6. Thinking and Working Politically? The Role of External Actors in Decentralization Reforms in Morocco and Tunisia

Abstract

This chapter builds on recent works on decentralization in the MENA region and extends the analysis to the role of external aid donors in decentralization reforms in Morocco and Tunisia (see Demmelhuber et al. 2020;Vollmann et al. 2020;Vollmann 2020). To do so, I build on the definitions and detailed accounts of the nature of neopatrimonialism in the MENA region, in order to focus on the donors' own diagnoses of the problems that their programs aim to solve. I furthermore aim to assess the extent to which donors are "politically aware" of the design and implementation of their programs, as well as their potential to disrupt entrenched political and administrative interests, and open up spaces for bottom-up civic engagement and scrutiny. 2 By focusing on only two donors in two countries with five program/ project case studies, the chapter illustrates Berthin's (2018, 6) argument that aid support does not operate in a linear continuum, but is rather dependent on several contextual variables and incentives. In other words, the form aid takes on and the mode it is delivered through matters greatly.6.

Heritage management in post-revolutionary Tunisia: a case study from Mhamdia

“…Although the transfer of competencies has been slow since 2018, and the means of the communes are weak, the elected councils have gained political legitimacy and a more important place in decisionmaking. This situation has prompted international technical cooperation actors to multiply their support projects (Bergh, 2021) for the decentralisation process, for Tunisian communes, and for the association that groups all 350 communes in the country (Fédération Nationale des Communes Tunisiennes, FNCT).…”