The western African context of the last decade was marked by an increased interest in local cross-border cooperation initiatives by states and regional integration organizations, supported by plea action of non-governmental organization and partners. Since then, steps have been taken to institutionalize cross-border issues and the standing of international and Pan-African organizations that promote cross-border cooperation.

Furthermore, the decentralization process has put forward the possibilities and the necessities for cooperation between communities and local actors in cross-border regions and a better integration of issues pertaining to common shared spaces, and relations between territorial units. The emergence of inter-communal initiatives in response to common challenges faced by local authorities has highlighted the importance, efficiency and added value of inter-communal approaches to local development and allowed to take a fresh look at cross-border cooperation under another angle, that of the common development of cross-border spaces.

As a result several pilot zones such as the zone SKBo, the Southern Senegambia, Katsina-Kano-Maradi (K2M), the Basin of the Karakoro (Mali-Mauritania) benefited from multiple support for the formulation of cross-border initiatives.

These pilot experiences have underlined the potential of development and cooperation between actors of these cross-border zones as well as the necessity of supporting these initiatives for peace, land use planning and regional integration.

Indeed, the stakes involved in peace building, the economic development of marginalized zones, land use planning based on economic complementarities, and regional integration are high and require an adequate governance framework to achieve greater efficiency and coherence in cross-border initiatives. Today, the context of cross-border cooperation is significantly marked by the security crisis related to the threat of terrorism in the Sahel, the political crises haunting some West African countries, the international economic crisis which has resulted in a reduction of development aid, the ecological crisis related to global climate change and its impacts on the fragile ecosystems of the Sahel and many other social and economic crises. This context reveals new stakes and challenges and justifies the search for better support strategies for cross-border areas, which are increasingly moving into the focus of development actors.

Border spaces are at the heart of regional integration

The cross-border cooperation concerns issues such as the mutualization of basic services, the exploitation of common resources, the sharing of common territories especially in the context of the peaceful coexistence of livestock herders and farmers in the IIRSahel zone (an area characterized by cross-border pastoralism and breeding) and in the SKBo zone (characterized by cereal, cotton and fruit production).

Consequently, planning and spatial development policies could be made in a more differentiated way by taking into account territorial dynamics, local actors, complementarities and the interaction between various levels of government to mobilize the territorial resources necessary to create the conditions for inclusive growth and the equitable distribution of wealth.

The aim of granting special attention to the cross-border aspects of local development is to facilitate the emergence of more homogeneous spaces, favor inter-community and collaboration between different border zones and act against the deterioration of border zones and towards the consolidation of closely integrated spaces.

Indeed, cross-border zones provide an effective testing ground for measuring the impact of public policies at the local level, in particular regional integration policies, the main interest being to make of these cross-border zones, spaces of solidarity and active regional cooperation.

In view of the evolution of cross-border territories and the importance of the integration of cross-border concerns into wider policy-making, what are the major challenges facing the development of these spaces today? Who are the key actors needed to implement cross-border projects? How to coordinate different sets of actions? All of these questions point to the importance of the implementation and the animation of framework for dialogue and coordination, which needs to involve the main local authorities and actors of each cross-border space.

How to mobilize available and potential resources to finance cross-border projects? This challenge raises the question of project ownership and implementation as well as the most efficient financing mechanism to mobilise finance for cross-border regions. It also highlights the question of how to render cross-border dynamics more sustainable in the long term, how to make durable the results and insights gained and how to more effectively manage cross-border investments. How to transition from a project approach towards an approach that is integrated into the local development tools.

How to manage cross-border investments in a sustainable and coordinated way so that they are profitable to all communities? It is only through the common management of border spaces that we can better approach issues such as land rights, migration, natural resources management and common territorial development between border communities around essential needs for populations: education, health, sanitation, food security, etc. The LoBI programme will allow us to test these assumptions and make an important contribution to strengthening cross-border cooperation in LDCs.