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Decentralisation and Local Governance: Experiences from Francophone West Africa

Author: H M G Ouedraogo
Date: 2003
Size: 7 pages (81 KB)

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Summary

What have been the experiences in francophone West Africa of decentralisation and local governance? What is the role played by traditional local institutions? These questions are at the centre of this paper. It focuses on three West African countries: Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali. It is clear that decentralisation has been established in these countries as a fundamental thrust of their development. It has in particular been sought as an answer to the perceived failings of centralised development. Senegal has so far had four major periods of decentralisation and in both Burkina Faso and Mali decentralising experiments seem to be continuing. In general, however, the progress of decentralisation in these countries has been slow and problematic.

The decentralisation model most frequently adopted in francophone West Africa seems oriented towards substituting new local institutions for existing local institutions. This approach faces a clear difficulty: existing frameworks are based on economic, social and cultural needs, and replacing or undermining these frameworks is likely to create confrontation.

The experience of Senegal shows that to have an impact on local governance, grassroots organisations need to assume ownership of the institutional framework of decentralisation.
The attitude of the population in Senegal to decentralisation tends to be one of passive resistance to a new authority whose legitimacy is not recognised.
In Burkina Faso the main issue is that of rural decentralisation. Traditional institutions (such as territorial and political chiefdoms) endure in many areas. They control local natural resource management, in particular, land.
The Burkinabe approach has not succeeded in giving the majority of the Burkinabe people (the rural population) the right to manage their own affairs.
In Mali conflicts arise from traditional power relationships between villages, and from viewing local administration through the prism of the old territorial entities. Local actors do not fully recognise the new territorial framework.
In Mali decentralisation did make a positive contribution to resolving the problem of the Touareg rebellion.

The paper provides a number of lessons from the experiences of decentralisation in francophone West Africa. Poorly conducted decentralisation risks state destabilisation and the serious degradation of natural resources (as in Burkina Faso).

It is important for promoting decentralisation to know how to build on what already exists.
Grassroots organisations identify more willingly with local-level indigenous institutions than with those created during the decentralisation process.
It is also important to know how to take the internal dynamics of the local institutions into account. Customary principles and institutions are themselves engaged in a process of change.
The role of the state, as guarantor of the public interest, should be emphasised so that appropriate control is exercised over the actions of local government.
The state often tries to decentralise functions that it has not been able to exercise effectively itself. For instance, land management may be transferred to local elected bodies though the state could never deal effectively with rural land.

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Source: Ouedraogo, H. M.G., 2003, ‘Decentralisation And Local Governance: Experiences From Francophone West Africa’, Public Administration Development 23, pp. 97–103