Niger is a landlocked country in Central-West Africa that straddles the Sahel, the unforgiving boundary zone that stretches across Africa where the greener climes of the south give way to sandy soil with stunted vegetation and then to the dry and deserted silence of the Sahara. Temperatures reach extremes in both directions.

In 1993, following 33 years of independence from France, Niger held its first free and open election. However, peace did not come naturally. A 1995 peace accord ended a five-year Tuareg insurgency in the north, and then coups in 1996 and 1999 were followed by the creation of the National Reconciliation Council, which effected a transition to civilian rule in December 1999. The country is now promoting democracy, and devolution of planning and financing authority to local-level, elected representatives.

Local Governance

UNCDF is working in close partnership with UNDP, the Belgian Survival Fund and civil society organizations to support the efforts of the Government of Niger to improve livelihoods and protect its fragile ecosystems from collapse. It is doing so through promoting a decentralized, participatory approach to the management of natural resources, and supporting, through local governments, a variety of locally-appropriate and viable technologies designed to support local economies and reduce poverty. The technologies include innovative water supply systems, anti-erosion measures, agricultural intensification, and activities designed to increase livestock productivity and health. Other investments include the provision of small-scale infrastructure such as health clinics, schools and markets, identified through a participatory local planning process and built to minimize environmental impact.

UNCDF set up two pilot projects in Niger to test the local governance approach in the areas of Mayahi and Nguigmi. Extensive training was undertaken, stakeholder workshops were held with local community leaders, local councils elected through a democratic process, and development plans that incorporate natural resource management initiatives were formulated through an open, transparent and participatory process. The Programme of Support to Local Development (Programme d'Appui au Développement Local-PADL) is attracting the attention of the World Bank and the Government of Niger, who are closely monitoring all stages of the experiment for lessons on how to replicate the model to the entire country. Furthermore, the experiences from the pilot projects are influencing the formation of the Government of Niger's decentralization legislation and attempts to improve service delivery to remote regions of the country.

Although they began before local governments were put in place, the two projects have helped the Government (the Haut Commissariat à la Réforme Administrative et à la Décentralisation) create and operationalize 13 pilot rural communes (sub-district level) with a total population of about 380,000 persons.

Each commune has a ‘shadow’ council composed of informally elected councillors, which pave the way for formal councils (these informal councils are forerunners of the formal councils that will be constituted after the elections). Local authorities supervise the preparation and approval of local development plans, which include specific provisions for environment-related investment.

In collaboration with the Permanent Secretariat for Land Tenure, a government body with primary responsibility for promoting the creation of a national institutional framework for land use and natural resource management, the two projects have helped establish experimental tenure commissions in all 13 communes. The aim is for these commissions to bridge the gap between District tenure commissions (composed of representatives of line ministries) and grass-roots user organizations and give local elected authorities greater responsibility for environmental stewardship. The experimental commissions specifically address land-related issues, such as recognizing the land rights of individual users and/or user groups; titling; verifying the use of attributed lands; informing and sensitizing local people about issues related to renewable productive natural resources and the environment; land and local resource inventories; land demarcation; land use registers; prevention and management of land-related conflicts; etc. Commune land use committees strengthen the relationships between line ministries and local users and promote the formulation and implementation of coherent land management plans.

The results of the pilot initiative carried out by the two UNCDF projects were presented at a national workshop at the end of 2003. They will have an impact on future decentralization policy, particularly by contributing to further define environmental responsibilities and capacities of local governments.

Microfinance

UNCDF is not implementing any Microfinance activities in Niger at this point in time.