Paper short abstract:

During the civil war in Sierra Leone, patronage network were used to mobilize rural people for organizing the governmental militia. The same method of mobilization was used during the Ebola crisis. This mobilization enabled to form a bridge between the governmental policies and local measures.

Paper long abstract:

Sierra Leone experienced the epidemic of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) between 2014 and 2016. This paper points out that local people were mobilized for containing EVD through patronage network, and that made it possible to coordinate the governmental policies and local measures. In the discussion of political science, patronage networks have been considered as tools of political mobilizations (Chabal and Daloz 2001; Takeuchi 2001; Utas ed. 2012). Sierra Leone experienced two catastrophes; the civil war (1991-2002) and the Ebola epidemics (2014-2016). Previous researches argue that patronage networks were used for mobilizing combatants in the course of the civil war (Hoffman 2011; Okano 2019; Richards 1996). This paper argues that similar method of mobilization was used to tackle the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. In the initial stage of the epidemic, the government and international agencies attempted to implement measures against EVD without the assistance of the local people. However, it created confusions. In order to defuse the situation, political elites were used to connect the medical staffs and the local people. These elites, who have strong personal ties to local people conveyed the knowledge of EVD to the local people, and distribute resources for preventing EVD such as bucket, thermometer and chlorinated water. Through the patronage network of these political elites, local people were mobilized to establish checkpoints to prevent the spread of EVD. Even though a lot of ethical problems are left, the involvements of local people were considered to be crucial for containing EVD.

Paper short abstract:

Promoting vertically integrated accountability processes through Voice to the People, in Nigeria didn't only help citizens to influence budgets but also planning and monitoring of budget implementation; triggering community level social accountability initiatives and horizontal linkages.

Paper long abstract:

Donors have long supported civil society programmes to enhance accountable governance in aid recipient countries but limited impacts have prompted questions concerning the efficacy of their approaches. This paper is a study of the Voice to the People programme, funded by the Department of International Development (DFID) and implemented in Nigeria by Christian Aid in partnership with local Civil Society Organisations, that has performed somewhat better. Given that this paper aimed to identify lessons rather than evaluation, it took a purposive, iterative and collaborative approach to data collection, analysis and report writing considering V2P through the lens of Vertical Integration. Although V2P did not set out to address specific accountability failures through its focus on service delivery targets in particular sectors, however, it did take a power informed approach to coordinating citizens' voices at different levels for more responsive and accountable governance. This led to increasing prospects for vertically integrated governance and government's acceptance cum institutionalisation of V2P's Community Charter of Demand (CCD). Such acceptance influenced budget information access, participation and eventually increase in budget allocations for community healthcare, education and infrastructure projects and social development. It equally resulted to shifting power imbalances between state and citizens, creating more space and a process for citizen voices especially women to influence state budgeting processes in the future. Reasons for success include a carefully orchestrated, non-confrontational evidence-based campaign that helped access to high level budget forums and leveraging the CCD tools developed by communities and V2P partners whilst building horizontal alliances.

Paper short abstract:

Community development efforts of any kind must run through a committee governance structure. The efficiency, accountability and democratic qualities they are meant to embody often seem to be lacking. So why do they persist and with what implications on the delivery of development?

Paper long abstract:

To be formally recognized, all Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in Kenya must register their initiatives with a committee governance structure, and one that mandates membership, circumscribes elected executive positions of Chairman, Treasurer, and Secretary, and demands majority rule under quorum for decision-making, among other rules. With the flourishing of civil society since the late 1980's, the result is that committees are everywhere in Kenya. Maasailand is no exception. Such committees preside over land and natural resource management, education at all levels, health provision, water access, income-generating pursuits and savings efforts, youth leagues, and religious life, as only a few examples. While undoubtedly there is variation, the efficiency, accountability and democratic qualities committees are theoretically intended to embody, seem all too often to be lacking in practice.

So what are committees? How do they work and why do they persist? And with what implications on the delivery of development? Are they yet another example of the "emptiness" of African democracies? Are they a site of state sanctioned bureaucracy aimed at disarming "traditional" political systems that are then merely circumvented by an adept elite? Or might the committee be infused with meanings of legitimacy, embraced by those marginalized in "traditional" and contemporary political orders, and thus effective in creating new spaces of political participation and (re)-claiming power?

Paper short abstract:

Cette communication est une analyse de l'émergence des leaders de travailleurs informels comme intermédiaires politiques au Bénin. Elle met en exergue les forces et faiblesses de l'activisme politique des leaders des taxis-motos "zémidjan" au profit de leur corporation.

Paper long abstract:

L'avènement de la démocratie au Bénin, dès 1990, a entrainé des transformations notables dans les relations entre l'Etat et les citoyens.

D'une part, les politiques néolibérales portées par ce régime politique a favorisé l'émergence de l'économie informelle qui a atteint 97% des travailleurs en 2010. Le rôle d'acteur de développement que doivent jouer les diverses couches sociales ont engagé les travailleurs informels dans des dynamiques d'organisations corporatives.

D'autre part, la réintroduction des élections dans le jeu politique a induit le regain d'intérêt des acteurs politiques pour ces organisations de travailleurs (Adégbidi et Agossou, 1997) dont les gros effectifs représentent un atout électoral. Les relations entre ces deux groupes d'acteurs, dans une dynamique d'intérêts réciproques, sont assurées par les leaders d'organisation (Prag, 2010). Au-delà des leaders locaux et religieux au Bénin, les « King Makers » présentés par Koter (2013), les leaders d'organisation de travailleurs informels représentent un types particulier d'intermédiaires en émergence dans le courtage politiques.

Cependant, dans la corporation des taxis-motos, où le phénomène est le plus en vue, les acteurs semblent remettre en cause de manière quasi-unanime les implications positives de l'activisme des leaders sur leurs conditions de vie et de travail. Toutefois, l'analyse approfondie des données empiriques a ressorti la complexité autour des processus de négociation et d'utilisation stratégique de ces relations par la corporation pour influencer les politiques publiques à leur endroit.

Cette contribution du point de vue théorique met en exergue le Popular Agency des travailleurs informels dans sa variété (Lindell 2010).

Mots-clés : leaders-courtiers-influence-politique-Bénin