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‘When we launched the government's agenda…’: aid agencies and local politics in urban Africa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2012

Daniel E. Esser
Daniel E. Esser*
Affiliation:
School of International Service, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20011, United States of America
*
Email: esser@american.edu
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Abstract

Political realities in the capital cities of impoverished countries emerging from violent conflict illustrate how local actors can be hindered in conducting political affairs independently from the interests and influence of national governments as well as international agencies. This experience problematises the argument that the main cause of political impasse in African cities governed by opposition parties is incomplete decentralisation, whereby a devolution of responsibilities is not matched by a downward reallocation of resources. Although resulting competition constrains local governments' opportunities to deliver basic services, we need to look beyond the national scale to uncover the drivers of institutional change and gauge the promise of donor-driven local political empowerment. Urban politics in Africa continues to be shaped by global aid discourses, which are translated into local policy frameworks through interest convergence between international and national actors. The case of Freetown, Sierra Leone provides an illustration of such macro-level alignment and resulting local frictions. At the same time, it also demonstrates how local politics have challenged the technocratic, apolitical reinvention of urban governance in the global South perpetuated by the international aid industry.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 397 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

Parts of the fieldwork in Sierra Leone referred to in this article were supported by a grant from the Inter-University Committee on International Migration hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author also gratefully acknowledges detailed feedback from two anonymous reviewers, as well as very helpful comments by Danielle Resnick and Susan Shepler. Emily Edgecombe, Rachel Proefke and Patricia Ward provided much appreciated editorial assistance.

References

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Interviews

(SL=Sierra Leonean; CSO=civil society organiser; MLA=multilateral agency; NGO=non-governmental organisation)

Foreign staff, bilateral agency 1, Freetown, 26.11.2004

Foreign staff, MLA 1, Freetown, 29.11.2004

Foreign staff 1, MLA 3, Freetown, 19.11.2004

Foreign staff 2, MLA 3, Freetown, 29.11.2004

Foreign staff, NGO 1, Freetown, 26.11.2004

SL CSO 1, Freetown, 7.12.2004

SL CSO 2, Freetown, 19.11.2004

SL CSO 3, Freetown, 24.11.2004

SL CSO 4, Freetown, 25.11.2004

SL opposition leader, Freetown, 1.12.2004

SL party leader, Freetown, 30.11.2004

SL staff 1, city administration, Freetown, 1.12.2004

SL staff 2, city administration, Freetown, 8.12.2004

SL staff 3, city administration, Freetown, 1.12.2004

SL staff, national administration, Freetown, 22.11.2004

Newspapers (all published in Freetown)

Awareness Times; Christian Monitor; Concord Times; Standard Times.