Sensitize African governments and the international community in order to have the issue of poverty addressed from a human rights perspective, such was the purpose of the workshop that was held at Novotel Dakar between the 25th to the 27th of October 2004. The workshop, organized by the Regional Bureau of UNESCO in Dakar, in collaboration with the National Commission of UNESCO in Senegal, was centered on the theme "poverty perceived as a violation of human rights".

Presiding at the opening ceremony were the Minister Commissioner of Human Rights and the Promotion of Peace, Counselor Mame Bassine Niang, the Deputy Director of UNESCO for Social and Human Science, Mr. Pierre Sane, the Director of BREDA, Mr. Armoogum Parsuramen, and the Secretary of the National Commission of UNESCO in Senegal, Mr. Assane Hane".

In his welcome address, the Director of BREDA expressed his gratitude to the initiators of the meeting namely Counselor Mame Bassine Niang and Mr. Pierre Sane. He then reviewed the state of poverty in Africa while stressing that "it was unacceptable and unjust that in the 21th century, millions of men and women are excluded from the field of knowledge, that they are incapable of reading, writing and counting". Referring to the consequences of poverty on the foundations of the economic and democratic growth in Africa, he underlined that "no democratic system can be viable and durable if such form of exclusion and marginalisation persists in its mist. No process of economic growth can be effective, when individuals have not acquired the knowledge and the aptitudes necessary to their participation in their economic, social and cultural well-being".

The Minister Commissioner of Human Rights and the Promotion of Peace, Counselor Mame Bassine Niang, underlined the commitment of Senegal in the crusade against poverty. This commitment has been materialized by the adoption of the Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper (PRSP) that serves as a compass for all interventions of the State of Senegal in this domain.

The workshop was concluded with the drafting of a Plan of Operation and the constitution of a National Monitoring Committee dedicated to the adoption the new approach.

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