The new authorities of Senegal want to go towards the creation of thirteen (13) areas of competence and the abolition of regional development agencies (ARD). On the other hand, the creation of territories centers is announced as an inter-regional development entity. This is what emerges from the organized consultations, from Friday 02 to 03 on Saturday 03 May 2025, in Sédhiou, under the authority of the minister of Town Planning, Local Authorities and Territorial Planning. However, votes are raised to request that the means also be transferred. Others do not share the option of deleting the ARD.
These consultations falls within the framework of the current reform of the operation of local authorities articulated with the missions which will be assigned to the territories centers. This is what Moussa Balla Fofana, the Minister of Town Planning, Local Authorities and Territories Planning. “The transformation agenda rests enormously on a territorial approach. And it is necessary to carry out the major reform of decentralization which is act 4. Review the skills that are transferred to the municipalities, departments and soon to the territories. As you know, we have nine areas of competence transferred to local authorities and the President of the Republic aims to add four other skills ”.
And Minister Moussa Balla Fofana continues: “We already know that the skills already transferred are the subject of many problems. And the new approach is to review the role of each body and the missions assigned to it as well as the means to be implemented, ”he explains.
The mayor of Vélingara and president of the Association of Mayors of Senegal (AMS), subscribes to this participatory approach but hopes that the means will be just as transferred to these local authorities, at the same time as skills. “We were nine (09) skills and now we want to go to thirteen (13). Already with the skills transferred, we have transferred the skills while the means did not follow for most communities. It is important to transfer the means to allow these communities to function properly. We welcome the minister’s approach based on increased participation of the actors, ”said Mamadou Oury Baïlo Diallo.
Regarding the abolition of regional development agencies (ARD), voices, like that of El Hadji Omar Kanté, have been heard to make it observe that it “is useless to want to make a clean sweep and which could appear as an eternal restart”. The works ended, the day before yesterday, with recommendations whose summary will be made by a technical commission for transmission purposes to the President of the Republic, informs the supervision
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