WORKSHOP - LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND DECENTRALIZED
MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
GENERAL REPORT - COTONOU (Benin) 10 - 16 December 2000
APPENDIX 3 :
|
GUIDELINES Decentralized Management of Natural Resources Within the Framework of Local Development Programmes/Projects |
PRELIMINARY DRAFT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Objectives
- Strategic Axes
- Prerequisites
- Areas of Activity
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Conclusion
III.1 Institutions
III.1.1 Major challenges
III.1.2 Basic principles
III.1.3 Basic assumptions
III.1.4 Institutional connexions
III.2 Techniques
III.3 Risk Reduction
III.4 Interactions
IV.1 Understanding Local Dynamics
IV.2 Evaluation of Constraints and Technical Solutions
IV.3 Criteria for Choosing
IV.4 Availability of Basic Tools
IV.5 Exit Strategy
V.1 Institutional Strengthening
V.1.1 Promoting formal and informal organizations
V.1.2 Promoting the establishment of norms
V.2 Local Capacity-Building
V.3 Supporting Local Economies
V.3.1 Technical measures
V.3.2 Financial mechanisms
V.3.3 Unified ownership
VI.1 Monitoring Tools for Local Government Bodies
VI.2 Evaluation of Local Government Bodies
Annex 1 : LDP Diagnosis, Planning and Programming: Sequences
Annex 2 : Communal Diagnostic Plan
Annex 3 : Some Examples of Technical Measures
Annex 4 : Main Practices and Techniques Used in Soil Fertility Management
Annex 5 : The LDP Programming Cycle
Annex 6 : List of basic notions
- According to the guidance given in the policy document 'Taking Risks', from now on, all UNCDF planning will take place in a single institutional framework, incorporating a coherent institutional strategy and standardized financing mechanisms.
- According to this policy, the main activities of the participatory eco-development (PED) projects and of the local development fund (LDF) projects, will be maintained, but as part of standardized institutional arrangements, in the context of local development programmes/projects (LDPs).
- This document, while focusing particularly on the accomplishments of the PED projects, will adapt the main elements of this policy to the area of good environmental governance and establish the guiding principles of natural resource management [1].
1 The notion of 'renewable natural resources' is complex as it refers to very different entities that imply distinct forms of management. Here the concept designates different inputs such as water, the earth, grazing lands, forests, halieutic resources, and wildlife. However, these resources must be understood in the broader context of 'productive resources', which encompass not only natural resources, but also material inputs (earth, but also work and capital), as well as the social relationships and the technical know-how that underlie any production process. Finally, it may be noted that from a legal point of view, it is preferable to use the notions of 'natural property', 'natural wealth' , or 'assets' (national, local, or individual). As for the notion of 'natural resource management', it designates the direct and indirect means which make it possible to take advantage of natural resources.
- The overall mission of UNCDF is to reduce poverty, especially in the rural zones of the least advanced countries and to reinforce good local governance, that is the mechanisms and procedures of the local administration.
- Consequently, the LDPs that have to do with natural resource management should be based on the logic of the fight against poverty and deal, first and foremost, with the institutional problems related to good environmental governance. At the same time they should pay close attention to the technical constraints that affect the ways of life and the livelihoods of rural populations.
- Recognizing the multiple dimensions of poverty, the LDPs will underline two basic assessments :
- poverty is linked to poor governance and to a lack of empowerment of the local actors : the challenge of the decentralization, in general, and of the decentralized management of natural resources, in particular, is to strengthen the daily democracy and to help local communities to define their priorities and to implement them ;
- better management of natural resources can provide local governments with financial resources which can be used to help local development.
- poverty is linked to poor governance and to a lack of empowerment of the local actors : the challenge of the decentralization, in general, and of the decentralized management of natural resources, in particular, is to strengthen the daily democracy and to help local communities to define their priorities and to implement them ;
- The LDP's contribution in reducing poverty is to bring the decision-making power closer to poor communities and to delegate powers and resources to local government bodies so that they can manage their natural capital. By stressing the links between environmental governance and poverty reduction, the LDPs stress the fact that, in terms of management of natural resources, the important factor is not only to know who is managing the resources, but who is actually benefiting from them.
- Thus, the LDPs will provide a significant institutional, technical, and legal contribution:
- With respect to institutions, they will help to legitimise the local institutional actors (local government bodies and peasant farmer organizations) within the framework of decentralization policies [2] and to make them accountable for environmental stewardship. In the LDPs, institutional strengthening will play a major role in the fight against poverty, and reinforcing local government institutions (and even local government bodies) will be an indispensable condition for consolidating the process of democratizing society;
- With respect to techniques, the LDPs will provide local government bodies with technical information allowing them to participate actively in the protection, the rehabilitation, and the management of their productive natural resources. The will promote the dissemination of best practices in natural resource management in order to provide a sustainable increase in productivity, to increase the incomes derived from those resources. Consequently, they will diminish the vulnerability of rural populations to recurrent crises stemming from the transformation of the natural environment and the risks for crop production and stock production, and also will improve their living conditions ;
- With respect to legislative provisions, the LDPs will support the formulation and the implementation of appropriate local regulatory frameworks, aimed, on the one hand, at reducing the land insecurity of user groups and, on the other hand, at trying out mechanisms that are capable of giving peasant farmer organizations effective control of their productive natural resources.
2 The notion of 'decentralization' designates the process by which the central government of the State transfers powers and attributions (exercised hitherto by its central organs and its territorial representatives) and financial resources to institutions (whether territorial or not) that are legally distinct from it, placed at a lower level in the politico-administrative and territorial hierarchy and enjoying under its supervision a certain autonomy in management issues. The notion of decentralizsation must be distinguished from the notion of 'deconcentration' which designates the transfer of powers to high-level officials posted to secondary zones, or the process whereby the central government delegates power to its local represenatives. Through the process of deconcentration, a government in itself does not delegate its powers, but posts its own representatives to different parts of the national territory. Strictly speaking, decentralization implies the existence of a number of more or less autonomous decision-making centers.
- In order to attain these objectives, the LDPs will have at their disposal a number of strategic axes, in particular, with respect to institutions, specific techniques, risk reduction measures, and their interactions with other complementary strategies.
III.1 INSTITUTIONS
- A major strategic axis for the LDPs will be the aid they provide to create socio-institutional conditions that will allow local actors - in particular, local government bodies [3] - to guaranteed a good local governance, by participating actively in the protection and the management of their natural environment and the implementation of all appropriate technical solutions.
III.1.1 Major challenges
- The institutional dimension of the LDPs includes two major challenges :
- not to oppose, on one hand, local government and the central state or, on the other hand, local government and local civil society, but rather to create inclusive innovative forms of interaction ;
- not to oppose 'formal' and 'informal' institutions and to protect instead this institutional flexibility which, in Africa as elsewhere, has shaped local arrangements in managing natural resources.
III.1.2 Basic principles
- not to oppose, on one hand, local government and the central state or, on the other hand, local government and local civil society, but rather to create inclusive innovative forms of interaction ;
- In terms of good environmental governance, LDPs should emphasize the importance of a umber of basic institutional principles such as the following :
- a coherent, global institutional strategy is needed in order to define, plan, and implement potential technical solutions and facilitate the establishment of civil institutions capable of supporting efficient, sustainable local economies;
- however, the institutional framework, while being an essential means of attaining social and economic development and natural resource management, cannot be considered as a goal in itself, but only as a strategic choice to reduce poverty;
- decentralization should not be considered as a multiplication of institutional levels, but rather as the setting up of networks involving different actors (from the central government to local grass-roots organizations). Therefore, in terms of environmental governance, what matters is not the autonomy or the independence of each institutional level, but rather the creation of webs of interdependencies and collective frameworks of local freedom in the respect for the law;
- the principle of the transfer of powers from a higher institution to a lower one has to be supplemented by that of the distribution of these powers among the institutions (principle of 'tangled powers');
- any transfer of powers has to be progressive according to the capacities of local governments and their willingness to take new responsibilities. Furthermore, overlapping powers should be avoided and transfer of powers should involve corresponding transfers of financial means;
- because of the complexity of what is at stake, experiments aimed at supporting good environmental governance at local level will stress the importance of efficient coordination among all the stakeholders - moreover, only higher levels of government may provide may provide this coordination [4];
- in natural resource management, a complete decentralization cannot be done and cannot be desirable : central and provincial institutions are better fit for assessing broader problems and trends and for acting as arbitrators to solve local conflicts.
- a coherent, global institutional strategy is needed in order to define, plan, and implement potential technical solutions and facilitate the establishment of civil institutions capable of supporting efficient, sustainable local economies;
- The LDPs are based on a number of basic assumptions, among them particularly important are the following :
- if they are isolated from a coherent institutional vision, the specific technical initiatives risk not only failing to attain their own objectives, but also risk increasing the land insecurity of a majority of the population and exacerbating their poverty ;
- all forms of natural resource management are hinged to structural changes, which by means of the appropriate laws, provisions, and legal frameworks grant local government organs effective powers and formal authority.
