Synthèse Journée d’Étude AdP
du vendredi 10 septembre 2004
LES RESSOURCES DU DEVELOPPEMENT LOCAL
Document préparé par Adeline Chambe sous la direction de Antoine Olavarrieta
2004 Les ressources du développement local (3.71 MB)
Michel Arnaud, AdP
Aucun continent ne fait exception : partout politique de développement local (ou territorial) rime avec décentralisation. Certes, avec des vitesses et suivant des modalités qui épousent le cadre socio-culturel et les contextes historiques et politiques de chaque pays.
Pour combiner « développement durable » et impacts de la mondialisation sur les économies locales, l’élaboration de « politiques de développement territorial » sont devenues des voies de renouvellement des enjeux du développement et de multiples laboratoires d’expérimentation de nouveaux jeux et systèmes d’acteurs :
– Les représentants des administrations étatiques doivent approfondir (et pour beaucoup se résigner à) leurs nouvelles missions d’impulsion, d’orientation, de conseil, de benchmarking et de capitalisation des bonnes et mauvaises pratiques,
– Les élus locaux, et plus particulièrement les chefs de files qui émergent parmi eux, se découvrent chef d’orchestre d’instrumentistes qui, faute de langage commun, n’acquièrent que progressivement les nécessaires capacités d’écoute et le sens des finalités du travail autour d’un « projet de territoire »,
– Les instrumentistes – entreprises locales, représentants socio-professionnels, syndicaux et des milieux associatifs… – s’ouvrent à des formes de coopération dans la mise en oeuvre de ces projets mais restent limités en terme de capacités managériales.
Tous sont appelés à comprendre les enjeux et les marges de manoeuvre qui s’offrent à chacun et à la collectivité locale dont ils font partie. Tel est le contexte institutionnel et politique nouveau – qui émerge à peine dans beaucoup de pays – dans lequel se pose dorénavant le problème des ressources du développement local. Mobilisation de ressources et mécanismes d’allocation doivent s’ajuster aux multiples types et besoins de prise en charge des projets de territoire. Ils doivent en outre intégrer les paramètres de déséquilibres dans le peuplement, de ressources naturelles, de compétitivité – nationale et internationale.
Les expérimentations que l’on voit initier dans de nombreux pays – et pas seulement ceux où le développement était jusque là dirigé par un État central omnipotent (et, pour les moins développés, intermédiaire obligé pour les aides internationales) – sont au moins tridimensionnelles. A l’échelle de territoires correspondants à un pôle urbain, modeste ou très important, et un hinterland, plus ou moins urbanisé, on voit tester :
– l’aménagement des systèmes fiscaux en vue de favoriser le financement public du développement local ; une décentralisation budgétaire qui forge de nouvelles administrations locales, maîtres d’ouvrage à part entière – des réflexions/études jusqu’aux montages financiers, à la réalisation des opérations et à la gestion des ouvrages ;
– des stratégies de promotion du développement économique privé local qui visent la prise de conscience de l’économie locale par ses propres acteurs et une meilleure canalisation de l’investissement public en vue de favoriser des dynamiques s’appuyant sur les forces potentielles existantes ;
– une animation de la société locale dans la perspective d’un développement durable,socialement et économiquement, avec la création d’un modèle décisionnel, adapté au milieu, associant les représentants de divers intervenants locaux autour d’une équipe réduite (commissaire au développement et secrétaire, à a limite).
A tous les niveaux économiques, le but est la création d’un “environnement de développement local”, en termes de services et d’infrastructures économiques propices à l’entrepreneuriat et à l’investissement privé – mais aussi de gestion des ressources humaines. Là où l’autonomie locale est solide, cela va jusqu’à des contractualisations entre l’Etat et le binôme « collectivité locale – réseau d’entreprises locales » pour créer des infrastructures majeures et des zones d’activités, des centres de formation, voire des laboratoires de recherche qui assurent le renouvellement des ressources humaines et l’adaptation des produits locaux aux marchés. Mais cela peut plus modestement, là où l’autonomie locale est à peine acquise, porter sur une gestion participative dynamique du cadre de vie et de travail local.
