In his decentralization policy, the Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara aimed to make
regions of the country of economic and development poles. This policy should contribute to reducing the
regional inequalities. However, fourteen months from the end of his second term, it is clear
that its local development policy has failed and regional inequalities remain a reality. South
and southwest are developed with more infrastructure unlike the north and east of the country. How the
political game exacerbates regional inequalities in the country?
A politicized budget allocation
For the development of the regions, the government intervenes on the one hand directly through the
public investments, national infrastructure programs, and transfers from the administration
central to local communities. Thus, in a context of scarce state resources, the allocation of
budget between the different regions is not made according to needs and spatial justice, but
rather on the basis of political logic. The regions likely to win the elections are the
better served, which widens regional inequalities. Similarly, social transfers, such as the project
to grant direct monetary allowances of the order of 144,000 FCFA/year for the benefit of poor households
since 2012 has reached 50,000 beneficiary households distributed among 882 villages in the regions of the zones
Centers, North and West ignoring the other regions.
Bargaining and blackmailing local elected officials
Regional development is marketed by the government through campaigns in tribute to
Ouattara for state achievements. In this vein, during a rally during the October elections
2018, Minister Candia Camara affirmed that local elected officials who are not from the presidential camp
would not receive state support for the development of their region. Also, to elect councilors
regional/municipal politicians spend a lot of money on the electoral campaign, the
conveying voters to the regions and buying votes. The major political parties bring a
financial support for the candidates they sponsor. But most of the time, this support is
insufficient and candidates must finance from their own pockets or seek support themselves
financial. According to an unsuccessful candidate in the commune of Yopougon, the campaign in this
municipality costs at least 100 million CFA francs. Candidates go into heavy debt for
ensure all necessary expenses for their victories. They come out of election campaigns ruined.
When they are elected, they are reimbursed campaign funds from the municipal budget.
or regional. These practices delay the development of certain regions and reinforce inequalities
regional.
A diverted decentralization
The decentralization policy is marked by the absence of a real political will to promote the
local development. In this sense, all state resources are concentrated in the hands of the
government to organize redistribution to the base. State financial support for local authorities
territorial (2 autonomous districts, 31 regions and 201 municipalities) for the 2019 management, is planned up to
of 235.94 billion including 159.44 billion in earmarked revenue for the share of taxes
shared and 76.54 billion in grants transferred from the State budget to local authorities. By
Consequently, state support remains insufficient. This reinforces the dependence of the regions on the government
who takes advantage of it to satisfy his own political interests and maintain the electoral pools to the detriment of the
regional development.

In this sense, the President is increasing the infrastructure in the regions that voted overwhelmingly for him.
Thus, he dedicated the infrastructures to the economic capital for his political interests and in the
regions of the Baoulé peoples (center of the country), through the extension of the highway to
Yamoussoukro, bastion of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) thanks to which he was elected in the 2nd round
in 2010 and re-elected in 2015. However, the road linking San-Pedro (2nd port in the country to the south-west) to Abidjan
commonly called "the coast" has been completely impracticable for years. Since 2016, the
government has announced that it will build a highway there, which is long overdue.
Furthermore, the government also creates an unequal allocation of human resources between
administrations and local authorities. Thus, civil servants favored by the regime are
affected in the south while the recalcitrants are sent to the difficult areas in the north. The Secretary
executive of the PDCI, in charge of elections, Adiko Roland, recently denounced the imbalance in the
administrative division. Taking into account the number of voters per town hall and per area, Roland Adiko has
noted that the South has 28 town halls for 2,014,762 voters while the North has 69 with only 467
044 voters. The Center has 29 town halls with 559,616 voters. The East has 23 with 314,454 voters,
the West, 34 with 699,735 voters and the mountainous West 17 town halls for 266,226 voters.
Regional autonomy for less inequality
The current policy of decentralization where the State delegates prerogatives to the regions seems so far
not bear fruit. We need to change the paradigm. To do this, it would be necessary to opt for a real
decentralization allowing each level of the decentralized communities to fully do what they
can do for their development and send the rest to the next level up to the administration
central. In the same vein, legal autonomy should be accompanied by financial autonomy, that
collect and allocate taxes in their territories. In this way, the local populations through the
municipalities and regions would have local development completely in hand. To prevent shenanigans, the
Transparency should be the spearhead by allowing citizens to monitor and control the
management of their region. In addition, they could well organize themselves for accountability of management
local. This would promote good governance, thereby reducing the dependence of regions on
towards politicians.
Regional inequalities reveal that politicians have a hidden agenda. political commodification and
the political opportunism of local elected officials are the enemies of spatial justice. Therefore, it is appropriate to
no longer see in politicians the knights who will make justice reign. On the contrary, the reduction of
territorial inequalities begin with that of their power to harm.