Paper short abstract:

In Africa, the dependence of contrysides on the metropolis engender problems of development of the peripheries. Field observations reveal that, the emergence of périmétropolitan territories as secondary development poles is subject to public policy and the capacity of the local stakeholders.

Paper long abstract:

The exceptional demographic and spatial growth; ambient multiculturalism; related land issues that betray portray unceasing peripheral growth and the concentration of power institutions within them, transform Cameroonian metropolises, Douala and Yaounde, into real incubators for the development of hinterlands (Troin, 2000). Similarly, through a reforming act, the constitution of January 1996, through the decentralization policy, sanctioned endogenous initiatives as an enhancers of local development efforts (Ribot, 2002). From that moment, we see a concatenation of initiatives and logics, some complementary and others competitive, although all are oriented towards local development. The forces at work intertwine such that the local sociospatial and economic dynamics become a combination of political, economic and socio-cultural aauthorities within the metropolises ; as the main accelerators of the development of the cities and contrysides, and local stakeholders as relayers and amplifiers (Ranis and Stewart, 1993). Such is the prism of analysis of the action of Yaoundé and Douala on theier peripheries. On the one hand, this article ausculates the influence of these metropolises on their urban regions and on a national scale ; in order to grasp the mechanisms through which they energize their hinterlands. On the other hand, it is necessary to scrutinize the endogenous initiatives that capitalize and multiply the effect of the actions of metropolises on local development. Qualitative and quantitative data have been used to illustrate these metropolises and their multilevel influences on the development of the hinterland are retained as the principal analysis, alongside the dynamics deployed by the local populations.