- if they are isolated from a coherent institutional vision, the specific technical initiatives risk not only failing to attain their own objectives, but also risk increasing the land insecurity of a majority of the population and exacerbating their poverty ;
- Only solid institutional bonds can foster the promotion of sustainable practices in land-use management and an improvement in systems of rural life. Thus, the LDPs must emphasize the importance of institutional connections between:
- different local government bodies (by paying close attention, for example, to inter-communal relations);
- different levels of local government bodies (for example, between communes and departments, and even the region to which they are connected);
- peasant farmer organizations and associations of farmers and stockbreeders, on the one hand, and of local government bodies, the product of the process of the democratization of society, on the other hand;
- deconcentrated technical departments and local government bodies (with relation to the volume and the services to be supplied to peasant farmer organizations).
III.2 TECHNIQUES
- different local government bodies (by paying close attention, for example, to inter-communal relations);
- Generally, the LDPs will not have the mandate of trying out 'new techniques' in natural resource management; their task will be to help local government bodies (in their role as 'owners') to have at their disposal all the necessary information concerning the most effective techniques and their implementation and how to benefit more from their results, by adapting them to local conditions. To this end, the LDP coordination teams will supply these local government bodies with the appropriate support and technical advice.
- The LDPs must avoid the pitfall of promoting a set of fragmented micro-initiatives, without any connections and difficult to merge into a coherent whole. On the contrary, they must help local government bodies and their peasant farmer organizations draw up coherent local development plans and define equilibrium systems for the integrated management of animal, water, agricultural, and forest resources based on their own needs and objectives.
III.3 RISK REDUCTION
- The risks associated with recurrent ecological and economic crises, and food emergencies, are part of the backdrop to the lives of populations targeted by most LDPs. Consequently, it is imperative that these risks be taken into account in the design and implementation of all projects. To reduce their impact, the LDPs must therefore help local government bodies to:
- make simple and regular diagnoses concerning the vulnerability of the populations (in particular, with respect to the food situation);
- draw up contingency plans for ecological and economic crises (these plans would be managed directly by local government bodies);
- define and implement precise measures aimed not only at reducing the transient vulnerability of rural communities to the recurrent crises, but also at alleviating their chronic food insecurity and at reinforcing their 'resilience' (that is, their resistance to crises and their capacity to recover after the crises);
- establish partnership with other stakeholders (international agencies, NGOs, etc.) capable of carrying out specific aspects of contingency plans.
- make simple and regular diagnoses concerning the vulnerability of the populations (in particular, with respect to the food situation);
- Finally, in order to be completely effective, the decentralized management of natural resources presupposes the implementation of other distinct, complementary strategies independent of the LDPs. Other development agencies, in particular the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and the European Union, possess, by comparison with UNCDF, specific comparative advantages when it comes to operationalizing most of these programmes. These strategies, with which the LDPs will interact in an active, dynamic way, should impact the following areas in particular:
- The institutional and legal sphere, with relation to: (a) reforming State institutions to promote a positive assessment of the decentralization process and to promote sectoral decentralization policies; (b) building the capacities of legislators with a view to formulating laws on the different aspects of decentralization and their implementation; (c) defining regulatory frameworks and specific legislative provisions concerning the land rights of local government bodies and user groups; and (d) establishing roles and precise land responsibilities for each level of the local government bodies (region, department, and commune) and each actor in civil society [5], (including customary authorities), in relation to the different types of initiatives in natural resource management;
- The fiscal sphere, by supporting the drawing up of procedures concerning: (a) the transfer of resources from the central government to local government bodies (to support services); and (b) the power of local government bodies to define local taxes - especially those related to the use of productive natural resources - and to collect them (with optimization of methods for collecting and using local tax resources, especially those stemming from natural resources); indeed, the purpose of the tax strategies is to ensure the financial viability and sustainability of the local government bodies and the sustainability of the measures used for natural resource management;
- The financial sphere, by establishing self-managed working capital funds, savings banks, and credit unions that allow peasant farmers to have access to the necessary knowledge, equipment, and inputs (UNCDF has accumulated considerable experience in this area through distinct and separate micro-finance programmes/projects).
- The institutional and legal sphere, with relation to: (a) reforming State institutions to promote a positive assessment of the decentralization process and to promote sectoral decentralization policies; (b) building the capacities of legislators with a view to formulating laws on the different aspects of decentralization and their implementation; (c) defining regulatory frameworks and specific legislative provisions concerning the land rights of local government bodies and user groups; and (d) establishing roles and precise land responsibilities for each level of the local government bodies (region, department, and commune) and each actor in civil society [5], (including customary authorities), in relation to the different types of initiatives in natural resource management;
III.1.4 Institutional connexions
III.4 INTERACTIONS
3 A 'local government body' is an administrative institution which has a legal personality and autonomy in budget management: it is determined by the constitution and by State laws and decrees. A local government body has its own elected representatives who are responsible for managing its business under the supervision (and not the authority) of the State's representatives. It has at its disposal its own personnel, services, and property, as well as its own budget. It has a name, a territory, and a population (for the 'commune', see Note 14).
4 There is a crucial balance between the services which local governments may provide and the functions which only the central government may hold.
5 The concept of civil society designates all forms of organization which are independent of the State apparatus and whose goal is not to conquer or exercise political power. According to the most current definitions, 'civil society' encompasses all human activities that are situated outside of the market and the State (despite the fact that they are both influenced by them and influence them) in order to promote different types of interests in society. Thus, civil society encompasses formal and informal groups and associations that include, but are not restricted to, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local organizations, socio-professional organizations, trade unions, trade associations, consumer groups, women's groups, youth associations, press organs, community or neighbourhood groups, self-help groups, religious groups, cultural associations, academic and research institutions, grass-roots movements, and organizations of indigenous populations.
- The implementation of the LDP activities will require a number of prerequisites; the most important ones are: understanding local dynamics; identification of the criteria for making essential choices among the different activities; identification of the main technical inhibiting factors and an inventory and evaluation of the good practices already tested successfully in similar environments; availability of a number of methodological tools or methodological instruments; and finally, a definition of a coherent 'exit' strategy.
IV.1 UNDERSTANDING LOCAL DYNAMICS
Diagnosis of poverty
- Simple diagnostic action must make it possible for local government bodies receiving LDP support to obtain a rapid and adequate understanding of the main dimensions of rural poverty. The results of this diagnosis must form the very foundation of participatory local development.
- This diagnosis will not set out to include all local ecological, social, economic, historic, and politico-institutional factors. On the contrary, by trying to harmonize the results of the secondary sources available, of the participatory approaches and of more specialized studies carried out by resource persons and/or resource institutions, they will focus on rural poverty, in general, and on the main inhibiting factors of local livelihoods and on the land and food insecurities of rural populations, in particular [6]. Moreover, this initial diagnosis will have to be integrated into a global approach [7] and an iterative process for understanding the local dynamics [8].
- To allow the development initiatives to tackle the fundamental causes of rural poverty, this diagnosis will avoid conceptualizing the problems of rural poverty and of food insecurity solely in terms of a lack of adequate technologies and effective agricultural practices or unavailability of foodstuffs in the marketplace.
- The diagnosis will adopt the local government bodies (especially the 'commune'/sub-district) as the preferred unit of analysis [9]. However, it must also take into account (a) higher intra- and inter-government levels as well as provincial levels; (b) the reality of village communities and of their lands (for example, by means of control diagnoses of 'clusters' of homogeneous, representative villages), especially in situations in which the local government bodies are made up of heterogeneous social groups and present various agro-ecological situations [10].
- Finally, by taking into account the conclusions of current ecological and socio-economic research, this diagnosis will make it possible to gain a better understanding of the complexity of the relationship between poverty and the degradation of the environment, going beyond any generalization or stereotyped idea.
Institutional analyses
- The LDPs will have to promote a critical analysis of the institutional environment (both the one that preceded decentralization and the one created by the decentralization process itself). This institutional analysis will be a very important preliminary step for all initiatives in natural resource management. Indeed, it will make it possible to draw up a precise correlation between the different institutional actors (with their powers, statutes, and mandates) and the types of initiatives conceivable in natural resource management (with their characteristics, scope, and managerial requirements).
- This institutional analysis will focus less on the eco-systems themselves and more on the human communities that live there and on their practices, their behaviour, and their adaptation and survival strategies, as what matters is not only the management of natural resources, but the management of the dynamics of populations vitally involved with their productive natural resources
- Among other things, the analysis will touch upon the following aspects:
- The identity and role of the different institutional actors or 'stakeholders' [11] (including customary leaders) involved, more or less directly, in natural resource management; the real powers of these actors; and the interactions between the different actors (with a particular focus on the 'gender' dimensions);
- The terms and conditions governing user access to the different resources, their use, and their control (especially with respect to the seasonal use of the same resources by different users and the use of the same resources for different productive purposes);
- The real powers or the functional autonomy that these actors have for managing the productive environment (including the practical terms and conditions of the 'guardianship' or 'oversight' [12] exercised by government departments over local authorities);
- The distribution of fiscal resources linked to the use of natural resources;
- The circuits for disseminating information among the actors (based on the principle of transparency);
- The mechanisms concerning the accountability for all actors (vertically as well as horizontally);
- The perceptions and the expectations, and even the fears, of the institutional actors with respect to the repercussions (positive or negative) of democratic decentralization on the local models for natural resource management.
