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1. Abdoulaye Wade is the president of Senegal.

2. Senegal's description A. Geography - Senegal is in western Africa, and it borders the North Atlantic Ocean. It is between Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania. There is a total area of 169,722 square kilometers and there is 531 km of coastline. The land is generally low, rolling, plains that eventually rise to foothills in the southeast, and the climate is tropical. B. Economy - The country has one of the best economies in Africa, but they rely largely on donors. Around 1995 they made great strides in annual GDP growth, but the 2009 economic downfall has affected them just like everybody; it restricted their growth of GDP. Unfortunately, they have a very large unemployment rate at 48%, and that makes a lot of their citizens escape the country illegally. Those who do make money and are employed do pretty well and are in the middle class. C. Population - 12,643,799 people D. Social Structure - They have a republic government. The urban cities, where the middle and upper class live, have the most clean drinking water at 92% of the urban population having it. The urban areas also have the most sanitation facility access at 69% of the urban population having it. This shows that the upper and upper-middle classes live in the urban areas, and the lower and lower-middle classes living in the rural areas.

3. He is one of the only political leaders in Senegal that has a doctorate in anything. Even more important, the doctorate is in law and economics which is great for being a president of a country. He always dreamed of being president, but as a teacher, instead of becoming one himself he taught and inspired other people to become them. Before he ran for presidency many times, he joined the pan-Africanist movement of Joseph Ki-Zerbo. After this he worked for the party that would eventually become the Senegalese Socialist Party (PS). Working for this party, teaching, and all of his law practice made him realize that he wanted to create his own party. He created the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and the President Senghor recognized the PDS as a legitimate party. This was the first opposition party to the PS and it was Senegal's first experience with multi-party politics. He was elected parliamentarian on the PDS ticket in 1978 and reelected in 1983. He lost in the race for president in 1978, 1983, 1988, and 1983. Although he lost the overall race, he was still the post of minister of state in the president's government. He was arrested for complying in a murder of the vice president Boubacar Seye in 1994, but he was acquitted. In 2000 he finally won the presidency by receiving 58% of the votes, and this marked the second peaceful transfer of power and its first from one political party to another.

4. People who support Wade A. President Lansana Conte of Guinea - Wade imposed his charisma, intelligence, and patience on the President on the matter of releasing Alpha Conde from prison. B. General Sani Abacha - Wade also helped this leader of Nigeria by helping him release General Obasanjo from prison. C. The United States - The U.S. respects Senegal for its able diplomats and the biggest diplomat in Senegal is Wade. He was the first person President Bush visited on his 2003 visit to Africa.

5. Safety and Rule of Law - Overall score: 63 A. Personal Safety: This is pretty good in Senegal, except for the southern Senegalese region of Casamance where there is one of Africa's oldest wars still going on. There are many rebel attacks there, but in the rest of the country, the personal safety level is good. B. Rule of Law: Senegal's system of laws is satisfactory. They have a pretty sturdy judicial system with all the basic courts like courts of appeals and all of the basic judicial systems. Recently, there have been smooth transitions in power. For example, Wade's transition into power was the second consecutive peaceful transfer in Senegal's history. C. Accountability and Corruption: The accountability of public figures (Wade) is good. Most of the promises that Wade makes, he keeps and he does whatever he can to make sure they stay that way. There are a couple of things that he says he is going to do and then doesn't, so it's not perfect, but it's not terrible. However, there is some political corruption that has taken place. Wade's son, K. Wade, is in charge of many things of the politics of Senegal. Many people don't like Wade's son, and yet, he is still in charge of many things. There is no abuse of power by Wade because he is a fair leader. D. National Security: This is not a huge problem in Senegal, and mostly everyone feels safe, unless they're a part of the southern region of Casamance, but as a nation the security is good. There is no problem with refugees coming into Senegal, the problem is with people leaving Senegal. Many people are leaving the country illegally to find jobs.

