Popular Participation & Decentralization in Africa

At the end of World War II, all but three African nations (Ethiopia, Liberia and South
Africa) were ruled by some European State. Then the independence movement began:
first in North Africa with Libya (1951), and over the next five years, Egypt, the Sudan.
Tunisia and Morocco. The Sub-Saharan States soon followed, beginning with Ghana
(1957) and, by 1990, 42 other countries. Being newly independent and largely poor,
the thinking was that if a country could come up with a national plan for generating
and investing a sufficient amount of funds in a manner consistent with macro stability,
then that country would have met the pre-conditions for development. It would
be a “State” (central government) — led process whereby “the flexibility to implement
policies by technocrats was accorded price-of-place and accountability through checks
and balances was regarded as an encumbrance” (World Bank, WDR, 1997). It was not
an unreasonable strategy: national governments populated by good advisers and with
external technical and financial assistance would put the country on the sure path to
growth and development