The Minister of Town Planning, Local Authorities and Planning Moussa Balla Fofana wants “in -depth reform”. He declined, yesterday Friday, May 2, 2025, in Sédhiou, the main lines of the reform of decentralization having to redefine the role of the poles, the department and the commune, in the new administrative architecture.
The territorial actors of the South Pole and the Minister of Town Planning, Local Authorities and Regional Planning began yesterday Friday, in Sédhiou, consultations on the great reform of decentralization, envisaged by the new authorities. This meeting, sixth of the genre, which will have to lead authority in the 8 territorial poles, brought together local elected officials of Kolda, Sédhiou and Ziguinchor. The latter reflected on “the 13 skills transferred and the principle of subsidiarity between the different territorial levels: pole, department and commune”. According to the Minister of Moussa Balla Fofana, the transformation agenda is based on a territorial approach which requires the great reform of decentralization, that Act IV, and it will be necessary to depth.
Therefore, the idea will be to discuss skills by highlighting regulatory, planning, financing instruments, recalled Mr. Fofana. He also stressed that the role of the territory, the department and the municipality as well as the services offered, the human resources to be mobilized, will be defined. The Minister assured that a fifteen meetings will be organized within the framework of this reform project. “The objective being to pose in depth debates and to prepare this great reform that the Senegalese expect, which will hoist our country in the lot of states where decentralization is a reality,” made Moussa Balla Fofana. This meeting, he continued, is part of an investigation by the President of the Republic Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Thus, the proposals that will come out of this meeting will be paid into the final report, which will be presented to the Head of State, has promised the Minister of Town Planning of Local Authorities and Spatial Planning.
“Serenely assess act 3”
While welcoming the desire to reform the new authorities, Dr. Annette Seck President of the Departmental Council of Sédhiou stressed the importance of making a serene assessment of act 3 of decentralization, before going to act 4. According to her, “Act 3 had two innovations. Integral communalization, but also the creation of a proximity system which is the department ”. For her, it is necessary to go towards a new stage of decentralization, by creating the poles and defining the role that the territories must play, that is to say the municipalities and the departments, in the establishment of these territories poles. Wanting to be specified, she said that “the poles must be intervention mechanisms, in order to be able to boost economic development and lift the disparity between the regions”.
Jonas Souloubany Bassene (Sédhiou, correspondent)
