Workshop:

Context / problems

Africa is experiencing a governance crisis strongly related to state crisis. The state functioning and existence in Africa is experiencing difficulties to produce and implement development policies that could ensure societies stability and prosperity and then populations security and well-being.

This structural crisis is calling for a state rebuilding that is requiring roles and relationship between actors rethinking at different local, national and regional scales. In fact the African postcolonial state should be rethink and redefined with reference to decentralization and regional integration. Then state rebuilding, decentralization and regional integration should be elements of a global change dynamic. Traditionally, governance topics are analyzed in a partitioned way between local, national and regional level. This explains in many ways the weak performance of integration policies at either national or regional level. It is imperative to change the perspective: local governance be a key to find solutions for social, political and economic to faced challenges. By its potential capability of legitimating and creating linkage between public affairs management systems and modes at all level, local government is for sure the most strategic level for governance rebuilding. Through local government valorization, Africa could answer the legitimacy crisis experienced by the postcolonial state and then consolidated regional integration.

Rebuilding postcolonial state through decentralization

Local government is credited for having rebuilding virtue for the postcolonial state through local democracy and territorial development. This explains surely that even though they have different itineraries for diverse reasons, most of African countries have launched in the mid-90 administrative reforms where one can find decentralization and local development policies.

Indeed real progresses have been realized consisting in the decentralization principle affirmation and institutional setting especially local collectivities. However despite affirmation and constant hypothesis recall by actors, decentralization processes do not seem to be definitively appropriated. At least, institutions and practices they have generated so far are not always appropriated for legitimate local governance realization. Finally reforms did experience resistances and a few difficulties.

One can underline a few major situations :

  • Decentralization models are very often copies of foreign models. Local governance still fundamentally institutional and local deliberation modalities do not provide participation guarantees and diversity concerns at a local level;

  • Guided by more politician consideration than political one, local territories configuration do not allow very often economic development spaces emergence or relevant sociocultural areas;

  • Exchange and dialogue absence between local territories at the national, sub regional and panafrican level is real while decentralized cooperation with Nothern countries local collectivities is increasing even though terms of this cooperation are not well defined;

  • Chronic and generalized weakeness of local resources is a fact. It is explained less by scarcity than by governance actors practices and perceptions. This situation is contrasting with the scope and number of missions transferred to local collectivities.

  • Transferred competencies to local government do not correspond very often to populations and local communities capabilities. They are focused on jobs types where local public powers do not have any expertise or real experiences;

  • The issue of decentralization means and instruments is strictly related to the governance issue. This explains why public service culture and representation is very often designating as clientelist perception of local specific interest. This leading to a non suitable, not articulated, sometimes not performant public service. The crisis will appear in a singular way through many basic public services collapsing.

Issues for discussions:

  • How can decentralization « socialisation » be guaranteed and enable us to get out of the « administrativist » approach?

  • How can citizen participation be effective and beneficial to local public affairs?

  • What types of judicial, political, economic and financial relationships between State and local government?

  • How local public action efficiency be consolidated?

  • How can local territory be more defined and inserted into context(national, regional, transboundary, international etc.) ?

Rebuilding postcolonial African state through regional integration

Regional integration is an ideal to be realized for the continent development, for peace and stability and finally for a better place of Africa in the world.

Isolated national development leads to impasses. Regional market is the most important potential of activities for the future. Increasing regional exchanges should also be based on regional demographic perspectives in the long term. Facing these challenges should enable the continent to win the security, tolerance, peace and stability challenge. To do so the continent should be organized as a balanced, coherent and performing body through regional integration. Also a strong and integrated African community could play as a strong force of negotiation in the world and should allow the continent to participate in a new system and having the power to influence decision in the international arena.

Such integration process too long to implement, efforts costly and too demanding for vision and strategy requires strong technical and institutional mechanisms supported by a truly regional governance policy. In this sense, African Union has been created and has a governance agenda; some regional communities have made real efforts to define a vision of integration (Visions 2020 of UEMOA and ECOWAS) ; despite all that resistances and difficulties are still persistent.

  • Beyond formal creation of integration structures, beyond speeches, declarations of intentions and Institution sessions and meetings attendance, states are failing to observe compliance vis-à-vis the African Union;

  • This « lack of interest » by states is illustrated in many domains such as sovereignty transfer, membership fees payment, judicial instruments ratification or panafrican projects appropriation and true and effective participation for their implementation;

  • States are showing total indifference toward eventual sanctions which are applied or could be applied to them. Beside the fact that the African Union does not have real powers of constraint upon states, it appears that African states are more sensitive to sanctions defined by international organizations;

  • Regional and sub regional institutions built by states are elaboration and realization framework for community policies and also symbols but are weakly connected to African people;

  • That’s why despite significative evolutions(but unequal based on regions)especially in free circulation of goods, business law, currency, African public opinion has the perception that institutional regional and sub regional actors are very often disincarnated, expensive and inefficient structures without any grip on reality;

  • Communitarian institutions are confronted to a legitimacy problem explained by many reasons, especially the absence of participative democracy in their composition and functioning, their insufficient opening, the lack of communication and information policies, weak influence on world affairs, difficulty to evaluate and measure their actions or the fact that they are collecting the expression of tensions between states, etc.

Issues for discussions :

  • How to ensure regional integration « socialization » to get out the institutional approach of community construction?

  • How can we ensure an effective and beneficial citizen participation in regional public affairs?

  • What strategies should be implemented to realize a solid and coherent community construction?

  • Through what process and mechanisms can a legitimated vision and efficient African policies be developed?

  • Through what process and mechanisms an integrated Africa could be able to influence decision making in world affairs ?