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| Summaries of the debates on the forum
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Summary 5: (19-25 June)
FOLLOWING IS A MACHINE TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH. IT HAS BEEN EDITED FOR MISTRANSLATION ONLY. THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH IS AVAILABLE ON THIS WEB SITE AT: <http://www.ue-acp.org/fr/forum/syntheses/synt5.html>
KEY WORDS: PROGRESS OF THE DEBATE* * Title: Summary 5 - Does not support to the twofold dynamics of regional integration and decentralization carry risks if it is linked to a conditionality or if it imposes some outside models? Does not definition of governance conceal "a certain cultural decolonization"? (19- 25 June) * *
by: Anne SIMON <anne.simon@skynet.be>
°°° Abstract: Several intervening parties inform of the dangers that could be presented by supporting the twofold dynamics of regional integration and decentralization if it only corresponds to one more "fashion" in development policies. A fashion that would be imposed by a system of conditionality and would not be wished by the States, very different from each other, in which new relations between administrations and populations would not have been constituted. A fashion that has already led to the creation of institutions unknown to the populations that they represent. Others answer that this twofold dynamics must be an endogenous "process". An intervening party, who specifies a definition of governance proposed, sees in it a "certain cultural decolonization". Would not governance make possible to societies, to individuals to endow themselves with capacities to manage themselves, to develop their right to question, to initiate their local development? A warning is also issued on the seeds of inequality that are included in Internet, if a process encouraging accessibility is not quickly set up in the next EU-ACP Convention. °°°
1 - Opportunity and limit of the decentralization/ regional integration
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Djibril DIOP expresses fears as to the spirit of conditionality that could come with regional integration and decentralization. On the basis of experiences of the past, he recalls how much the imposition of exogenous models is sterile, even ominous, to processes of development (drastic increase in poverty in the ACP country since their independence).
He gives as an example the CEDEAO which, built without the populations of the countries that compose it, make it a "utopia more than a reality ". Regional integration does not make sense unless it is the endogenous answer of the interested countries.
Similarly, decentralization, imposed "according to the model of Western democracy" since the beginning of the 90s has given disappointing results. The experiences have rather entailed a "perversion of social relations" in opposition to the dynamics that should underlie the local development.
Here again, "local initiative" must be encouraged when it exists but it is not necessary to make of it a "mandatory condition for aid to development". The process must be reviewed in particular in the direction of a bigger transparency.
Going in the same direction, Severine BELLINA raises the question of the legitimacy of regional organization. She thinks that its institutionalization, if it corresponds to a phenomenon of fashion only imposed as a condition, might in the end be no more than a new aspect of the relationship of dissymmetry between those that give and those that receive.
Aboubacar DOUCOURE answers that insofar as it is endogenous, this twofold dynamics of decentralization/ regional integration must be supported and that it is up to the ACP countries to give it a real and voluntary content. But it is a long process for these States integrate the immense creativeness of populations, for new relations to develop between administrations and populations who have so far been deprived of responsibility of and whose concerns are more linked to the everyday survival.
--> Role of Internet
---------------------------Answering a contribution on leads of action that could encourage the regional integration, Michel ELIE informs of his experience on the Internet in North-South relations.
The Internet is going to certainly upset trade relations in the world. "It is going to change the deal at the level of the training, access to information, to knowledge and to information, to culture ". But this being said, the question of accessibility to the Internet on a world level is a new source of inequality between countries of the North and the South.
Indeed the economy of the Internet is unfavorable to countries of the South that must pay both for the infrastructure and the equipment of the circuit. In these countries, the Internet is only accessible to the privileged. It is the reason for which he proposes that for the renewal of the Convention of Lomé a "voluntary process of re-balancing of the Internet " should be planned. This process should lead to supporting the development of communication infrastructures, training in the use of this new media, and the recognition of the plurality of languages and cultures in order to make possible "a world right to the floor".
2 - Governance, a signal of a cultural decolonization?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Analyzing the definition of governance proposed by Pierre CALAME "governance is the capacity of human society to endow itself with representation systems to manage itself in a voluntary movement", Michel ANSAY makes several remarks.
This definition is also valid at the individual level, one will speak then of attitudes, of aptitudes. It "refers societies to themselves, to their responsibilities (response ability: capacity to answer), to their capacities of initiatives, to their right to difference, to a local development, that is to say separate (…)". He recalls that the capacity of choice is also the capacity of rejection. He asks if this definition of governance does not conceal "perhaps a certain cultural decolonization".
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EU-ACP FORUM MODERATOR / MODERATEUR DU FORUM UE-ACP :
Denis PANSU
e-mail : moderation@ue-acp.org
tel : 00 33(0)6 81 36 36 25
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