WEST AFRICA IASCP COORDINATION :
BOUBACAR BA
From 24 to 25 September 2001, the workshop for the activities regionalization of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP) took place in PALM BEACH hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It was directed by Boubacar BA from Mali and Hubert Ouédraogo from Burkina Faso with the positive contributions of Michelle Curtain, Executive Director of IASCP, Owen Lynch Councilor and Patrick Mamimine from CASS in Zimbabwe.
1. Context and objectives of the workshop
This workshop of Ouagadougou was in a reorientation process of IASCP through regionalization and activities decentralization that has started since 1999. In Bloomington conference (USA), participants expressed their renewed interests and constant preoccupations for common resources in the context of globalization. This was the underlying logic of the IASCP council meeting in HIRTSHALS (DANMARK) in June 2001 having recommended a workshop in favor for IASCP activities regionalization process in French-speaking West African sub-region. There were three (3) objectives :
2. Workshop progress
The participants mainly came from the sub-regions: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania, Côte d'Ivoire. The workshop lasted two (2) days with a brainstorming and information sharing as parts of plenary sessions from a participative approach.
The first day, the following aspects were dealt with :
a) Objectives, methodology and results presentation (Boubacar BA)
b) IASCP historical background (Michelle Curtain). In her brief intervention, Michelle pointed out that the first conference of IASCP was held in 1984, with the stress on the following elements : research development, information dissemination and publications. IASCP knew an evolution during the last years by taking into account the association international aspect and globalization. Today, IASCP has 1000 members and is represented in 70 countries of the world.
c) Present condition of the 2002 conference organization and the expectations from the West African group (Patrick Mamimine - CASS Zimbabwe). In this report, Patrick has presented the organization in progress with the process taking into account the main theme : << Common resources under globalization>> and different sub-themes :
Another aspect was the choice of options for the different presentations to the 2002 conference in Zimbabwe (individual panel presentations, group panel presentation and poster session).
d) Presentation of common resources problems : Concept, stakes and perspective (Owen Lynch). In his intervention, Owen talked about the problems linked to the concept of commons that is differently understood according to the actors' interests and branches of learning (individuals, private, State, local community, …). The notion of commons takes into account the nature of resources and rights :
Private ß--à public Individual ß--à group
The three (3) interventions aroused a real interest of the participants on some aspects tackled during the contributions :
e) Presentation of IASCP regionalization process in French-speaking West Africa (Boubacar BA)
Goal
Historical background
Process
Language
Evolution of the started process
f) Thematic presentations
1. Local natural resources management (Amadou Tidiani Dia , Arabic gum Tchad)
Land tenure, water and globalization
2. Local governance and natural resources management (Yamadou Diallo, Forests, Mali)
Globalization and governance
3. Problems of resources conservation and biological diversity (OGM) and implementation of intellectual property rights : stakes for developing countries (Abraham Gadji, Biodiversity, Africa)
New tools of analysis
4. Participative communication and transboundary resources management (Mahamane Touré, Salt areas, Sahel)
Transboundary resources
5. Women and land tenure problems : Thought about land tenure security from local practices and knowledge favorable to women (Zeneb Toure, Land tenure, Burkina)
Local knowledge, land tenure
6. Problems of women's participation to decision taking and public affairs management (Abdoulaye Lansar, Mali)
Governance
7. Local development, decentralization (Aiché BA, Mali)
Governance
8. Pastoral culture and natural resources sustainable management (Hubert Ouedraogo)
Local knowledge, culture
9. Pastoralists' security and access to land (Boureima Dodo)
Land tenure, water
10. Role and place of the civil society in the process of democracy and decentralization : example of the Kounary commune (Samba Guindo, Mali)
Governance
11. Paritary foras institutionalization process and conflict resolution mechanisms in the delta region of Mopti (Boubacar BA, Mali)
Governance
Thematic presentation has raised discussions and exchanges between the participants with everybody's participative contribution.
The second (2nd) day, there were further exchanges about thematic presentations with other aspects (fishermen, protected areas, customary authorities). The synthesis permitted to point out other thematic thoughts :
For the nature of presentations, there are two (2) possible options :
The choice of a panel is made by the 2002 conference organizers.
What should a thematic presentation abstract contain ?
In the afternoon, the introduction about the French-speaking West African strategy and the interaction with local networks has been developed by Hubert Ouedraogo. The following points were pointed out :
For the goal and objectives of IASCP regionalization in West Africa, the debates were based on the following aspects :
3. Main conclusions of the workshop
They came out of discussions and exchanges between the participants of the meeting.
3.1 Proposals of short-term activities
3.2 What follows the meeting of Ouagadougou
3.3 Organization
Mission : Follow-up and support to IASCP activities realization / West Africa.
IASCP regionalization workshop / West Africa realized the fixed objectives specifically based on the exchanges between the participants about IASCP and thematic presentations. It's a question of ensuring the continuation of the activities with an execution planner involving all the participants in order to ensure IASCP dynamics.