Participatory Local Democracy

Supported by UNDEF 2012-2014

Niger

For general information about the country profiles click here.

niger-political-mapPopulation: 24.21 Million

HDI ranking: 189/189

HDI score: 0.394

Niger has suffered significant political and institutional instability in recent years, including military coups in 1996, 1999, and 2010. In its most recent 2010 Constitution, Niger established the institutional architecture of a republic including bodies and frameworks for cooperation on issues of national interest and establishing peaceful democracy (IMF, 2013). Niger has made some small achievements in their decentralization policy developments, however, they still face a lack of financial infrastructure and human capacity, while also dealing with militant groups attacking indiscriminately and the influx of IDPS and refugees.

Local governance at a glance

  • The Niger government has three levels of subnational government (UCLG, 2008):
    • 7 regions, and a capital district in Niamey, led by a regional council and council leader;
    • 63 departments (sub-provinces), led by councils and a council leader; and
    • 265 municipalities (213 rural and 52 urban),four of which have special status (cities) with a total of fifteen municipal boroughs, led by municipal councils and a mayor (UCLG, 2015).
  • Niamey, Maradi, Tahoua, and Zinder are all urban communities with urban community councils composed of delegates from each member municipality and urban community council leader elected by the delegates (UCLG, 2008).
  • Municipal councils have both elected members with decision-making authority as well as advisory members, usually leaders of community groups and administrative units. The voting members are elected through universal direct suffrage in a proportional representation system (UCLG, 2008).
  • The central government has decentralized trusteeship bodies at each local level of government, including governor and prefect positions, that weigh in on legal developments. However, this control mechanism is often not used in practice as prefects and their representatives often lack the power to carry out this authority (UCLG, 2008).
  • “State representatives have control over the a posteriori legality of the actions of municipal authorities” (UCLG, 2008).
  • “A parity law adopted in 2020 calls for women to hold 25 percent of parliamentary seats and 30 percent of cabinet positions; 25.9 percent of parliamentary seats were held by women after the December 2020 elections, an improvement over the 14.6 percent figure in the previous parliament” (Freedom House, 2022).

Civil society actors 

  • The Association des Femmes Juristes du Niger (AFJN) works to improve the legal status of women (GNB, 2014).
  • The Association Nigérienne de Défense des Droits de l’homme (ANDDH) provides training and civic education on human rights (ANDDH, 2012).
  • Youth Association of Women and Local Governance
  • Démocratie, Liberté, Développement
  • Association of Women for Development

Capacity building institutions

Fiscal control

  • Local authorities send their financial and administrative accounts to the State Audit Office for review at the end of each fiscal year (UCLG, 2008).
  • Municipalities are primarily funded by central government allocations and tax revenue. Local and state authorities also have shared taxes (UCLG, 2008).
  • Local councils have the authority to create remunerative duties that pay for services beneficial to the taxpayer. These must be delivered by the region, department, or municipality. Councils can also add tax surcharges to the central government’s taxes and surcharges (UCLG, 2008).

  • “Since 2014, the National Agency for the Financing of Local Government Investments (ANFICT, ‘Agence Nationale de Financement de l’Investissement des Collectivités Territoriales’) has managed the financial transfers from the central government to the local governments. In this way, it makes equalisation funds and resources from the Decentralisation Support Fund (FAD, ‘Fonds d’Appui à la Décentralisation’) available to local governments. Distribution keys are used to determine the amounts for each local government. The National Assembly sets the base and rates of local taxes (business tax, license, property tax and civic tax); the revenues from these local taxes are collected by deconcentrated central government services” (UCLG, 2015).

