«Europe should listen to Africa»

With over 20 years of experience, Ousmane Sy is considered one of the “fathers” of African local governance. He was the one who coordinated the reform of the decentralisation of the administrative apparatus in Mali in the 90s. A success that was crowned in 2000 by his appointment as Minister of Territorial Administration and Local Authorities, a role that he covered until 2002. Since then he has been handing out suggestions on local governance to Western and Central African states through the Centre for Political and Institutional Expertise in Africa (CEPIA) of which he is the director. Sy is now also a consultant and coordinator of the Alliance pour Refonder la Gouvernance en Afrique.
What is the current condition of local governance in Africa?
Like every system of public government, local governance presents strengths and weaknesses. Following the establishment of decentralisation reforms in the 90s, LRAs and citizens grew closer. Nowadays in Africa there is what could be called a “proximity administration”; democracy now has a face that citizens can recognise. People enter into debates, give their opinions, urge their administrators to take action. Notwithstanding the difficulties, a development re-appropriation process is now in progress and it originates from the “ground”.
What are the difficulties you are referring to?
The reforms have been adopted but African states keep a governmental approach that is very centralised and then the tools of local governance are not used at they should be.
In its cooperation policy, the EU gives great importance to budgetary support. What is the impact of this approach on local governance?
Budgetary support pushes states to become responsible for public spending. Today the challenge is about the necessity of decentralising the budget state. Unfortunately the road is still long. The studies we conducted in Western Africa reveal that between 87 and 90 percent of the public budget is spent by the central government. To reduce this percentage, it is necessary to insert a series of criteria in the agreements between EU and African governments which are capable of promoting the decentralisation of public spending. Today we have local administrators who have been elected to act on the requests of the population but who cannot honour their promises because they lack the means to do so and consequently, they lose credibility.
It is a commonly held opinion that LRAs are by nature predisposed to use funds more efficiently. Is this a proven theory?
I believe that the proximity factor is an added value that can make governmental processes more transparent. This said, no one is protected from corruption or from bad management. It is therefore necessary to strengthen controls over local administrators. But once again, we do not have the tools to do this.
What is your opinion about the decentralised cooperation strategies developed by European LRAs?
International cooperation for development requires a partnership that is not sufficiently valued at the moment. In a partnership everyone has to bring a stone to the building and everyone must earn something from it. The approach of northern countries still remains too paternalistic. It is not by chance that decentralised cooperation is pervaded by a donor-receiver logic: European LRAs are always the ones donating and African communities are the ones receiving. I have the feeling that politicians of European LRAs do not realise that their opposites are African politicians and not mere officials. These politicians, elected by the people, have ideas and projects that should be valued. We need then to find a common ground on which to work together and this ground does exist. The essence of decentralised cooperation is a cooperation built on the sharing of common values. Now the crisis that is hitting governance and public sector, both in the North and in the South of the world, is a crisis of values. Their many difficulties notwithstanding, African LRAs have valid models that European LRAs could draw inspiration from.