International workshop Venice - March 11-12 1999 Concepts and Paradigms of Urban Management in the Context of Developing Countries
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Marie-Thérèse Manchotte (Independent Consultant)

"The Donors Participation on Urban Management and their Relations with Urban Research"

The State, the local authorities, the private sector, the associations and the users intervene in urban management. The donors, co-operation partners of developing countries also have an influence on the urban management which is not negligible.
The partners of co-operation, bi or multilateral institutions take place in various forms:

• Institutional support : the contributions to the reform of the State and of the institutions, the reinforcement of democracy, the improvement of good governance, the support to the decentralisation process have an influence on the responsibility and capacity of management of the local authorities
• Budgetary supports : connected or not to the structural adjustment programmes, these supports have an effect on the movement of the financial flows from the public revenue to the local authorities. This influence is exerted either by the special condition requirement, or by the re-organisation of local finance. Budgetary supports also have an influence by the creation of credit lines for works of public interest or by the adoption of funds accessible to the local authorities for the financing of investments.
• Technical assistance : the most visible but not the most sustainable one, the offer of external technical assistance to the local authorities has a direct impact on the urban management methods.
• Support programmes for the sectoral policies : the thematic such as water, health, education, transport have an impact on urban management.
• Investment projects : infrastructure, local and commercial equipment, as market, haulage depot…, their management are often entrusted to the local authorities, even in the absence of preliminary consultations. They interfere heavily on urban management.
• The NGOS' co-financing : major freedom for their activities is left to the NGOs. The urban management of the agglomerations has to incorporate their productions even without any co-ordination with municipal plans or projects.

How the researchers' contribution on urban matters can be acknowledged?

The links between the scientific community and the participants or operators in urban matters in developing countries are uncertain. In particular the donors don't require any contribution of urban researchers on urbanisation in the South. They don't know:

• the importance of urban phenomenon for the developing countries, in particular for Africa in the south of the Sahara,
• the contents of research on urbanisation in the South.

Their request often is at a technical level and the acceleration of communication tools and methods does not encourage the deepening of the questions. In particular the political weight of the cities and the meaning of their method of management are not considered. A long-term development strategy to cope with urbanisation process is not implemented.

The European contributions, bi and multilateral, to the development process are among the most important ones. The participation of the European researchers on the urban topics, in close connection with their partners of the south has therefore to emerge.
A transformation of the relations between the researchers, the donors and the operators can come only from the researchers themselves.
If research is convinced of its usefulness and of the positive weight of its contribution in terms of development, it rests with it to wonder about:

• hierarchisation of the messages to be transmitted,
• the diffusion methods of its work,
• the necessary translation into the common language of financiers and operators.