Implémentation des projets à compétence communale à l’aune de la décentralisation dans la commune de Nyambaka (Adamaoua Cameroun)

Abstract

Based empirically on the funcitioning of the Nyambaka Communal Vocational Training Centre (CFPN), and the construction project of the Wassande Rural Artisan and Home Economic Section (RA/HES), our subject entitled Implementation of communal competence projects in the light of decentralisation in Nyambaka (Adamaoua-Cameroon), started from the observation that the voices and paths of decentralisation and local development actors in the Vina department are often discordant. The sociological problem that we aim to resolve is that of the existence of conflicts between the local authorities of Nyambaka and the decentralised services of the ministry in charge of employment and vocational training, namely quarrels and refusals to collaborate, in a context where the prerogatives of these actors are codified. To achieve that goal, the following question serves as a guideline: How can we understand and explain the conflicting power relationships in the process of implementing decentralisation in Nyambaka? We attempt to answer this question by means of the hypothesis according to which: Conflicting power relations in the process of implementing decentralisation in Nyambaka, can be understood and explained on the basis of collusions and collisions, with the corollary that they have an impact on development objectives. We use field theory (Bourdieu) and the theory of bounded rationality (Simon). The former highlights the inequalities within a field, and the power struggles between different fields. The second shows that social phenomena cannot be totally rational, meaning that they are also characterised by the indeterminate, the irresolute, the unpredictable, cognitive biases, the elusive, incompleteness, uncertainty, and the uncontrollable and so on. As a methodological framework, we use semi-structured interviews with the various managers, group interviews with learners, participant observation and direct observation in the host localities of the institutions in our analysis sample. The results show that through the transfer of competences, the State of Cameroon does not necessarily submit to pressure from local authorities or populations, but proceeds by the very fact, to an operation of legitimisation and relegitimisation, sine qua non conditions for the exercise of power. The reason being that the State remains the holder and issuer of credits in Cameroon, and decentralisation serves as a strategy for political life and survival at national and international levels. Also, communal projects predate decentralisation, and benefit from a new conception with it. The conflicting power relationships between the fields involved are a function of the heterogeneous socio-professional trajectories of the players, as well as the issues of autonomy and self-determination that give rise to antagonisms. Local development, on the other hand, stems more from national development policy than from decentralisation. The power relations that underpin communal projects produce and reproduce inequalities in Nyamabaka, bring development objectives closer if the prescribed rules are observed, and hinder the development process when there are collusions. In addition, the power relationships that arise from the challenges of decentralisation in Nyambaka, help to create the desired reality by sidelining some, selecting others and imposing jointly applied rules.