context. It identifies that the inability to achieve social adulthood—defined by financial independence and the ability to marry—creates a 'social moratorium' that makes the risks of the journey acceptable. The study finds that migrants actively filter risk information, often discrediting official awareness campaigns as biased. Furthermore, notions of masculinity, honor, and Sufi Islamic beliefs frame the journey as a courageous sacrifice or a matter of divine destiny, effectively neutralizing the fear of death.

The study finds no general statistical relationship between forest resources and the onset or duration of civil wars at the national level. While some disaggregated results suggest that proximity to the coast may prolong conflicts in forested zones, the authors conclude that the perceived link between forests and conflict is largely driven by a few specific cases, such as Burma, rather than a global pattern.

The Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) provides capacity building through two primary channels: Investment Academies, which help small and medium enterprises secure finance through modules on business planning and pitching, and the CORE Initiative, which offers technical training on DRE systems like mini-grids and solar thermal energy. These programs have trained 3,050 practitioners and 210 trainers across 15 countries, targeting the development of bankable projects and the transfer of engineering skills to enhance energy access and security in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

The document establishes a business case for gender equality in the decentralised renewable energy (DRE) sector, asserting that women-led businesses are often as profitable as or more profitable than those led by men. It provides a framework of recommendations for DRE companies, civil society organisations (CSOs), and investors to improve gender equality at the community, organisational, and investor levels. The report includes 17 case studies from various global regions demonstrating the impact of gender-sensitive interventions, such as solar kiosks in Togo, feminist microgrid development in Haiti, and technical training for women in Brazil.

A 2023 study by the Alliance for Rural Electrification and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung indicates that decentralised renewable energy (DRE) could create up to 40,000 direct jobs by 2030 in Senegal and Ghana. In Ghana specifically, a 'Forward-Leaning-Policy' scenario with 15% renewables in the energy mix could generate over 23,000 direct DRE jobs by 2030, while a 'Business-As-Usual' scenario targeting 10% renewables would result in more than 15,465 jobs.

The Ugandan government implemented expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 lockdowns. While these measures helped stabilize the financial sector and provided temporary liquidity to businesses, the pandemic caused real GDP growth to drop from 6.8% in FY 2018/19 to 2.9% in FY 2019/20. The industrial and services sectors were most severely affected, contributing to a projected 34.5% increase in the number of people living below the poverty line. Fiscal deficits rose to 7.5% of GDP in FY 2019/20, leading to a 21.7% increase in public debt stock to $15.27 billion.

This policy brief examines the integration of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into Africa, focusing on the shift from resource trade to infrastructure and industrial cooperation. It highlights the opportunities for regional integration and industrialization, while warning of the financial risks associated with debt-based lending and the need for African governments to ensure project viability and local capacity building.

The document examines the rapid growth of Sino-African relations, noting that bilateral trade rose from $2 billion in 1999 to $39.7 billion in 2007. It highlights a shift from aid-driven engagement to commercial dominance, where trade and investment now outpace official development assistance. While the partnership offers opportunities for infrastructure development and poverty reduction, the paper identifies risks including unsustainable debt, the displacement of local industries by cheap Chinese imports, and a lack of transparency in lending. It recommends that African nations improve their business climates, diversify exports to move up the value chain, and implement transparency initiatives to maximize gains from the relationship.