6. Participation and Human Rights - Overall score: 60 A. Participation: There is no problem with this. Wade is a big motivator for the youth to get involved, and they called him President of the Streets because he would always be on the streets talking to the young about voting and issues that were going on. This was one of his biggest priorities: to get the young people involved in politics. They do have free elections, it's a republic kind of government. B. Rights: There is no major problem with rights going to everyone. Women just recently have gotten almost all of the rights that men have had and do have now. Nobody is discriminated against and segregated; there are rights to everyone. C. Gender: This is a minor problem in Senegal because there are a lot more men being educated then women. Only 29.2% are literate while 51.1% of men are too. This difference is a big one, and it's a problem that isn't getting fixed. Many women are still just learning how to care for the home because of the traditional lifestyle. Other than this, most of the gender comparisons are equal.

7. Sustainable Economic Oppurtunity - Overall score: 53 A. Public Management: After the turn of the 1993 year, annual inflation started to go down, and now, presently, the inflation rate is down into single digits. This is very good for a country like this, and even though it has gone a little up with the downfall of the global economy, it's still pretty good. The GDP was going down over 5% a year, but since the economic downfall it has spiraled down to a meager 2%. This is being worked on by the reform program, and it should soon go back up to where it was. B. Private Sector: The private sector helped benefit the country in a big way. Senegal eradicated two-thirds of its bilateral, multilateral, and private sector debt, and this alone helped the country to get back to where they were. C. Infrastructure: This is the worst section in all of Senegal. The reliability of the electric supply is not very high because not enough is being produced. However, the U.S. is bringing teachers over to Senegal to teach them about solar energy. This should help to grow the limited supply that they have right now. About half of the country is using cellphones right now, so that isn't too bad but it's not great either. This should go up because Wade is planning on bringing cheaper cellphones into Senegal. This is because it doesn't matter what type of cellphone somebody has, so long as they have one. The Internet usage is not very good with only about 1/12 of the country being able to use the Internet. They also only have 241 Internet hosts, so even if somebody does have Internet access, it'd be very slow and very hard to get on. Internet is not a big thing in Senegal because it's not very available. Although, Senegal is getting the cheapest computers they can get so that they can get as many as they can. This should help the amount of Internet users. D. Environment and the Rural Sector: The rural and agriculture part of the economy is a huge part in Senegal with 77.5% of the workforce getting their job from agriculture. The bad part of this is that the Senegalese people are threatening wildlife populations with poaching, and then there's also problems with overgrazing, soil erosion (which is big because of how important farming is), desertification, overfishing, and deforestation. These issues are being worked on because there are starting to become protected areas, but very slowly.

8. Human Development - Overall score: 49 A. Health and Welfare: This section is overall pretty good except for one area, and that is child mortality rates. Senegal is one of the worst countries in the world with 56.42 deaths/1,000 live births. However, this section is not all bad. There is clean drinking water for 92% of those people in urban areas, and 69% of sanitation facility access for those same people. There are a lot of people in those areas but not all of them. The people in the rural areas don't have it as well because 52% of the population has clean water and 38% of them have access to sanitation facilities. B. Education: Education is a problem for Senegal. They have one university called the University of Dakar, and the conditions for its students is less than satisfactory. The students that go there protest many times that things need to be changed because they can't stay like this, and Wade is working with them. He is going to the school and sitting down with all the students and letting them express their concerns. He is not ignoring them like some leaders would, but instead he is embracing the criticism and trying to make the situation for the kids better.

Works Cited *Wade, Abdoulaye. Interview by Ofeibea Quist-Acrton. Personal interview. 6 Feb. 2001.

"Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal." Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations. 11th ed. Vol. 6: World Leaders 2003. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 29 Sep. 2011.

Bojang, Sheriff, Jr. "Hero abroad, criticism at home: Senegal's 84-year-old president, Abdoulaye Wade, is one of the leading Africans championing the course of a united Africa. But while he is busy solving problems across the continent, resentment and discontent over his government back home are growing. Sheriff Bojang Jnr reports from Dakar." New African Dec. 2010: 32+. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 30 Sep. 2011.

"Senegal." //U.S. Department of State//. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. .

"The World Factbook." //Central Intelligence Agency//. C.I.A., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. .