Key initiatives for participatory local governance

  • In 1961 after independence, Niger adopted Law No. 61/30 that created local authorities and later in 1964, law 64/023 created administrative constituencies and included local authorities in the framework of state centralization (UCLG, 2008).
  • The process of decentralization since 1991 has been in response to federalist demands from those involved in the armed rebellion (UCLG, 2008).
  • Developed in 2000, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Document included a strategic issue regarding “the promotion of good governance, strengthening human and institutional capacity and decentralization” to achieve stronger and sustainable political, economic, and local governance (UCLG, 2008).
  • In June 2000, a law was passed to create quotas for female representation. The law mandates that political parties in electoral contests give 10 percent of the candidacies to whichever gender has the lowest level of representation. Additionally, at least 25 percent of posts that are appointed for high-level state positions must also follow this rule. The law was successful in getting women involved in municipal councils. In the 2004 elections, women were elected to 17 percent of council seats (UCLG, 2008).
  • A law passed in 2002 made traditional chiefs ex officio members of local councils and gave them advisory capacities, which allowed for traditional chiefdoms to be included in local institutional plans.
  • A law 2002-013 passed in June 2002 mandated the transfer of responsibilities and powers to local authorities.
  • A 2009 International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), noted that in several municipalities in Southern Central Niger, “Decentralisation has brought about marked improvements in local development plan- ning following the introduction of municipal development plans, and communities are very pleased with the local services on offer” (IIED, 2009).
  • The High Commission for Modernization of the State created the National Policy on Modernization of the State designed to create government administrative reforms to increase the quality and accessibility of government services provided to citizens (IMF, 2013).
  • The National Decentralization Policy was passed in March 2012, giving local governments, instead of the central government, local control over the implementation of policies, good governance, sustainable local development, and local democracy (IMF, 2013).
  • In 2017, the Nigerien municipality of Tondikiwindi was awarded The Climate Initiative Award 2017 for the category, Local Authorities for the municipalities work on “A series of micro projects in gardening, improved seed multiplication, sewing, processing of pastoral agro-silvo products, amongst others, were launched for the women of the municipality” (UCLGA, 2017) These projects resulted in:
    • The implementation of nearly 60 micro projects by the municipality between 2010 and 2015;
    • 3,860 women benefiting directly from the activities, which have provided them with substantial incomes, (average annual income 125,000 FCFA instead of 40,000 FCFA), and contribution to the development of approximately ten hectares of irrigable land;
    • Women better able to take care of the needs of the family in terms of health, education, nutrition, helping each other and selling produce.
  • On a national level, a UCLG report from 2015 noted that, “Niger has a national training strategy targeting decentralisation stakeholders. Its main purpose is to serve as guidelines for the direction, organisation, harmonisation, monitoring and verification of the interventions by the central government and partners in the field of capacity building for decentralisation stakeholders. Among other things, the government created a Local Government Administration Training Centre (CFGCT, ‘Centre de Formation en Gestion des Collectivités Territoriales) within the National School for Administration to take over the training of decentralisation stakeholders” (UCLG, 2015).
  • The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) sponsored a project from 2018 to 2020 that stated its objective as, “Communities and regions in Niger are being provided with more responsibility and financial resources and the Government is overseeing the take-over of these new tasks. In this way, the communities can deliver efficient and citizen-centric local services, where the people actively participate in municipal decision-making.” The project supports the decentralisation reforms in Niger in three areas (GIZ):
    • coordinating reforms on a national level and basic and further training;
    • Local economic development;
    • Local governance and civic participation in the partner communities.
  • In 2020, the World Bank sponsored a $100 million grant called the The Governance of Extractives for Local Development (GOLD) and Covid-19 Response project. “The GOLD project seeks to support government reforms to improve the deployment and decentralization of public resources to promote transparent revenue-sharing arrangements from the extractives sector to benefit the local population – as well as improve extractive sector management to increase revenues from the mining sector as well as mitigate the environmental and social impacts” (World Bank, 2020).