Understanding the causes of land conflicts
- The identity and role of the different institutional actors or 'stakeholders' [11] (including customary leaders) involved, more or less directly, in natural resource management; the real powers of these actors; and the interactions between the different actors (with a particular focus on the 'gender' dimensions);
- The LDPs should be built on an adequate appraisal of the causes and factors of current and potential land conflicts. The scope and gravity of the conflicts that are currently flaring up (or may yet flare up) over different ways of using space, between different users of the same space, or in particular, between users with a different social status, contribute significantly to weakening rural economies and threaten the local ecological dynamics. This appraisal will also take into consideration the existing mechanisms related to the prevention and solution of these conflicts as well as the specific roles of customary leaders and institutions.
- This appraisal will have to take into account, in particular, the following aspects:
- The social configuration of the societies;
- The poverty and the growing social inequalities in rural environments;
- The extreme variability in the productivity of activities based on natural resources;
- The impact of demographic growth and the extension of crop production areas on the models for land use;
- The impact of agrarian policies, in particular the repercussions of the development of irrigated crops in low lands, and around ponds, rivers, and watering points, on pastoral systems;
- The contradictions existing between the regulations for modern land tenure systems and customary norms;
- The crumbling of many customary mechanisms for conflict management and/or the autocratic and anti-democratic role of certain local leaders;
- The growing land insecurity of land users, especially with regard to common resources.
IV.2 EVALUATION OF TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS AND SOLUTIONS
- The social configuration of the societies;
- Based on all of the technical strategies described above, the LDPs should promote:
- An adequate appraisal of the main technical factors that can inhibit improvement in the productivity of natural resources;
- A critical inventory of the main technical solutions already tested successfully in similar ecological contexts and judged economically feasible and socially acceptable.
- An adequate appraisal of the main technical factors that can inhibit improvement in the productivity of natural resources;
- Considerable importance will be attached to the dissemination of quality technologies and practices, which, by promoting greater labour and soil productivity and better preservation of natural resources, are likely to increase the incomes of rural producers and to reduce the price of commodities for groups that are particularly vulnerable to food emergencies.
IV.3 CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING
- Close attention should be paid, when choosing these technologies, not only to the technical parameters, but also to precise socio-economic, legal, and administrative considerations.
- For LDPs, the essential choices (geographical zones and social environments to be covered, types of actions, etc.), should take into account not only the economic rationality of these actions, but also social equity in natural resource use.
IV.4 AVAILABILITY OF BASIC TOOLS
- In order to be operational rapidly, the LDPs should possess, from the beginning, a number of basic conceptual and methodological tools. These will include the following components:
- Clarification of the basic concepts, methodologies, and approaches of the LDPs (intended for members of the LDP coordination teams themselves and also for their main local partners);
- Diagnostic guidelines and tools, especially with regard to poverty and institutional analyses [13];
- General models for collecting and analysing basic data (including computer tools) and information management;
- Catalogue of 'best practices' for natural resource management (See below);
- Models of communal plans (especially plans for land-use planning and natural resource management);
- Frameworks for agreements between local government bodies and service providers (including models for awarding contracts and drawing up specifications);
- Models for 'financing codes' for local government investments;
- Models for written agreements between different institutional actors (including between LDP coordination teams and local government bodies);
- Lists indicating the 'minimal conditions' which must be met for local government bodies to have access to investment funds and criteria for judging the institutional performance of local government bodies.
- Clarification of the basic concepts, methodologies, and approaches of the LDPs (intended for members of the LDP coordination teams themselves and also for their main local partners);
- When a new programme is launched, the LDP coordination teams will receive comprehensive training on the concepts entailed in the implementation of the programmes and on the nature of these tools and how to use them. This initial training period will be followed by refresher courses, both at regular intervals and as needed (and also by study tours to other on-going projects).
IV.5 EXIT STRATEGY
- The LDPs' different strategic axes will have a direct influence on 'exit strategies' or withdrawal strategies themselves. All measures advocated in the LDP framework underline the necessity of local capacity-building and of effectively empowering actors so that they can take action and render durable the different technical measures undertaken within permanent institutional frameworks.
6 Current literature stress the importance of new forms of insecurity created by the globalization and by the linkages between local economies and macro-economic trends.
7 See Annex 1.
8 See Annex 5.
9 Annex 2 proposes a simple, integrated framework for communal diagnosis based on the notion of 'capital'.
10 See Annex 1.
11 See Annex 1.
12 The notion of guardianship or oversight ('tutelle, in French) designates the control of the actions of a local government body by the supervisory personnel from a larger government body. A distinction is made between guardianship a priori (the most binding form because it conditions the action through its prior approval by the guardian authority) and guardianship a posteriori (which expands the range of initiatives of the authorities of the body subjected to this guardianship). According to the principles of control of legality, the guardian authority assesses an action and approves it or rejects it only on the basis of its conformity with, or lack of conformity with, the pertinent legislative and regulatory texts. On the other hand, according to the principles of control of opportunity, the guardian authority not only passes judgment on the legality of the action, but also assesses whether the action is politically or technically advisable.
13 See the sequential approach proposed in Annex 1.
- In general, the areas of activity for all LDPs concern primarily institutional development, local capacity-building, and financial mechanisms. For the LDPs for which productive natural resource management is an important component, these three areas of activity will imply a whole range of results and specific activities.
V.1 INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING
- Through its programme of support to local governance, UNCDF's objective is to define and implement a coherent institutional strategy, based on the empowerment of local actors and on linking all activities to local institutions and procedures. Its mission takes place in a rapidly changing social context in which democracy, decentralization, and local powers have become the three forms of institutional management in the political realm.
- In the field of natural resource management, the emphasis on institutional development will enable LDPs to focus their attention on the nature and the functioning of local power structures so that the latter can participate actively in local development and productive resource management, in an appropriate institutional and administrative framework. By means of innovative forms of decentralized management of these resources, the LDPs will be able to promote a broader democratic process and the emergence of a democratic culture.
V.1.1 Promoting formal and informal organizations
- In the specific area of institutions/organizations (that is, of structures having well-defined, recognized, and accepted roles allowing local population to play an active role in local development), all LDPs will participate in:
- Promoting the creation and/or consolidation of formal and informal institutions which in the area of local development and the protection, rehabilitation, and management of natural resources are capable of defining, negotiating, and implementing coherent initiatives;
- Focus not on a simple reproduction of the organizational forms themselves, but rather on the processes of change that make it possible to define the roles and functions of these institutions (See below);
- Affect, theoretically, all institutional levels of the local government bodies, namely, regions or provinces, districts, and sub-district, even though, practically, it is, above all, the levels closest to the grass roots (that is, the 'sub-district') that will be affected by the LDPs [14];
- Consolidate, first and foremost, what already exists and/or what is provided for by statute [15] and avoid promoting prefabricated or standardized institutional models everywhere. However, in order to play a pilot role in this area, the LDPs will be able to test specific institutions that may herald future entities, such as: provincial, district, sub-district or inter-sub-district negotiating bodies and investment fund approval committees; inter-government commissions responsible, at local level, for natural resource management; unions of local government bodies [16]; village councils; and district assemblies (in particular, with regard to the programming of activities at the level of village lands, and land conflict management); councils of customary leaders; etc.;
- Providing considerable support to local government organs (local government councils) so that they become capable of defining equitable plans for developing common property resources, formalizing the rights of all natural resource users and negotiating with State representatives with regard to trying out new management mechanisms;
- Promoting and/or consolidating consensus-building structures between local actors in matters related to the prevention, management, and resolution of land conflicts;
- Facilitating the creation and/or the consolidation of local support institutions - for example, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Economic Interest Groups (EIGs) - capable of supplementing the management capabilities of local government bodies, especially in relation to the technical aspects of productive resource management.
V.1.2 Promoting the establishment of norms
- Promoting the creation and/or consolidation of formal and informal institutions which in the area of local development and the protection, rehabilitation, and management of natural resources are capable of defining, negotiating, and implementing coherent initiatives;
- In the area of institutions/norms (that is, all formal regulations, conventions, standards of conduct, and application rules allowing institutional actors to act individually and collectively), the LDPs will assist in:
- Promoting, at all levels, the definition, introduction, and formalization (that is the institutionalization) of practices, arrangements, participatory planning mechanisms, inter-government charters [17], consensus-building mechanisms, land conflict prevention/management/resolution procedures and decision-making procedures, as well as transparent 'accountability' mechanisms (both horizontal and vertical, as well as upwards and downwards) and self-evaluation procedures: that is, a set of 'rules of the game', based on local 'social capital' [18], that can allow institutional actors to operate - individually and/or collectively -according to the principles of good governance and prevent any monopolization of local power by local elites. The concept of 'local governance' or, rather of 'environmental governance' is thus a complex mosaic where a multitude of local actors are involved in the management of issues which no individual actor on his own could manage in an appropriate manner;
- Supporting forms of joint management of natural resources : the administration of natural resources would be founded on a cooperative relationship and consensus-building mechanisms between the democratic organs of local government, the representatives of the central State government, and the leaders of local communities. It would be shared among these different actors by means of charters or legal conventions specifying the respective areas of responsibility and interest and the forms of interaction between actors. This joint management would be inspired by two key principles, namely:
(a) 'Subsidiarity' according to which (a) all planning and implementing activities should be the responsibility of the level closest to the grass roots, on the basis of the comparative advantage of each institution - especially in terms of efficiency (the level which can satisfy local needs) and efficacy (the level with more effects, including those on other institutional levels) [19]; (b) a higher authority will act only if a lower authority cannot act or has proven its incapacity to act ; and (c) there is a correlation between types of natural resources and types and levels of specific decentralized institutions;
(b) 'Complementarity' - according to which each institutional level operates in its own areas of action and according to its own responsibilities : while operating at the decentralized local level, the LDPs will constantly underline the essential role of the central government (for example, for establishing decentralization rules, evaluating the results, and defining incentives and penalties, etc.).
