Local actors’ tasks, rights and responsibilities change when the management of land, natural resources and activities is decentralised. This can be a challenging process, so everyone needs to be able to see the benefi ts these changes will bring and think carefully about the kind of support they will require. It should facilitate effective decentralised land management while being light and flexible enough to respond to the material and financial constraints that many States in West Africa have to overcome.

This sheet draws on experiences in the River Senegal valley, where AFD has helped put in place mechanisms to increase the involvement of local people, local  governments and the technical services in decentralised land management (DLM).

This document is also available in French here.