This paper presents some of the results of a research project carried out by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (UNCHS) in four African countries - Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania (UNCHS 1993), and a fifth, Zimbabwe, is also considered here.

Rural service centres can be defined as those central places at the bottom end of the central place hierarchy which contribute directly to the basic economic and social needs of agricultural producers (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific [ESCAP] 1979: 64). In performing this function, rural service centres concentrate on provision of infrastructure; collecting and marketing agricultural produce from the surrounding rural areas; providing and distributing agricultural inputs, basic agro-processing facilities, social services, and low/middle-order consumer goods.

In most African countries, these services are offered at district capitals and at many central places below this level, down to the village service centres, which are sometimes known as ‘locality towns’ (ESCAP 1979: 65). In many African countries, such centres usually serve populations below 20,000, and offer basic services directly to agricultural producers in the hinterland and generate non-agricultural employment.

DEVELOPMENT IN FIVE AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Cote d’Ivoire

Cote d’Ivoire has no specific policy on rural service centres. Instead, the development and management of rural service centres takes place partly within the framework of national urban policy. One of the main objectives of Cote d’Ivoire's urban policy adopted in the 1970s was to counteract what was considered to be the excessive size and economic dominance of its capital city, Abidjan. This objective was to be fulfilled through two strategies: firstly, the creation of regional centres; and, secondly, the development of a network of small towns, including those which can be classified as rural service centres.

Another national policy which contributed towards the development of rural service centres was the communalisation policy adopted in the 1980s, which aimed at more effectively meeting local development needs through the transfer of some central government functions to local authorities. The policy accelerated the restructuring of sub-national government. By 1985, there were fifty departments, 183 sub-prefectures and 136 communes - compared to the 1950 figures of four departments, nineteen sub-prefectures and eight communes (Saint-Vil 1993). In 1991, twelve regions were also created, and these became the largest sub-national administrative units in the country.