- Drawing up technical and financial mechanisms capable of motivating local government bodies, recipients of powers and resources from the centre, to delegate, in turn, real powers and concrete resources in productive natural resource management to peasant farmer organizations, and recognizing the legitimacy of the local management of natural resources by user groups;
- Participating in the establishment of procedures allowing local peasant farmer organizations and user groups: (a) to be legitimized by the State; (b) to possess the legal means of putting pressure on central State and decentralized local government organs so that they are accountable for their actions; and (c) to have their rights of control, management, and exclusion over the resources on their lands respected and enforced by the State;
- Finally, in a more general way, promoting the incorporation of democratic principles into the regulatory frameworks governing land systems, which are implemented by the elected organs.
V.2 LOCAL CAPACITY-BUILDING
- Promoting, at all levels, the definition, introduction, and formalization (that is the institutionalization) of practices, arrangements, participatory planning mechanisms, inter-government charters [17], consensus-building mechanisms, land conflict prevention/management/resolution procedures and decision-making procedures, as well as transparent 'accountability' mechanisms (both horizontal and vertical, as well as upwards and downwards) and self-evaluation procedures: that is, a set of 'rules of the game', based on local 'social capital' [18], that can allow institutional actors to operate - individually and/or collectively -according to the principles of good governance and prevent any monopolization of local power by local elites. The concept of 'local governance' or, rather of 'environmental governance' is thus a complex mosaic where a multitude of local actors are involved in the management of issues which no individual actor on his own could manage in an appropriate manner;
- By supporting good local governance, the LDPs aim at making local institutional actors capable of assuming their responsibilities and of playing their respective roles fully in a social and political context that emphasizes decentralization, local empowerment, and participation. Indeed, one of the essential dimensions of poverty reduction is an improvement in the capacity of the populations to take active control over their development.
- Local capacity-building is an essential component in any sustainable policy supporting good governance. Any transfer of powers and resources to decentralized, local governments must be accompanied by a considerable effort to build local technical and management capacities.
- The LDPs will adopt a realistic, pragmatic approach towards the debate on the relationship between decentralization and local capabilities. Indeed, on the one hand, the efforts aimed at reinforcing the productive activities of rural communities, at combating their poverty, and at improving their livelihoods cannot be crowned with success without a sustained increase in investment in their human capital. On the other hand, the poverty of rural populations is inversely proportional to the levels of information and education that they have at their disposal (in particular, with regard to the technologies and factors of production available).
- Within the framework of natural resource management, the LDPs should facilitate the expression of this policy by means of a set of information, awareness-raising, and training initiatives for all of the institutional actors involved, namely the members of local government bodies and the representatives of peasant farmer organizations at the grass-roots level, as well as those in charge of deconcentrated state-run technical departments. Even before the specific training initiatives begin, the LDPs should allow local actors to identify the skills they need first of all (to avoid creating useless or irrelevant capacities).
- In general, the LDPs should address, first and foremost:
- The elected members of communal councils and the members of communal committees responsible for rural development and natural resource management in order to provide them with adequate further training in:
- Basic regulations and legislative texts (rural codes, pastoral codes, codes related to water, forests, halieutic resources, etc.);
- The participative techniques used in the diagnosis, planning, programming, and management of initiatives related to the management of communal territories, and also the basic principles of land-use planning and natural resource management;
- The basic principles of the financial management of local government bodies and, in particular, the guidelines concerning the collection and use of current and/or potential tax revenues derived from specific common property resources;
- Exercising ownership [20] with respect to the development contracts to be drawn up between local governments and entrepreneurs or local service providers, in the context of designing and building engineering structures and infrastructures covering the communal territory;
- The guidelines, the procedures, and the technical and financial mechanisms for the delegation of specific responsibilities to grass-roots farmer organizations and user groups for protecting, rehabilitating, and managing the renewable natural resources situated on their respective village lands;
- The principles and practices concerning the prevention and the management of the land conflicts breaking out between different user groups and/or between different types of communal, inter-communal, and inter-village land-use;
- The specific forms of investment that the decentralized local government bodies should undertake in order to support measures for rehabilitating, protecting, and managing productive natural resources;
- Basic regulations and legislative texts (rural codes, pastoral codes, codes related to water, forests, halieutic resources, etc.);
- The leaders of peasant farmer organizations, of village communities, of nomadic tribes, of user groups, of economic interest groups, including women's groups - in short, all the components of civil society - in order to inform them and arouse their awareness, and provide adequate training on:
- The basic regulations and legislative texts concerning natural resource management (these texts should be available in the main national languages);
- The mechanisms and the procedures allowing them to work with local government organs;
- The participatory techniques for diagnosing, planning, programming, and managing micro-projects for village land management;
- The principles and the practices concerning the prevention and management of land conflicts flaring up between different users and/or different ways of using the same village space or inter-village spaces;
- The practices, the techniques, and the costs pertaining to natural resource management, soil conservation, soil fertility management, water management, forest resource management, the management of grazing lands, the association between animal husbandry and agriculture, the use of agro-inputs, and of protective products for animals, etc.
- The basic regulations and legislative texts concerning natural resource management (these texts should be available in the main national languages);
- The agents of deconcentrated technical departments, as well as local NGOs and local Economic Interest Groups (EIGs) to make them capable of supporting and facilitating the 'ownership' of local government bodies and of supplying peasant farmer organizations with adequate support/advice enabling them to identify and articulate their most pressing needs. The consolidation of the capacities of managers previously trained is an important factor to overcome some deadlocks of decentralization (election vz selection). Even though the technical departments do not formally come under the authority of the local government bodies, the improvement in their performance will have a considerable impact on natural resource productivity. Considerable support will have to be given to departments operating in the following areas:
- Aid for specific marginal or minority groups who are not organized or recognized (for example, women, ethnic indigenous communities, some socio-professional categories, etc.), whose voices risk being ignored by formal institutions;
- Communications (for example, rural radio and newspapers in local languages, new information technologies, etc.) to disseminate experiences in the decentralized management of natural resources;
- Technical monitoring systems for natural resource management initiatives.
- Aid for specific marginal or minority groups who are not organized or recognized (for example, women, ethnic indigenous communities, some socio-professional categories, etc.), whose voices risk being ignored by formal institutions;
V.3 SUPPORTING LOCAL ECONOMIES
- The elected members of communal councils and the members of communal committees responsible for rural development and natural resource management in order to provide them with adequate further training in:
- In order to provide effective support to local economies, the LDPs:
- Will help local government bodies choose and implement specific technical measures capable of solving problems in natural resource management and productivity problems for activities related to agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishing;
- Will promote the setting up of a financial mechanism allowing local government bodies to take advantage of the appropriate instruments for financing their own investments.
V.3.1 Technical measures
- Will help local government bodies choose and implement specific technical measures capable of solving problems in natural resource management and productivity problems for activities related to agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishing;
- While reasserting the principle according to which specific technical initiatives will be the results of participatory approaches at the level of the local government bodies and the local communities, the main technical principles promoted by the LDPs will be the following:
- WATER: water management will be considered as a crucial factor. It is capable of reducing water erosion and of maximizing the infiltration of water into the ground and, therefore, of improving the implementation of agricultural production activities. Preference will be given to small works, which have the advantage of being better managed and controlled by local government bodies and are also capable of reducing the effects of water run-off, of diminishing erosion, of preserving humidity, of protecting soils, and of making it possible to recover irrigable lands rapidly and to promote the infiltration of water for irrigated crops (so that they can be turned to account immediately) (See Annex 3).
- ANTI-EROSION: in the area of anti-erosion measures, the LDPs, focused on an adequate understanding of environmental phenomena, will have to promote an approach that is essentially oriented towards production. Thus, improving soil resources will be the top priority, whereas controlling soil erosion will only be considered as the direct result of improved management practices. An important justification for this choice is the fact that, especially for anti-erosion measures, small rural producers can be mobilized only if they benefit immediately from their investments. In matters of agricultural practices, the LDPs should emphasize the principle that the best anti-erosion measure at the disposal of peasant farmers is simply the one that consists of protecting lands against erosion and of preserving an effective plant cover on the ground for most of the crop growing season (rainfall season); this entails a certain combination of perennial crops and of annual tillage crops. In some ecological environments, the projects should also emphasize the role of agroforestry in some forms of plant combinations (See Annex 3).
