Binta Sarr

Binta Sarr Ly, better known as Binta Sarr (1954 – 15 September 2019) was a Senegalese women's rights activist, best known for founding the Association for the Advancement of Senegalese Women.

Early life Sarr was one of eleven children born into a polygamous family in the rural town of Guinguinéo. She would spend most of her life in the Kaolack region.

In 1974, young people in Guinguinéo formed a voluntary association to advance "cultural action," engaging in academic discussions and hosting educational activities; Sarr became heavily involved with its operations.

Early in her career, Sarr was assigned to a project concerning the maintenance of village water supplies. She realised that water management projects would be more successful if she consulted local women, as women were primarily responsible for fetching water.

Operating in rural areas of Senegal, one of APROFES' earliest offerings was leadership training. APROFES utilised radio broadcasts, seminars, and theatre productions to raise awareness of social problems, ranging from alcoholism to Senegal's caste system. In 1991, Sarr formalised APROFES' status into a supportive organisation so that it could receive external funding; its first contributor was Oxfam.

By 1994, Sarr, in her capacity as a civil servant, was head of Kaolack's regional hydraulics division. That year, she worked with Eau Vive, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to drinking water, to construct a water network serving a dozen villages in Senegal.

By the time of Sarr's death, APROFES was operational in 35 localities. On 8 January 2015, the court ordered the municipal government to dissolve and introduce the required parity measures.

Other work

International economics Throughout her life, Sarr advocated for Africa to receive greater representation in discussions around international economics. In 1993, Sarr and APROFES endorsed recommendations to advance global food security, as put forward by the World Bank at its 1993 World Conference on Overcoming Global Hunger. She provided support to political scientist Éric Toussaint's 1999 work, Your Money or Your Life: The Tyranny of Global Finance. In 2002, she presented on Africa–Europe relations at the 2002 European Social Forum.

Government work As part of the National Assizes of Senegal in 2008, Sarr was appointed by the Kaolack municipal administration to head a committee on citizens’ issues for the region. She argued that sustainable economic change would only be possible through teaching women the skills required to self-organise and lead their own immediate communities.

Death and legacy Sarr, having experienced poor health throughout her sixties, died 15 September 2019. In 2025, the association partnered with the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization to educate women in sustainable farming practices.

Invisible Giants, an artistic project dedicated to chronicling notable African women, dedicated its 2019 "Coffee Table Book" to Sarr, describing her as "a giantess whose greatness was too soon removed from our affection." Sarr's life and work were showcased in a 2024 children's book, My Name is Yedia, written by Coumba Touré and illustrated by Beatrice Mutasah. Touré has described Sarr as her role model.