Governance and provision of basic social services as a means of conflict prevention in West Africa and the Sahel Region
While noticeable progress has been made in some West African and Sahelian countries in providing social service delivery to their people, this progress has been lacklustre and continues to challenge the region. The poor state of service delivery results from the coincidence of six key dynamics, which are not entirely within the control of any government in the region.
Deprivations and inequalities breed frustration and the perception that government is to blame for citizens’ socioeconomic woes. Does weak social service delivery in Africa explain the numerous conflicts on the continent? The question is important given the correlation between poor service delivery and conflicts.
Citizens express dissatisfaction with service delivery in the face of difficulties of access to service, failure or absence of redress mechanisms for correcting abuses. Negative perception about the government’s inability to ensure service delivery generates grievances. Systematic exclusion of some groups from access to basic services creates conditions for the emergence of conflict entrepreneurs who challenge the state's legitimacy. Such actors leverage public perception of the state as illegitimate to mobilize and weaponize group grievances.
This policy paper examines the challenges of conflict prevention and sustaining peace in West Africa and the Sahel. It considers the role of weak or failed public service delivery as a source of conflict in this wider region. It argues that weak service delivery results from factors within and beyond any government's capacity to handle while emphasizing that weak service delivery results from the intersection of six different dynamics at a particular juncture in the region's historical development.
The dynamics are intertwined and must be addressed holistically if efforts geared at conflict prevention and resolution are to be meaningful. Governments must redistribute national resources to address widening inequalities and confront corruption, while international partners should create benign economic conditions enabling West African and Sahelian economies to flourish.
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