- SOIL FERTILITY: the LDPs will have to disseminate many practices, already tested successfully, for maintaining soil fertility (See Annex 4). In light of current agronomic knowledge, the general problem of fertility [21] should refer not only to the intrinsic characteristics of the soil, but also to the overall functioning of the biological system (that is, the soil, along with plants and the climate) under the impact of technical interventions by producers. From this perspective, the problems of plant nutrition should be understood in the light of other factors (for example, water resources, the fight against weeds and diseases, effective methods of tillage, and cultural practices). Thus, improving soil resources should be a technical priority, whereas controlling soil erosion should only be considered as the direct result of improved management practices.
- AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION: the LDPs will emphasize strongly the importance of strategies for agricultural intensification and for increasing the productivity of farming land. This intensive development will be expressed not only in terms of productivity per unit of land exploited, but above all (based on the logic of peasant farmers) in terms of levels of production per work unit. Agricultural intensification should lead to the adoption of powerful crop production strategies that are capable of ensuring sustained stabilized production, of minimizing risks, and of maximizing productivity per work unit rather than per unit of land. The essential elements of these technical choices will be the following:
- Support for the sustained development of rain-fed agriculture;
- Development and intensification of basic food crops (drought resistant varieties that have a high nutritional value);
- Use of multiple cereal strains that are adapted to the productivity objectives of poor rural populations [22];
- Adoption of blight control measures to attenuate the impact of pests on crops (this will require the parallel implementation of measures for supplying phytosanitary products and equipment) [23];
- Support for small-scale irrigation (by means of the construction and/or rehabilitation of water infrastructures and irrigation systems);
- Appropriate use of subsidies allowing peasant farmers to purchase equipment and basic agricultural inputs (especially so that more intensive crop production techniques can be undertaken) [24];
- Improvements in agrarian practices founded on local know-how and traditional technical skills [25].
- Support for the sustained development of rain-fed agriculture;
- ANIMAL PRODUCTION and HEALTH: the LDPs should be the promoters of strategies that not only attach importance to increasing the weight of the animal carcass for marketing purposes, but also seek an overall balance between animal resources and ecological resources. In this area, the strategies should, above all, take into account the constraints and the potential of different agro-ecological zones:
- In arid and semi-arid zones (with an annual rainfall that is less than 400-450 mm), a dynamic, non-linear vision of the environment should essentially:
- consolidate and protect the producers' opportunistic strategies (for example, the mobility of the herds);
- promote appropriate regulations to manage grazing lands [26] within herders' associations (for example, define 'enclosed grazing areas' zones and 'buffer zones');
- define and implement sustainable and economically feasible initiatives for rehabilitating grazing lands (sowing of pastures, crop inspections, etc.);
- promote the setting up of spaces for consensus-building between groups of stockbreeders to coordinate the seasonal movements of herds;
- promote, as a complement to the notion of 'village land', the notion of a 'gathering zone' for pastoral groups moving to fresh pastures, and to set up the services and infrastructures that they need;
- promote the concept of 'integrated development', namely a technical and legal tool capable of incorporating and integrating agricultural, grassland, animal, plant, and water dynamics.
However, when developing the stockbreeding activities of sedentary populations in semi-arid zones that are already relatively densely populated, it is necessary to take into account the potential destabilizing effects on existing pastoral resources and on potential conflicts with populations of transhumant pastoralists. Overgrazing phenomena, often created by the chaotic multiplication of public watering points, can indeed break down the environment and lead to considerable social tensions;
- In wetter zones, (with an annual rainfall greater than 400-450 mm), characterized by their economic precariousness and ecological fragility, the LDPs will have to resolutely support agro-pastoralism, in other words the simultaneous, integrated practice of agriculture and animal breeding, in order to reinforce the survival strategies of local populations and diminish their vulnerability in crises. But they must also take greater account of new problems raised by this coexistence, in a context where the annual production of the phytomass is insufficient to meet both the food and energy needs of the populations and the fodder needs of the animals. This option should make it possible to envisage specific technical measures to promote, effectively, complementarity, rather than a simple association, between agricultural and stockbreeding activities [27];
- In all zones without distinction, the project activities should emphasize the complementarity which obtains between basic animal health and animal nutrition [28], and also the concrete benefits in food security that the sound management of grassland resources is likely to yield for producers.
- In arid and semi-arid zones (with an annual rainfall that is less than 400-450 mm), a dynamic, non-linear vision of the environment should essentially:
- GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS: The LDPs will also be able to promote precise initiatives in other areas, namely:
- Economic diversification: some measures will aim at diversifying local economies and sources of revenue (non-agricultural activities that generate revenue, support for small cottage-type converters of agricultural and livestock products, etc.);
- Development and rehabilitation of community forest resources: some measures will aim at protecting and rehabilitating forests where fruit, vegetables, and medicinal plants are gathered, firewood and construction materials are harvested, and small game is hunted;
- Reafforestation: measures aimed at creating village nurseries and producing plantations of local vegetable species; etc.
- Fish farming: training initiatives for producers; measures aimed at stocking pools and watercourses; etc.
- Eco-tourism: promotion of quality handicraft products and setting up of marketing circuits; support for creating and operating quality 'country lodges' and ecological 'farms' managed by local communities; etc.
- Etc.
- Economic diversification: some measures will aim at diversifying local economies and sources of revenue (non-agricultural activities that generate revenue, support for small cottage-type converters of agricultural and livestock products, etc.);
V.3.2 Financial mechanisms
- WATER: water management will be considered as a crucial factor. It is capable of reducing water erosion and of maximizing the infiltration of water into the ground and, therefore, of improving the implementation of agricultural production activities. Preference will be given to small works, which have the advantage of being better managed and controlled by local government bodies and are also capable of reducing the effects of water run-off, of diminishing erosion, of preserving humidity, of protecting soils, and of making it possible to recover irrigable lands rapidly and to promote the infiltration of water for irrigated crops (so that they can be turned to account immediately) (See Annex 3).
- A whole range of parallel and/or complementary financial mechanisms should support the decentralized planning, financing and implementation of investments and basic services, while consolidating the powers of local elected administrations.
- In order to address the needs of the poorest populations, the LDPs will have to, in particular:
(i) Include forms of more or less direct support for new economic opportunities in favour of the poorest groups that do not have access to quality productive resources;
(ii) Make provisions for adequate investment in common resources and discourage, by means of the appropriate mechanisms, all arbitrary forms of privatization of common resources;
(iii) Improve the economic efficiency of small producers who practice an intensive, permanent, and diversified form of agriculture on relatively small plots and in zones where there is a high demographic concentration.
- The LDPs will be able to set up two complementary, distinct types of investment (and even two distinct, complementary 'windows'), specifically investment in communal land-use management and investment in village land-use management.
(a) INVESTMENTS IN DISTRICT LAND-USE MANAGEMENT
- Adequate financial mechanisms must enable local government bodies (districts and/or sub-districts) to plan, finance, and supervise directly a series of activities within their respective jurisdictions to better protect, rehabilitate, and manage the resource base and also to increase its productivity.
- For these investments, the preferred intervention unit will be the territory of the (sub)district, considered as all of the village lands and pasture land in the same administrative zone.
- However, because of the very nature of the natural resources, the framework for action could often also be comprised of territories of several local governements [29] that are close to one another and/or similar from an ecological point of view.
- The investment framework will be comprised of global, local development plans that must include all natural resource management initiatives (the inter-communal measures envisaged will appear in this plan).
- The investment objects may be specific collective environmental initiatives: for example, in the areas of water, anti-erosion measures, fertility management, agricultural intensification, and livestock production (see above). Other initiatives may be in the following areas: the protection and management of watersheds; the rehabilitation of lakes or ponds, the reafforestation and the management of large forest zones; the construction and/or maintenance of rural trails; the establishment of self-managed rural markets; the production and/or updating of adequate communal land ownership maps (with all of the natural resources in the communal territory represented); etc. It is evident that a local government cannot do everything and will have to determine its priorities. However, in the context of the LDPs, efforts will be made to invest considerably in common property resources (grazing lands, forests, halieutic resources) - even if this means promoting at the same time the establishment and/or consolidation of collective management rules.
- In terms of financial mechanisms, the local government bodies will have at their disposal a single local development fund to finance all of their investments. But concrete incentives should encourage them to use this fund not only for infrastructures and social services (schools, health centres, etc.), but also in initiatives for protecting and managing productive natural resources.
- The volume and the quality of these environmental initiatives would, moreover, be appropriate indicators for judging the dynamism and the performance of local government bodies (precise mechanisms should make it possible to penalize or reward local government bodies by adjusting their annual financial allocations accordingly).
(b) INVESTMENT IN VILLAGE LAND-USE MANAGEMENT
- At the same time, other financial mechanisms will make it possible to support different initiatives identified, planned, and managed by peasant farmer organizations and user groups or interest groups in sedentary communities and nomadic pastoral groups in their respective zones of jurisdiction. They will be micro-initiatives that include productive investments, development plans and management plans for village lands, as well as micro-projects for supplying social services or activities that will generate revenue.
