Why mobilize town dwellers? : joint management in Ouagadougou (1983-1990)

This paper describes an attempt by the revolutionary government of Burkina Faso between 1983 and 1990 to mobilize the residents of peri-urban areas in Ouagadougou to build or improve urban services. It also considers the limitations of mobilization - its inability to initiate large projects (e.g. drainage and sanitation), its antagonistic relationship with official agencies, its unparticipatory characteristics, and its inability to reduce inequalities in living standards. The description covers the rationale for joint management of local facilities and services to enable the nationalization of land ownership and the allocation of housing lots as well as the cooperation of the administration, revolutionary committees and citizens groups to provide and fund services. It includes fund raising methods through taxes, levies, and the sale of drinking water, and it examines the coherent framework provided by the five-year plan to create a synthesis of residential groups, provincial administrations and national agencies to establish programmes and operational linkages. Moreover, the examination demonstrates the failure both to establish a system of public latrines, waste collection, drainage systems and to effectively use schools and other public buildings due to poor management and maintenance. It identifies the reasons for different success levels in different sectors, recognizing that citizen mobilization can engender inequalities and exclusion and that redistributory mechanisms are required. The report concludes that competition has led to the balkanization of some areas, there has been no decentralization of power, the primacy of the state has inhibited local development and that there is a lack of long term financial and management options.