Senegal was among 13 countries that formally requested the inclusion of a proposal to proclaim 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology on the agenda of the 216th session of the UNESCO Executive Board. The session convened from May 10 to 24, 2023, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. According to the agenda document (216 EX/37), the item was placed on the provisional agenda at the request of Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Mexico, Paraguay, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, and Spain.
The Executive Board endorsed the recommendation and resolved to include the item on the agenda of the 42nd session of the UNESCO General Conference, which convened in November 2023. That General Conference subsequently passed a resolution recommending that the United Nations General Assembly declare 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
Senegal’s role as a co-requesting state placed it among a small group of countries from across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe that initiated the formal intergovernmental process for the IYQ designation.