- For these initiatives, the preferred intervention unit will be the village land, considered as part of a broader area, used, exploited, and organized by a given social group (a single, sedentary village, a collection of village lands situated closely together in the same agro-ecological zone, or a collection of nomadic campsites with the same shifting itineraries) that controls it and derives its economic livelihood from it (for pastoral nomadic groups, the concept of 'land' should be supplemented by the concepts of 'pastoral grazing lands' and seasonal 'gathering zones' - based on the local cycles of seasonal movement. In some cases, this framework could be represented simply by the lands of several villages linked together by common interests and problems and/or by the 'gathering zones' or the grazing lands of groups of nomadic pastoralists.
- The investments in initiatives for developing village lands will be an integral part of the development plans of local government bodies (communes) to which the local village communities are linked. In other words, even if they are not in a position to facilitate individual village development plans and to integrate them into a single communal plan, the LDPs must ensure that the micro-projects of these lands form the basic framework of the communal plans.
- The investment objects will concern, above all, collective micro-projects in different areas (water, anti-erosion measures, fertility management, agricultural intensification, and livestock production; see above). The micro-projects identified and managed by women's groups will receive close attention. More or less direct support will be given to new economic opportunities (especially in matters related to non-agricultural revenues, diversified rural employment, vocational training, etc.) to help the poorest groups that do not have access to quality productive resources (the promotion of these new opportunities could have a considerable direct impact on policies for exploiting the productive natural resources themselves).
- The volume and the quality of natural resource management initiatives identified and managed by local communities and supported by the local government bodies on which they depend would provide appropriate indicators for evaluating the dynamism of village communities, as well as the performance of the local government bodies themselves (the evaluation must therefore lead to incentives or penalties defined beforehand in a participatory manner).
V.3.3 Unified financial management
- To be linked together in an integrated way, the two components described above (namely, communal territory land-use management and village land-use management) must be managed by local government bodies, the real LDP 'owners' within the context of integrated communal development plans, and based on negotiated 'financing codes', in a participatory manner, with all of the institutional actors.
- This sole ownership is necessary because only local government bodies have legal personality and autonomy. The functional autonomy of these bodies is defined by their legal autonomy, financial independence and technical capacity which are defined and strengthened by the LDPs.
- But the mechanisms for allocating funds and for financial management - and also the implementation procedures - may vary. The second component will entail, for example, the delegation of real responsibilities to local organizations for planning and financial management [30]. The first component will enable local government bodies to choose their priorities from a vast range of productive, social investments; on the other hand, the second component will target more especially support initiatives for local economies, in general, and for protecting and managing productive natural resources, in particular.
- Thus, although they make provisions for different fund allocation and disbursement approval mechanisms, the two components must be considered as complementary. By means of this unified management:
- The local government bodies, through their organs (and not through the LDP teams), will ensure ownership from an institutional point of view - indeed, it is these decentralized structures that enjoy a legal status and possess a legal personality;
- To each type of intervention related to natural resources will correspond a specific institutional level : for instance, the management of the village land will be linked to the village community, the management of a watershed to a sub-district and the management of a large grazing area to a district;
- For some activities, the peasant farmer organizations (which generally do not possess a legal personality) could enjoy 'delegated ownership';
- Right from their conception, the actions or micro-projects, at the level of individual lands, will be part of a broader, communal development plan that will ensure their consistency;
- The local government bodies and, under their supervision, the peasant farmer organizations themselves will be able to draw up contracts or conventions with local service providers (technical departments, entrepreneurs, NGOs) to implement these works.
- The local government bodies, through their organs (and not through the LDP teams), will ensure ownership from an institutional point of view - indeed, it is these decentralized structures that enjoy a legal status and possess a legal personality;
- The contributions of the populations to these investments (costs of action and maintenance of the structures created) will make it possible not only to facilitate the implementation of these initiatives, but also to promote local appropriation and to express local participation in a concrete way. These contributions will require financial inputs and participation through work, but they will vary in both cases and will be specified in 'financing codes' formulated in a participatory manner by all of the actors involved.
- In general, the main criterion for assessing these investments will be the collective advantages discerned and the external effects, both social and environmental, in a broad sense, that have been engendered.
14 It may be recalled that a local government body possesses a legal personality (that is the capacity to be the bearer of rights and to be subjected to obligations); autonomous organs (forming an autonomous local administration) not subject to a hierarchical control by the central government of the State); distinct powers and resources; and an autonomous budget system.
15 For example, the specialized communal committees (in particular, those that are in charge of planning rural development activities, natural resource management, land matters and land-use planning, as well as the budget committees).
16 single and/or multi-purpose unions.
17 Especially charters linking several sub-districts together.
18 The concept of social capital describes all of the relationships and networks (mutual aid, solidarity, mutual confidence, associations) existing between individuals and communities in a specific place.
19 Efficiency is aimed at measuring the utilization of a resource in order to achieve a given objective (with minimal use of means or with the best result with the same resources. Efficacy is aimed at measuring le degree of achievement of the aimed objectives.
20 An owner (maître d'ouvrage in French) is an agency or an authority that supervises a project or a contract; on the other hand, a supervisor (maître d'oeuvre) is a body that is responsible for implementing a project or executing a contract.
21 The notion of 'fertility' means the capacity of a soil to supply the nutritive elements necessary for growing a crop.
22 These choices should, above all, take into account the following elements: short cycle crops (on account of the climatic risks); strains resistant to arid and semi-arid conditions, as well as some predictable risks (e.g. striga infestations); strains capable of producing relatively large quantities of agricultural by-products (stems, leaves, bran, etc.) for animal food; etc. Note that the problem of crop seed involves strategies related to supply circuits as well as to local purchasing power.
23 In some cases, integrated biological control strategies that combine several measures (use of resistant plant varieties, adaptation of seasonal time sequence of crops, production and/or introduction of natural bio-control agents, crop combinations, bio-pesticides and limited use of synthetic pesticides)
24 Cost/benefit analyses should take into account the subsidy volumes likely to increase the use of chemical fertilizers, based on acceptable agronomic and economic parameters (also taking into account the risks involved in using fertilizers).
25 Among these techniques, the most important ones are the following: selective fallow land periods; crop rotation and crop combinations (especially cereals and leguminous crops); placing larger areas of land under crops (in zones with average rainfall); use of animal-drawn cultivation; addition of animal manure that is completely decomposed; adoption of appropriate practices for soil fertility management; treatments for plants; agro-forestry; development of small irrigated perimeters; etc.
26 That is, all techniques aimed at planning and managing the use of grazing lands to obtain sustainable stock production.
27 The main technical measures are the following: improved use of agricultural by-products; adoption of composting techniques; fodder production; drawing up of fertilizing contracts between stockbreeders and farmers; use of controlled bushfires; (for the regeneration of grasslands); diversification of stockbreeding; integrated development (agro-sylvo-pastoralism), capable of incorporating the agricultural, grassland, animal, plant, and water dynamics.
28 The main measures that will have to be advocated at the level of groups or associations of stockbreeders will be the following: an increase in stockbreeding productivity by improving all production parameters; a reduction in the incidence of and the effects of animal diseases; training and monitoring of paraveterinarians from the local communities; an increase in food resources to enable at least some categories of animals (pregnant females and lactating females, young calves barely weaned, harnessed animals) to survive the crises during 'lean periods'; production and dissemination of complementary foodstuffs (peanut meal, cotton seeds, etc.) and minerals (salt blocks); conception and management of rapid animal destocking systems, especially following periods of drought; prevention and management of conflicts over access to natural resources and their use and setting up of permanent communal and inter-communal committees with the representatives of stockbreeders' and farmers' associations.
29 Districts or sub-districts.
30 Specific legal mechanisms and procedures (such as 'long lease') should allow the definition of these delegations of powers.
VI.1 MONITORING TOOLS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT BODIES
- The LDPs will help the local government bodies to have at their disposal a simple, effective monitoring and evaluation system, based on a set of quantitative and qualitative indicators making it possible, amongst other things, to:
- Evaluate more precisely the process of rural impoverishment (above all, with regard to changes concerning control over inputs - earth, animals, grazing lands - by the local populations) and the impact of the decentralization process on local poverty (with regard, for example, to the quality of the technical services supplied to the populations);
- Evaluate changes in the conditions of access of user groups to common property resources, and of their management and their control (with regard, for example, to obtaining land titles or to establishing regulations for the use of common resources);
- Evaluate the general impact on the local economy of environmental management initiatives undertaken by local government bodies (based, for example, on improving food security or work models for women).
VI. 2 EVALUATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BODIES
- Evaluate more precisely the process of rural impoverishment (above all, with regard to changes concerning control over inputs - earth, animals, grazing lands - by the local populations) and the impact of the decentralization process on local poverty (with regard, for example, to the quality of the technical services supplied to the populations);
- On the other hand, more or less directly through the LDPs, regional and/or national partners will receive all necessary aid to draw up a system for monitoring and evaluation of the local government bodies themselves, as well as a system for disseminating their teachings.
