Direction du Partenariat avec les ONG (DPONG), Direction générale de l'Administration territoriale (DPONG)

The Directorate for Partnership with NGOs (DPONG), part of the Ministry of the Interior's Directorate-General of Territorial Administration (DGAT), handles applications for NGO approval (agrément), approval of NGO investment programmes and headquarters agreements, through an interministerial consultative commission. It also monitors and evaluates NGO activities using annual reports from regional governors. Ordinary associations are handled separately by the Direction des Libertés publiques.

An organisation first exists legally as an association (Senegalese associations are declared at the sous-préfecture or préfecture; foreign associations apply for authorisation to operate). To obtain NGO status, it files an approval application with the ministry's central mail office; the DGAT's approval division within the DPONG checks the file and presents it to the interministerial technical commission. If approved, an approval order (arrêté) is signed by the Minister of the Interior, registered and numbered by the Secretariat General of the Government, and notified to the applicant by the DGAT. Approved NGOs submit investment programmes for approval and are monitored by the DPONG and decentralised state services, including through annual reports from regional governors; the 2022 decree also strengthens checks on the origin of funds. In October 2026 the DGAT launched the e-OSC platform and asked all legally constituted NGOs and associations to register and report their areas of intervention, projects, funding and beneficiaries, in preparation for digitising approval and recognition procedures.