Etude du paradoxe de l'activité des Ong opératrices de coopération décentralisée sur le développement local: l'exemple du partenariat, Saint-Louis

The repeated failure of development policies and programmes initiated by the governments of developing countries has, since independence, pushed their societies on the perilous and tedious paths of socioeconomic development. ln effect, to face the disastrous effects of these policies (which plunged the country in an unprecedented crisis and which, presently, keeps mortgaging any hope of better life for the populations of such sub-Saharan countries as Senegal), the actors of civil society will cooperate with NGOs. Furthennore, this collaboration will be reinforced thanks to decentralization which, actually, is nothing short of a transfer of problems from State control to the level of communities. Thus, to cape with the missions they have been entrusted with, local authorities avail themselves of the juridical opportunities, which have been provided by decentralization, to cooperate with foreign paitners in view of attaining the fixed objectives of development for theîr communities.This explains the emergence of decentralized cooperation which prepares, for the communities but also for the NGOs, the way to international networks. Some relevant questions are worth asking in this respect: what is the impact of the decentralized cooperation activities of Le Partenariat {NGO) on the local development of the region of Saint-Louis? ln other words, do the activities of Le Partenariat always have the desired effect? Or else do they bring about after-effects impeding with the pursuit of its objectives of development of the region?