- On the basis of this monitoring and evaluation system, the vitality, the performance, and the dynamism of the local government bodies should be verified by indicators measuring their ability to:
- Promote the creation and/or consolidation of efficient peasant farmer organizations and user groups, delegate powers and human and financial resources to the peasant farmer organizations for land-use management and supply technical and financial support for their initiatives in making profitable use of their lands;
- Or, if applicable, to take on direct responsibilities in natural resource management in situations in which no peasant farmer organization or user group would have the legitimacy to do so;
- Facilitate the definition and the implementation of local management mechanisms in land conflicts;
- Evaluate the volume of revenues derived from natural resources controlled and rehabilitated by local government bodies, as well as to generate and mobilize local resources, especially with regard to the rate of return on tax revenues;
- Guarantee that, in areas such as the preservation of the biodiversity and the integrity of the ecosystems, national parks, and natural reserves, all measures will be taken in close consultation with the local populations, will take into account their interests and their rights, and will result in clear and transparent accountability procedures;
- Facilitate the supply of efficient services to populations by government technical agencies (in particular, agricultural, stockbreeding, and water and forestry services);
- Promote the establishment of specific arrangements between deconcentrated technical services and user associations (for example, within the context of self-managed wood markets), under the supervision of the appropriate local government organs.
- Promote the creation and/or consolidation of efficient peasant farmer organizations and user groups, delegate powers and human and financial resources to the peasant farmer organizations for land-use management and supply technical and financial support for their initiatives in making profitable use of their lands;
- In the area of natural resource management, the LDPs will have an opportunity to play a crucial pilot role by supporting good environmental governance. Their main challenges will consist, on the one hand, of creating interactive links between the institutional aspects and technical and socio-economic demands and, on the other hand, of concentrating all technical initiatives into a sustainable institutional framework.
- The concept of 'good environmental governance' will be an integral part of the wider notion of local governance. Moreover, the interventions related to the management of natural resources will be included into a sustainable process of poverty reduction.
- Local mechanisms of good environmental governance will increase the awareness of the importance of environmental issues, will enhance responsibilities and strengthen a democratic culture. This will potentially lead to productive ways of managing natural resources and, therefore, to the improvement of the productivity of local rural economies.
- The appropriate mechanisms should facilitate the transmission of the results of the LDPs to the decision-makers and to other participants in development.
- Training in the basic concepts of the programme and in participatory diagnostic principles for the coordination team and the partners
- Review and analysis of the secondary information sources
- Information campaigns and promotion of awareness among the administrative authorities and all of the local actors (including the organization of a Start-Up Workshop)
- Identifying the service providers (individual and institutional) who will prepare the diagnosis
- Catalogue of NRM best practices/techniques
- Models for development and communal investment plans
- Zoning: overall view of the socio-territorial analysis/action unit
- Control villages or a set or 'groups' of homogeneous villages
- Local government bodies (district or sub-district) (See Annex 2)
- Participation of all of the actors
- Poverty (including local land and food insecurity)
- Institutions
- Specific environmental issues
- Synthetic diagnostic reports (including resource maps, seasonal calendars, conceptual diagrams, constraint trees, etc.)
- Data base (computerized, if possible)
- Consensus-building workshops (with resource persons)
- Information and data interpretation workshops (for local actors)
- Participatory dynamics
- Clarification of needs and local priorities
- Elements facilitating the planning exercise
- Ability of the actors to conduct their own self-diagnosis
- Identification of subjects requiring more thorough study
- Setting up of specialized local government committees
- Analysis of the results of the diagnosis and the in-depth studies
- Results of the diagnosis taken over by local actors
- Awareness-raising and information to the authorities
- Definition of the basic 'rules of the game'
- Definition of the action units and the operational procedures for action
- Identification of the local support organizations and evaluation of their capabilities
- Illustrative list of the main costs
- Frameworks for financing codes
- Procedure manuals
- Monitoring/evaluation sheets
- Programming and planning workshops: at the level of local government bodies and peasant farmer organizations
- Finalizing priorities (within an embryonic communal plan)
- Help in formulating a local development plan (including a local development framework) integrating the different priorities
- Helping local government structures integrate the priorities of peasant farmer organizations into a single plan for communal development
- Aid for conducting feasibility studies
- Aid for budgeting the activities of local government authorities
- Presentation of the investment programme to the approval authorities (legal guardianship)
- Help in formulating a financing code (including provisions concerning the amount of local financial contributions)
- Establishing financial and technical mechanisms enabling the start-up of activities
- Harmonizing plans at different levels
- Definition of a 'withdrawal' strategy as well as a strategy for the sustainability of activities
- Identification of performance indicators
- Local government bodies: ownership
- Coordination team: assisting ownership; technical supervision and coordination; transmission of information
- Suppliers: assisting local government ownership; project supervision
- Completion of the planning and programming process
- Setting up the planned financial mechanism
- Links with financial, tax, and legal strategies
- Sheets with plan of operations and target indicators
- Finalizing conventions with partners
- Creation and/or consolidation of institutions/organizations
- Definition of institutions/precise standards of conduct
- Leaders of peasant farmer organizations
- Members of government and non-government technical departments
- Identification of technical measures to be promoted
- Dissemination of NRM good practices
- Establishing the appropriate financial mechanism
- Local actors capable of planning and programming local development
- Increase in the productivity of natural resources
- Improvement in the living standard of populations and reduction in poverty
- Local government bodies: ownership
- Coordination team: assisting ownership; help with overall supervision, technical coordination; coordinating approaches; monitoring and dissemination of information
- Suppliers: assisting local government ownership; project supervision
- Identification of realistic target indicators
- Identification of impact indicators
- Procedures for self-evaluation by the actors
- Definition and creation of a simple, efficient system for evaluating the local government bodies
- Local government bodies: self-evaluation procedures
- Coordination teams: general supervision, coordinating, monitoring; transmission of information
- Suppliers: management of the different activities and sub-activities;
- External operators: auditing; evaluations
- Critical analysis of the initial situation of the local government bodies in the light of the concept of 'capital'.
- Individual interviews, discussions with homogeneous groups of people (local elected representatives, members of community organizations, representatives of civil society, etc.).
- Use of simple record forms
- If possible, work on all of the sub-district in a district or choose some sample communes.
- Socio-community-based infrastructures: current state, degree of demand, types of services supplied
- Productive community-based infrastructures: current state, degree of demand
- Current capacity of the infrastructures to satisfy basic socio-economic needs
- Inventory of local equipment: current state, use, management, and maintenance
- Analysis of inter-communal variations
- Deconcentrated State technical departments; technical departments; private suppliers; NGOs and interest groups; women's organizations; youth associations; etc.
- Mayor and Communal Council: socio-economic profiles, experience and expertise, level of education, etc.
- Level and quality of local perceptions with respect to decentralization and the role of local government bodies, etc.
- Analysis of inter-communal variations
- Potential and constraints for following resources: water (wells, bore-holes, rivers, lakes, etc.); usable agricultural land; grazing land zones (based on seasonal use by the commune's herds); trails used by herds moving to new pastures; wood resources; mineral resources; halieutic resources
- Forms of land control: regulations, agreements/conventions between social groups and sub-groups; land conflicts: classification of land conflicts; local mechanisms for resolving conflicts; decision-making power; applying penalties, etc.
- Analysis of inter-communal variations
- Local banking structures; credit system; savings banks for existing funds or funds being accumulated; other financial systems
- Characteristics of the communal tax system
- Analysis of inter-communal variations
- Types of intra-community solidarity bonds (forms of mutual aid, etc.); potential forms of inter-communal solidarity; forms and degree of associative life in the communes
- Situation of women in traditional society
- Types and characteristics of intercultural meetings; relationship between associative organizations (especially youth organizations)
- Forms of tension and sociological barriers to be taken into consideration; conflicts
- Analysis of inter-communal variations
- Simplified participatory approach methods, led by a specialized operator. Active participation by some elected representatives (especially people belonging to the specialized local government committees).
- Specialized operators (for example, for more in-depth studies on taxation, land conflicts, etc.)
