Dreaming of local development

As early as 1980, Côte d'Ivoire embarked on a policy of decentralization, with the aim of bringing decision-making closer to the people and enabling them to take charge of the running of decentralized communities (communes, regions and districts). Sixteen (16) powers were transferred to these communities by the 2003 law, whose implementing decrees, intended to clarify institutional relations, have not yet been issued. More than 40 years later, the results of this decentralization in social, economic and environmental terms are judged disappointing by informed observers. This lacklustre record is the result of a number of factors, including jurisdictional conflicts between institutional players, the glaring inadequacy of qualified human resources in sufficient numbers, the weakness of financial resources handicapped by the uniqueness of the coffers so deplored by local elected representatives, and above all the absence of a global strategy for the performance of local authorities.