Challenges for participatory local governance

  • Local governments are unable to mobilize internal resources to fulfill responsibilities and service delivery (IMF, 2013).
  • The illiteracy level and lack of training and capacity of a large number of councilors have resulted in weak local authority bodies. As a result, these bodies have experienced reduced autonomy (UCLG, 2008).
  • Decentralization and the 2004 creation of elected municipal authorities have been carried out without solid political support (de Sardan, 2012).
  • GIZ notes that while progress has been made on the decentralization front, “Various challenges still remain, in particular relating to sustainable financing, efficient and transparent management of communities and regions, and the provision of qualified staff. Communities and regions are not yet able to provide efficient public services or offer citizen-centric administration, while local people and communities are not sufficiently involved in municipal decision-making and the development processes taking place within the context of the decentralisation reforms” (GIZ).
  • “There has been a Decentralisation Support Fund (‘Fonds d’Appui à la Décentralisation’) and an Equalisation Fund (‘Fonds de Péréquation’) in place since 2014. Budgetary planning inthe strict sense does not exist for transfers in Niger; there is a theoretical line item labelled ‘decentralisation support’ in the central government budget but it is unstable and amounts are rarely respected. This situation is linked to the financial difficulties that have plagued the government of Niger in recent years” (UCLG, 2015)
  • “There has been a Decentralisation Support Fund (‘Fonds d’Appui à la Décentralisation’) and an Equalisation Fund (‘Fonds de Péréquation’) in place since 2014. Budgetary planning inthe strict sense does not exist for transfers in Niger; there is a theoretical line item labelled ‘decentralisation support’ in the central government budget but it is unstable and amounts are rarely respected. This situation is linked to the financial difficulties that have plagued the government of Niger in recent years” (UCLG, 2015)
  • Niger has been in violent conflict with militant groups for much of the past two decades while also contending with uprisings within its own borders, amounting to a military coup in 2010. “The country faces several challenges including the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin, the Sahelian insurgency led by ISGS in northern Tillaberi, and JNIM activity in southwestern Tillaberi. The rampant banditry that has destabilized the south-central region of Maradi along the border with Nigeria could allow jihadist militant groups to expand their areas of operation. The southward advance of jihadist militants into littoral states, and the increase in jihadist militant activities in countries bordering Niger such as Benin, risk strengthening links between groups in the Sahel and Nigeria. This would in turn shrink the geographical space between the different theaters of conflict” (ReliefWeb, 2021).
    • This of violence, both within and outside Niger’s borders, leads to a serious influx of refugees and internally-displaced people (IDPs). As of May 2022, “There are 580,000 forcibly displaced people in Niger, including 360,000 refugees” (ReliefWeb, 2022).

Recent posts on this website about this country:

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List of sources :

Association des Municipalités du Niger (AMN), 2011: https://www.facebook.com/pages/AMN-Association-des-Municipalit%C3%A9s-du-Nige/208759179173618?sk=info.

Association Nigérienne de Défense des Droits de l’homme (ANDDH), 2012: http://anddh-niger.org/.

Girls Not Brides (GNB), 2014: http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/members/association-des-femmes-juristes-du-niger-afjn/.

Freedom House, 2022: “Niger Country Profile”

International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2013: “Niger: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.”

de Sardan, J., 2012: “Providing public goods: Local responses to policy incoherence and state failure in Niger.”

Quota Project, 2014: “Niger.”

IIED, 2009: “Decentralisation and local power in Niger”

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), 2008: “Country Profile: Niger.”

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), 2015: “Assessing the Institutional Environment of Local Governments in Africa”

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), 2017: “Fight against Climate Change: Good practices of the municipalities of Copargo (Benin) and Tondikiwindi (Niger)”

GIZ: “Promotion of national decentralisation and good governance”

World Bank, 2020: “Niger: $100 Million to Improve Decentralized Services and Management of the Extractive Sector During the COVID-19 Crisis”

ReliefWeb International, 2021: “Sahel 2021: Communal wars, broken ceasefires, and shifting frontlines”

ReliefWeb International, 2022: “Niger faces refugee influx as violence increases in neighbouring states”