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2.4 Rethinking local governance and local democracy

For decentralisation processes to yield development outcomes (with LAs effectively operating as catalyst of local/territorial development), it is not sufficient to work to improve the supply side of governance — i.e. by empowering LAs. There is just as much need to strengthen the demand side of governance as well, which is what local democracy allows for.

 

Two key parameters for ensuring that LAs can effectively operate as catalyst of local / territorial development
 

Local governance

is about the way power and authority are exercised at the local level and built on two axes:

  

Local democracy

requires to foster more constructive state-society relations, it is based on two premises:
 

Responsive and accountable LAs

acting on behalf of a local political constituency

  

Active citizens, CSOs and private sector actors

contributing to the development effort and exercising a watchdog role

  

Leaders have the power to respond to citizens’ needs and aspirations

  

Citizens have the means to hold them accountable so as to ensure that responsiveness.

 

Local governance requires a set of local institutions to engage citizens in public affairs (e.g. mechanisms for participatory policymaking, planning and budgeting), to enable LAs to perform as facilitators of networks of service providers (e.g. public-private sector partnerships) and to ensure accountability to citizens.

From this interactions between civil society and local authorities, two outcomes can be expected: local democracy and local development.

Figure 5.5 Interactions required to produce local democracy and local development outcomes

 

To go further... read this

  • Farce of the commons: Humor, Irony, and Subordination through a Camera’s Lens (Research report, Jesse Ribot, 2014)
  • Representation, Citizenship and the Public Domain in Democratic Decentralization (Research article, Jesse Ribot, 2007)
  • The poverty of forestry policy: double standards on an uneven playing field (Jesse Ribot, 2007)
  • Décentralisation démocratique des ressources naturelles : Choix institutionnels et transferts de pouvoirs discrétionnaires en Afrique sub-saharienne (Jesse Ribot, 2003)
  • Waiting for democracy: The Politics of Choice in Natural Resource Decentralization (Research report, Jesse Ribot, 2004)
  • Dans l’attente de la démocratie la politique des choix dans la décentralisation de la gestion des ressources naturelles (rapport de recherche, Jesse Ribot, 2006)
  • Building local democracy through natural resource interventions: An environmentalist's responsibility (Policy brief, Jesse Ribot, 2008)

 

To go further... watch this

  • Interaction between LAs and Civil Society to produce better local development outcomes
  • Accountability and Citizen Participation at the Local Level
  • Local democracy in Natural resource decentralisation (Senegalese fiction)