The Tambacounda region welcomed the 7th day of consultation with the territorial executives of the South East Pole yesterday. During this, the minister of Town Planning, Territorial Collectivities and Territorial Planning, Moussa Bala Fofana, suggested that municipal viability, instead of being a concept, is a fight.
Tambacounda – The Minister of Town Planning, Territorial Collectivities and Territorial Planning, Moussa Bala Fofana, gives particular interest to municipal viability. For him, it is a fight that must be waged by all. “Municipal viability is not a concept, it’s a fight,” he says. The minister spoke during the 7th day of consultation with the territorial actors of the Southeast Pole, organized yesterday in Tambacounda. Indeed, according to it “it is a fight for better equipped mayors, listened to citizens, fairly shared resources,” he adds.
For the Minister, “the structured organization of local authorities is no longer an option, but a vital and immediate necessity”. This is why, he intends to do everything to achieve this result. The activity revolves around the theme: “Scientific foundation of municipal viability”. Thus, to believe the Minister, if the question of the viability of the communes is posed in an approach based on the scientific and technical dimension, “it is because, for a long time, we always wanted, as soon as we speak of viability, to circumscribe the question on resources, means, while it is based firstly on its capacity to have this balance between the economy, the environmental and social dimension”, he underlines. So, a town that does not have this balance will have issues because all of its challenges are distributed around these issues that are linked to the environment, the economy and social issues, assured Moussa Bala Fofana. The other important element, continues the minister is that we cannot speak of viability if a local community is not able to face all that is climatic risks, and challenges that make development Today. Other factors are also significant, according to the minister. This is the capacity of the municipalities to generate their own resources, to have a certain autonomy. Indeed, the municipal perimeter must bring together enough households, businesses, points or the municipality can collect resources, and then offer service. It is also difficult to envisage the viability without a budgetary capacity of the municipalities to face the challenges, estimated Moussa Bala Fofana.
Multidimensional approach
If the integral communalization, pillar of act 3 of decentralization, undeniably extended the field of municipal responsibilities, the Minister considers that it has however explored the scientific foundations essential to their full viability. Today, faced with the growing complexity of their challenges, it therefore becomes imperative to fully mobilize the lighting of disciplines such as economics, sociology, ecology and governance, in order to endow the municipalities with an arsenal with tools truly adapted to their realities, he thinks.
According to him always, to guarantee municipal viability, it is compulsory to adopt a multidimensional approach, based on key institutional factors which consists in evaluating the relevance of local governance, and in proposing innovative solutions, such as clear organizations, training for elected officials, and citizen control mechanisms. According to the Minister, it will also be necessary to measure the tax resources and investment capacities of the municipalities, to strengthen their financial autonomy, in particular through a reform of the recovery of local taxes; Demographic and social, by analyzing demographic issues and guaranteeing fair access to basic social services (education, health, water).
The choice of Tambacounda to welcome this 7th concertation is not fortuitous, if we believe Mr. Fofana. The South-East Pole is full of potential, a real multiple-faceted development engine. With these assets, this part is also revealed as a privileged laboratory for the experimentation of innovative scientific approaches in terms of municipal viability. This is how the MUCTAT hopes that “the resolutions that will leave this consultation will breathe into the municipalities of this area a new audacity, encouraging them to get rid of conventional practices, to innovate with creativity in their planning strategies, and to fully exploit their unique potential to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of their populations”.
This activity which recorded the presence of presidents of departmental council, mayors, elected officials, chiefs of villages, civil society, district delegates, technical and financial partners, aims to promote participatory and inclusive governance, according to the Minister. Besides, the latter did not fail to reassure local elected officials. “I take this opportunity to reassure all elected officials, mayors like the presidents of the departmental council, the objective, the intention and the wish of the President of the Republic is not to reduce what we have given to the municipalities,” he said. On the contrary, the aim of act 4 of decentralization, and that of the arrival of territories poles, is to give more. But “it is not a question of giving more to give more but of giving better,” he explains.
Boubacar Agna Camara (correspondent)
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