- Active participation by the project coordination team to become acquainted with the methodology (to be used 'iteratively') and to introduce itself to the populations
- From 4 to 8 weeks (depending on the previous experience of the people who conduct the analysis and local specific factors)
- Preparation of manure pits or of compost pits: a manure pit is supplied regularly with manure and plant waste and watered during the dry season (the manure is used as soon as the rainfall season has begun); a compost heap is filled with household waste and also with straw and harvest residue before the rainfall season (the rain enables fermentation to occur throughout the ensuing dry season; watering is not required and the compost can be used at the beginning of the following rainfall season);
- Use of mulch, not so much for supplying nutritive elements as for protecting the ground against erosion, limiting evaporation (and, consequently, retaining humidity), reducing the decomposition rate of organic matter, reducing the excessive temperature of soils), and reducing invasion by weeds (soil humidity is the main limiting principle in agrarian systems in semi-arid zones and, to some extent, in wetter zones);
- Introduction and/or consolidation of different forms of 'crop combinations' including the use of leguminous crops in cereal plots or of crop rotations, which entails planting vegetables after a cereal crop (leguminous crops stimulate nitrogen fixation in the atmosphere, and also supply fodder for livestock);
- Treating cereal fields with moderate doses of urea and modifying soils by adding crude phosphate or applying mineral fertilizers in contained areas and/or in split applications;
- Cultivating alternating strips of crops and trees; planting strings of vegetables along contour lines; and the ridging system or ridging in border strips may provide many potential advantages (for example, energy savings, easy weed control, integration of organic matter into the ridge, etc.);
- Controlled use of seasonal fires [31];
- Burial of crop residues, the use of agricultural by-products (rice bran, peanut shells, lime sludge, etc.), and the use of waste water after lagooning);
- Use of animal-drawn cultivation to facilitate, among other things, the incorporation of animal manure and chemical fertilizers;
- Use of household waste on fields close to cabins;
- Transformation of natural fallow lands into grazed fallow; and improvement of fallow land and feed-grade plots to regenerate the properties of the soil (stable humus content and soil structure) - by means of fire protection, tree planting at the end of the cycle, or use of forage crop plants on fallow lands;
- Housing animals on remote fields;
- Agro-biological soil management: this entails crop growing systems based on direct seeding in soil that has a permanent plant cover (to improve soil fertility by increasing the biological activity, reducing losses, and improving the recycling of nutritive elements),
- Agroforestry to integrate trees and shrubs into production systems, for the production of fodder or wood and, above all, to take advantage of their qualities as fertilizers and of their microclimatic effects. The following practices - based on induced natural regeneration - have produced satisfactory results:
- Agroforest stands of Acacia albida and of Adansonia digitata in the middle of fields;
- Windbreaks using Azadirachta indica, Bauhinia rufescens, Ziziphus mauritiana, and Acacia holocericea to border fields;
- Live fences propagated from cuttings of Euphorbia balsamifera or of Commiphora africana;
- Planting of shade trees on concessions, especially Azadirachta indica and Prosopis juliflora; cabin gardens centred on Moringa oleifera and Adansonia digitata;
Thus, in soil fertility matters, the LDPs must support the integrated management of nutritive elements, combining organic and mineral methods of fertilizing soils with physical and biological measures for soil and water conservation, based on the specific characteristics of each site.
This integrated method (Integrated Plants Nutrition Management, IPNM), is advocated more and more by the international agronomic research centres. It is based on making maximum use of local organic matter, exploiting fully non-organic matter, and reducing losses in the nutritive elements in plants. Its importance is based on several findings:
- Agroforest stands of Acacia albida and of Adansonia digitata in the middle of fields;
- The agricultural by-products, which determine to a large extent the preservation of soil fertility, are available locally only on a limited scale;
- The use of chemical fertilizers - although unavoidable - is limited by their availability, transportation costs, the financial capabilities of producers, their price in comparison with the price of the products, the presence and/or dynamism of marketing infrastructures, etc.;
- The use of chemical fertilizers only, without the use of organic matter, is not sustainable;
- The use of chemical fertilizers in semi-arid zones or relatively dry zones entails considerable risks for crops;
- Although they help to improve the physical properties of soils, organic products, alone, cannot provide the elements they need and are not enough to regenerate fully the quantities of nutritive elements withdrawn during harvesting; therefore, it is necessary to combine organic matter and non-organic matter, using applications that have complementary and synergetic roles (as organic supplements provide beneficial effects regardless of their nutritional contribution);
- In semi-arid zones, the main constraint with soils is their phosphorous deficiency, whereas in wetter zones, there is a nitrogen deficiency. In some regions, phosphate, drawn from local mineral deposits, can alleviate these deficiencies; on the other hand, the use of leguminous plants can stimulate the symbiotic fixation of nitrogen and increase soil fertility.
- Social capital : note 30
Government- Local government: note 3; note 14
Decentralization : note 2
Efficiency : note 19
Efficacity : note 19
Fertility (of soils) : note 21
Stakeholder : note 11
Owner : note 20
Supervisor : note 20
Natural resources; note 1
Civil society : note 5 - Local government: note 3; note 14
ANNEX 1 :
LDP DIAGNOSIS, PLANNING, AND PROGRAMMING: SEQUENCES
1. PREREQUISITES FOR DIAGNOSIS
2. DIAGNOSIS
LEVELS
STRATEGIC AXES
MAIN PRODUCTS
MAIN PROCEDURES
EXPECTED RESULTS
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Coordination team: definition of the approaches and procedures to be followed.
Suppliers: perform the diagnosis and prepare products (aid for local government bodies)
3. PLANNING PREREQUISITES
4. PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING
4.1 LOCAL PRIORITIES
4.2 COMMUNAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
4.3 EXPECTED RESULTS
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
5. PREREQUISITES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
6. IMPLEMENTATION
6.1 INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
6.2 CAPACITY-BUILDING
6.3 SUPPORTING LOCAL ECONOMIES
6.4 EXPECTED RESULTS
6.5 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
7. MONITORING ACTIVITIES
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
ANNEX 2 :
DIAGNOSTIC PLAN AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL
1. OBJECTIVE
2. METHODOLOGY
3. COMPONENTS
3.1 Physical capital
3.2 Human capital
3.3 Natural capital
3.4 Financial capital
3.5 Social capital
4. RESPONSIBILITIES:
5. DURATION:
ANNEX 3 :
SOME EXAMPLES OF TECHNICAL MEASURES
(Water management, conservation of soil resources, and anti-erosion measures)
Generally, the measures for fighting water erosion consist of: reducing the impact of water drops on the soil surface; preventing the decomposition and the destruction of aggregate; increasing the infiltration rate of water into the soil; and reducing the velocity of water flowing over the surface. In the case of wind erosion, the effect of the wind on the surface depends on the characteristics and the state of the surface soil (wind erosion is especially significant when winds blow over sandy or sandy-loamy soils). As with water erosion, the layer that is richest in nutritive elements is eroded, and that produces a drop in soil fertility.
The main anti-erosion practices are the following:
- Soil fixation in dunes: these measures make it possible to combat wind erosion (usually in zones that already have an annual rainfall of less than 500 mm). Generally, two methods are used: (i) mechanical fixation (for example, by means of a latticed arrangement of palm tree rachis) and (ii) biological stabilization (by strewing goat dung, planting rapidly growing species, for example, propospis, parkinsonia and local species, for example, acacia, balanites, zizyphus);
- Half-moons: semi-circles (approximately 6.5 feet (2 m) in radius and 12 inches (30 cm) deep) generally on a slope, are dug perpendicularly to the slope and surrounded by an earth embankment that is also in the form of a semi-circle. The semi-circle is cultivated and is productive on account of the surface water that is collected and stopped by the 'small moon' - it has been estimated that a half-moon can receive 2.5 times as much water as it receives directly;
- Groynes: construction of embankments using stone and timber cribs, anchored to the bank and jutting out into the bed of a river (its dimensions depend on the height of the bank , the width of the river bed, and the strength of the current). For a groyne 65 feet (20 m) long, it has been estimated that 2 to 12 weeks of work are needed. This technique makes it possible to protect and reclaim the lands along river banks (for cultivated farm crops);
- Holes: traditional method, which consists of digging holes in hard soil approximately 1 foot (30 cm) in diameter and 6 inches (15 cm) deep, placing the crop seed in them, of placing the organic materials there, and stimulating termite activity to break up the underlying soil (this method, which is not work intensive, is called 'zaï' in Burkina Faso and 'tassa' in Niger);
- Micro-retaining dykes built into the slopes of a clayey site that is effective with or without canals for surface water collection, and away from the main paths of gully erosion (digging supplies the excavated earth to build the retaining dyke which is covered in stones). The micro-dykes which can store water for 4 to 6 months are generally used for livestock watering, but also for making bricks or for small-scale irrigation;
- Management of watersheds: this covers a number of initiatives aimed at protecting and reclaiming the soil on slopes (by means of small dykes and plant cover) and at protecting the soil in shallow waters against vertical and lateral erosion (by means of stabilizing dykes and of filtering dykes);
- Earth bunds with stone spillways are used either to pent up surface waters so that they filter back into the earth and replenish the water table tapped by wells, or to retain the earth and allow the regeneration of grass, shrubs, and bushes. Earth bunds with stone spillways are generally aligned with a water level. The earth bunds are often stabilized by means of grass seeding (e.g. by planting andropogon), although straying by animals makes this difficult, and by planting trees;
- Introduction of an anti-erosion plant cover along slopes, using grasses or shrubs with deep roots and strong leaves (possible to use vetiveria on account of its characteristics - fire- and flood-resistant and impervious to livestock or insects).
ANNEX 4 :
MAIN PRACTICES AND TECHNIQUES USED IN SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT
The main practices for managing soil fertility that the LDPs will attempt to disseminate are the following:
A combination of these practices will make it possible to increase the effectiveness of fertilizer use, reduce the risk of acidification, and supply a much more balanced source of nutritive substances.
31 Above all, in the context of grazing lands (fire helps to destroy harmful species and to help the young shoots of valued species grow). On the other hand, in other contexts, if the fire is not properly controlled, it can destroy the micro-flora and produce sudden mineralization of the organic matter.
ANNEX 5 :
THE LDP PLANNING CYCLE
ANNEX 6 :
LIST OF BASIC NOTIONS
Capital
