Strategies for Resource Management and Financing of Socio-Community Development Initiatives in the Municipality of Ouake in the North-West of Benin

After a dozen years of implementing decentralization in Benin, local development actions remain timid because of the weak mobilization of financial resources. The overall objective of this research is to contribute to a better knowledge of the strategies for mobilizing own resources for the local development of the Municipality of Ouaké.

The methodological approach adopted consisted in the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. These are demographic data, planimetric data and socio-economic data from population surveys. These various data collected from 91 people were analyzed and processed in order to arrive at the results.

The results obtained show that the construction of socio-community infrastructures was made thanks to the financial and technical support of development partners and then the FADEC fund. The State, the Town Hall, the projects and the development associations of the municipality have financed the construction of several economic, socio-community infrastructures and other local development initiatives. The local communities have also participated in the development thanks to individual actions and the resources mobilized within the cooperative groupings and the local workforce. However, it should be noted a low rate of mobilization of budgetary resources, the average of which is 41% from 2018 to 2022. The average recovery rate of the 22 types of resources available to the municipality of Ouaké is below 50%. This shows that the actors have difficulties in mobilizing the municipality's own resources. It was thus devoted to these two lines only, for the nine years considered, an amount of 376,967,075 CFA francs out of a total operating expenditure of 555,625,774 CFA francs, i.e. more than 67.84% of operating expenses. From 2014 to 2022, four main investment lines absorb 851,979,521 CFA francs out of the total estimated investments of 1,179,157,828 CFA francs, or more than 72.25% of all investments made.