Making decentralisation work

About this project
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About this project

Background

Our programme of work on ‘Making decentralisation work’ responds to a policy change in many countries in the African Sahel which has seen the transfer of certain decision-making powers and resources away from central government to elected local government bodies.

Decentralisation is intended to result in more effective local development by enabling local people to participate in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes. However, such participation can only be achieved if all groups are involved in the decision-making process and can call elected local officials to account.

Experience has shown that vulnerable groups are often excluded from decision-making, particularly over natural resources. These groups include women, young people and pastoralists.

Location

Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger

Aims

The programme is designed to add value in three key areas:

building capacity of local people and their organisations to influence local and national decision-making processes that affect their lives
building capacity of local institutions, particularly elected government bodies, to apply inclusive and transparent procedures in the management of local affairs and development policy
building capacity of central government to create a favourable policy environment, which empowers local decision-making and authority, while ensuring equity and sustainability.

Impacts

Our impacts to date have included:

delivery of a training course in Pulaar (a Sengalese language) to build capacity of pastoral people to influence local government decision-making and establishing a training network
learning groups established in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso
links established with regional initiatives
national networks set up in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to support local and national debate
regional platform established for information exchange