Moving towards Local Agenda 21

SUMMARY: This paper describes the consultation processes in Rufisque, Senegal that have laid the foundations for a Local Agenda 21. These consultations have helped to establish new relationships between municipal government, community organizations and the private sector and have encouraged a range of initiatives to address local economic and environmental problems. New community-level and district committees have developed to bring different stakeholders together to identify problems and develop responses. The success of a development committee formed in Cherif, a district within Rufisque, has led to a similar approach being extended throughout Rufisque. There are also various community-based and NGO programmes underway to address environmental problems and improve health care and education, and various initiatives by local businesses to help address environmental problems. The paper also describes how decentralization in Senegal has encouraged this, although local authorities remain weak because the decentralization of responsibilities has not been accompanied by measures to ensure local financial capacity to meet them. In addition, local authority staff still need to recognize the validity of work undertaken by other groups locally and to learn how to work in partnership with them.