Felix Conteh: Twists and Turns: the unpredictable trajectory of decentralization in Sierra Leone

GDAI (Governance for Development in Africa Initiative) Webinar Series

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Centre of African Studies at SOAS and SOAS Radio are delighted to announce that the speaker for our second webinar will be Dr Felix Marco Conteh, who completed his PhD at SOAS Univeristy of London in 2014 under the Mo Ibrahim Foundation PhD Scholarship programme.

Dr Conteh will deliver a webinar entitled 'Twists and Turns: the unpredictable trajectory of decentralization in Sierra Leone'

In 2004 the Government of Sierra Leone reactivated elected local councils through an ambitious post-war decentralization programme funded by the World Bank, after a hiatus of 32 years. While the official justification for the programme is embedded in technical notions of expanding space for citizens’ participation and improvements in social services, one can also observe a political class less committed to dispersing power, except for purposes of regime survival exemplified in the need to leverage donors’ ‘largess’ amid dwindling local resources, as well as playing potential competitors such as civil servants, local councils, NGOs and Chiefs against each other. The level of recentralization experienced in the immediate post-Ebola period, illustrates the Government’s lack of ideological commitment to any specific governance configuration including decentralization, and a willingness to preserve its power. This then makes the trajectory of decentralization unpredictable, with adverse implications for medium to long term governance and development planning processes.

Further information: GDAI Webinar Series

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