Decentralisation and civil society: negotiating local development in West Africa

Abstract

"The paper, referring to fieldwork i.a. in Senegal, challenges the concept of decentralisation by regarding the interface of knowledge systems at the local rural arena. It is asked whether there is a process of marginalisation of knowledge which had been acquired and generated these last years by peasant organisations and women's movements after the breakdown of the authoritarian development State. Applying an agency and gender perspective, it is asked how decentralisation is conceived of by various types of local and especially female actors - including the elected rural councillors - as access to development information from which they are again excluded and therefore obliged to renegotiate. On the other side, their conceptions and experiences of sustainable development including social and food security are devaluated and not made use of in newly designed blueprints of local development plans which are said to be elaborated by participatory procedures, thereby challenging good governance through interaction with other levels." (author's abstract)