For two decades, the experience of decentralisation and federalisation has gained momentum in several countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. How can we make sense of the processes that take place in these countries and how can we improve them? In trying to answer these questions this French analysis, which focuses on four sub-Saharan countries, notably Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal, takes on an innovative approach.
For each of the four countries the authors propose a diagnosis of the current state of the organisation of decentralisation and challenge the institutional architecture that was opted for. This analyses exposes a gap between the formal objectives of the decentralisation and what has actually been done on the ground and subsequently suggest options for reform.
The objective of this analysis is not to assess if the adopted decentralisation model is suitable or not – in any case there is not one single "model of decentralisation" that serves as a reference as there a multiple causes – it is about measuring the decentralisation model as it has been adopted in a spe-cific national context to confront it with its outlined institutional architecture. The divergences resulting from that observation and analysis allow the respective countries to opt for appro-priate reforms.
The English version of this book will be published at a later stage as part of the Africa Development Forum Series Collection.
To access the French version please click here.