Momar-Coumba Diop

Momar-Coumba Diop taught sociology at the Faculty of Arts of Dakar University (now known as Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar) from 1981 to 1987. He then joined the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) of Cheikh Anta Diop University as a research professor. He was a Technical Adviser to the President of the Economic and Social Council of Senegal for a brief period (1980-1981).

His troisième cycle doctoral thesis, defended in 1980 at the University of Lyon II, in France, was on Religious Brotherhoods. M. Diop has led several research teams and supervised the work of several others. He is the editor of Senegal. Trajectoires d’un Etat (Dakar: CODESRIA, 1992; translated and published in English under the title Senegal, Essays in Statecraft (Dakar: CODESRIA, 1993); and of Le Sénégal et ses voisins [Senegal and Her Neighbors] (Dakar: Sociétés-Espaces-Temps, 1994). He participated in the preparations for a major conference on regional integration in West Africa that IDRC organized in Dakar in 1994 and, with Real Lavergne, wrote the synthesis of the discussions [see: L’Intégration régionale en Afrique de l’Ouest. Résultats de la Conférence internationale organisée par le CRDI à Dakar (Sénégal) du 11 au 15 janvier 1993 [Regional Integration in West Africa. Results of the International Conference Organized by IDRC in Dakar]. Ottawa, CRDI, 58p.]. M. Diop is the co-author of Le Sénégal sous Abdou Diouf. Etat et société [Senegal under Abdou Diouf: State and Society], (Paris, Karthala, 1990). He was one of the founding editors of the journal Sociétés-Espaces-Temps, and of the African Sociological Revue.

M. Diop was the coordinator of a major research project on social policies in West Africa (with case studies on Senegal, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso). A synthesis of the outputs of that project was published by the United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (UNRISD), based in Geneva (see: Les politiques sociales en Afrique de l’Ouest. Quels changements depuis le sommet de Copenhague? [Social Policy in West Africa: What has Changed since the Copenhagen Summit?], Geneva: UNRISD [Social Policy and Development], April 2001, 65 pages).

He wrote two books on poverty for the Urban Management Program, titled: La lutte contre la pauvreté a Dakar. Vers une politique municipale [Fighting Poverty in Dakar: Towards a Municipal Policy], Dakar: PGU, 1996; and Pauvreté, jeunes de la rue et SIDA. Les cas d’Abidjan et d’Accra [Poverty, Street Children and HIV/AIDS: the Cases of Abidjan and Accra], Paris: Karthala, 2002. He also coordinated and led several research networks on the transfer of power in Africa, the results of which have been published under the title: Les figures du politique en Afrique. Des pouvoirs hérités aux pouvoirs élus [Politics in Africa: From Inherited Powers to Elected Leaders], Paris: CODESRIA & Karthala, 1999. He led the production of and edited a major trilogy on economic, social and cultural developments in Senegal since independence, published under the following titles:
- Le Sénégal contemporain [Comtemporary Senegal], Paris: Karthala, 2002, 656 pages;
- La société sénégalaise entre le local et le global [Senegalese Society Between the Local and the Global], Paris, Karthala, 2002; 736 pages;
- Gouverner le Sénégal [Governing Senegal], Paris: Karthala, 2004.
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These three volumes consolidated and deepened an earlier study on state building in Senegal that he carried out together with D. Cruise O’Brien and M. Diouf (see: D. Cruise O’Brien, M-C. Diop & M. Diouf, 2002, La Construction de l’Etat au Sénégal; Paris: Karthala).

Diop also led a UNRISD study on Senegal in the Age of the Information Society, on which the book Le Sénégal à l’heure de l’Information. Technologies et societies (Paris: Karthala, 2003) was based. The team that produced this book included academic researchers, journalists, and experts from the private sector. The ambition was to study contemporary Senegalese society by looking at the place and roles of the information technologies.

M. Diop participated in preparation of the Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century African History [Paul Tiyambe Zeleza and Dickson Eyoh (eds)], by contribution articles on some of the entrees related to Senegal.

His current work is on the reform of the State. He is the founder of the Dakar-based Centre for Research on Social Policy [Centre de recherche sur les politiques sociales], CREPOS.