Si les modes de mobilisation des dynamismes et de canalisation des ressources changent ou innovent, l’argent reste le nerf de la guerre, spécialement dans les pays les moins avancés. Pour construire des villes, des infrastructures, des écoles et des universités, il faut et il faudra toujours des financements
importants et longs, donc de l’épargne importante et longue (un des secrets de la réussite de la Chine et maintenant de l’Inde). La capacité et la rapidité des outils de financements et les opérateurs financiers classiques – publics (les agences de développement) ou privés (les banques ou les fonds de pension et de placements), qu’ils se financent sur l’épargne nationale ou étrangère – à s’adapter et à financer cette nouvelle dimension du développement est cruciale.
La journée ADP 2004 s’efforcera de faire la liaison entre la montée en régime des niveaux locaux de décision et de gestion, l’évolution des instruments financiers du développement et les expériences d’évolution de la mobilisation de ressources locales – dont le renforcement devra obligatoirement accompagner, si on veut être cohérent et ne pas rêver, cette responsabilisation des initiatives locales. La journée devra également s’interroger sur les limites à ne pas franchir pour que cette « fièvre localisatrice » – antidote supputé de la mondialisation – ne se traduise pas, dans des pays fragiles, par la
disparition de toute cohérence nationale, par le saupoudrage de mini-financements de mini-projets, qu’elle ne freine pas la croissance des moteurs majeurs de la compétitivité internationale que sont les grands pôles urbains.
Study day – 10 september 2004 « Synthesis »
This study day set out to identify the economic aspects of local development, which is marked by the context of globalization, and the sociopolitical aspects, which mean that participation and decentralization are two sources of local development. The speeches in the second part of the meeting dealt with local development resources.
Pierre Veltz, a senior highways engineer, examined why, at a time when globalization is dominating all the world’s economies, local development is becoming a necessity and clashing and mixing with global factors. He began by describing the relatively late appearance of local development in France where for a long time development was managed the DATAR or other public bodies which generated development that he characterized as exogenous, in contrast with endogenous, i.e. local, development. He analyzed the transition from exogenous to endogenous development, demonstrating that global and exogenous development still dominate over local and endogenous development. Moving to the international sphere, and considering the global context and the new situation with regard to development, Pierre Veltz highlighted some of the characteristics of globalization (redistribution of international investment flows, low human mobility, the questioning of the vision of an integrated world consisting of States, provinces and towns). He also highlighted the heterogeneous nature of States, the dynamism of city States and small homogeneous States, the dissociation between the centre and the outskirts, the role of cross-border groupings, the rising economic power (but the frequent political weakness) of metropolises. Last, he remarked that development is no longer driven by static resources but by sociological, sociohistorical or sociopolitical factors. In the ensuing discussion, Pierre Veltz presented some additional ideas about the future of the farming world, the future of the French territory, and the strategy for selecting zones for intervention.
Célestin Koussoube, the mayor of Bobo-Dioulasso, used his city’s experience to illustrate the sociopolitical dimension of local development. After giving some economic data (gross local and per capita product, budget, investments), he presented the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, its position and the factors which have favoured its development. He described the process of deterioration that took place during the colonial period with the loss of major political and administrative functions, and then, after independence, with the opening of other corridors towards the sea in neighbouring countries, the concentration of power and activities in Ouagadougou. Faced with this situation, the municipality set up a programme to revive local economies that had been proposed by the municipal development partnership (MDP) in Cotonou in the framework of the ECOLOC programme whose phases of economic audit and consultation between local actors he then outlined. The second phase consisted of the setting up of bodies (the support group, the ECOLOC committee, dialogue groups), a number of activities (training programmes, a scheduling workshop, public consultation, organization of a seminar, holding the Development Forum for Bobo-Dioulasso and its region). He then gave an account of the appraisal of the process and described the outlook.
