Giving the People What They Want: Decentralisation

The "Positive Conversation" initiative unites stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to discuss the future of governance via an open dialogue format. At the beginning of November, Yéboué Kouamé Pascal, President of the region of Bélier (Ivory Coast) and Adama Diouf, President of the Association of Departments of Senegal, joined the host of the “Positive Conversation” initiative to share their views on decentralisation. During the conversation both agreed that decentralisation is essential for their countries’ development and has been paid tribute by their countries’ policies but is lacking behind in terms of implementation.

According to Yéboué Kouamé, decentralisation must be promoted as central governments are unable to fulfil their population’s needs on their own. The lack of decentralised services as well as missing competences at the local level has been become clear through the current pandemic. Calling the approach followed by the central government of the Ivory Coast “empty”, Kouamé identifies the involvement and the provision of enabling environments and resources for regional governments as the next needed step for the country, especially for its fight against climate change.

Adama Diouf seconded Kouamé and emphasised the importance of a decentralisation process accompanied by reforms and a transfer of competences to territorial governments. Moreover, Diouf identified local governments as the voice of the people, thereby linking local government support to better “quality of governance”.

Have a detailed look at the transcript of their dialogue here and learn about the decentralisation efforts taking place in Ivory Coast and Senegal by watching their whole conversation (in French) on Youtube.