Lise Duval, a member of Fides, an NGO working on the development of decentralized financial systems in Eastern European and African countries, particularly in connection with the attempt to find innovative financial products and institutional forms that meet the specific needs of poor groups and groups who are excluded from the banking system, gave a paper on microfinance and the generation and mobilization of local resources. After describing the origins and goals of micro-finance, she showed that it can be used to aid development and reduce poverty and also to break vicious circles of poverty as can be seen from a Fides programme in Moldavia. She explained how conventional banking systems generate exclusion (geographical, cultural, financial and professional), and that the role of micro-finance is to devise new procedures for selecting, monitoring and penalizing borrowers. She described the economic characteristics and the needs of the target group consisting of those excluded from the conventional system, and then the locally based means of selecting clients, and identified the factors of success. She ended by highlighting the links that are created between micro-financing activities and local development.
Bernard Porque (an engineer working for the Paris water management company, the SAGEP) who is president of the Eau-lambda association which helps partners in the South and North to carry out hydrological projects in villages in Africa and South America, and Ismaël Sacko (an agriculturist assisting village projects in Mali) outlined their experience of supporting sustainable development for people in Mali by setting up drinking water supplies. After describing the crucial nature of the water problem in the region, they gave an account of the strong links between Malians living in France and those who remain in the country, presented the social organization system which means projects of this type can be self-financing and described Eau-lambda’s involvement in the project (technical assistance, defining the conditions of success, different stages of the project) and gave some examples (a village of 110 persons, a project for 6500 persons).
Jacques Stevenin, who is the director of forward studies and monitoring at the public planning agency for the new town of Sénart, set out some ideas about local development in developed countries: the specification, origins, formalization and changes in the concept which he situates at the intersection between the approaches of the market, the State and the regions. He broke down the local development process into stages and components: analysis of the area in question, project development, gaining support and acceptance for the project, project leadership, and project evaluation. He ended by talking about the issue of financing and partners.
Victor Chomentowski, a consultant and teacher, gave a paper on the outlook with regard to borrowing by local authorities in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, as loans, together with self-financing and subsidies, are one of the sources of funding available to local authorities. He explained why he thought loans can be a key factor of development, and described the risks associated with them. He mentioned the issue of setting rates, and took the view that the equal treatment of borrowers is important for the system to be functional.
He then described the situation in Africa with regard to the specialized financial institutions on which most operations depend. He remarked that loans to local authorities are increasing slowly, that the position of local authorities is extremely varied, and that a considerable amount of finance exists in sub-Saharan Africa. He mentioned the different types of guarantees that can be obtained from local authorities and described avenues for the future: creating different products and systems for the poorest local authorities, creating a regional organization, fostering trust between lenders and borrowers.
Hassan Nouha, assistant director of public cooperative action and delegated services at the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, began by presenting the organizational framework within which local public services operate in Morocco, and then gave some information, some of it quantitative, about Moroccan local authority expenditure, the sources of finance for their budgets, the distribution of the population and how operating and investment expenditure is allocated between rural and urban municipalities. He stated that concessions were the preferred way of managing public services. He went on to comment on the results obtained from delegation in the areas of urban transport, drinking water distribution and sanitation (in particular in Casablanca). Last, he spoke about the appraisal of current programmes (investments, improvement in the efficiency of networks, the rates of households with services and the quality of service) and the policy which is recommended for the future.
Sarah Marniesse and Thierry Paulais, respectively a researcher and the head of the urban development division at the French Development Agency (AFD), dealt with the question of financing urban local authority investments. They started by describing the significance and implications of the dual process of urbanization and decentralization, in particular with regard to urban needs, and then analyzed the terms of finance for local authorities in Priority Solidarity Zones (ZSP) while emphasizing the dominant role of Specialized Financial Institutions of different types (municipal development funds, institution financed by the State and public development aid, institutions obtaining their funds from the bond and banking market), and, last, considered the benefits and disadvantages of the models that are advocated and the theoretical and observed movements towards funding by the market. They illustrated their comments by referring to the case of Vietnam.
The round table provided the speakers with the opportunity to answer questions about the future of local development, the issue of solvency, the particular cases of Bobo-Dioulasso and Morocco, the situation in the countries of the North, absorbing capacity and competition between projects, the lessons drawn from local experience in the South, and also allowed them to give a brief account of the point of view of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.