A difficult articulation between local and municipal scales :
the example of sanitation 'Groups of Economical Interests' (GIE) in Bamako, Mali.
Summary
'In Mali, informal employment, proportionally to non agricultural working population, rates 63,1 % in 1976 and 78,6 % in 1989'. These 'informal sector's' activities, that we'd rather call Urban Popular Economy and Ecology go way beyond the only economical phenomenon. They include economy, ecology, as well as social, political and cultural aspects.
Urban Popular Economy is thus not only constituted of survival activities doomed to disappear. Actually, it creates up to half of actual urban employment as well as wealth. It is the economical development lever of the cities.
Urban Popular Economy is also a path to a new articulation between economical and social issues : economical criteria is not always determinant in its functioning and an accumulation of social links is sometimes preferred to an accumulation of economical goods.
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Urban Popular Economy is a place of political reconstruction, that is, reconstruction of the broken bondage between society and the State, whether it is on a national or local (municipal) level. In fact, new rules, new tools, new local, municipal or national governance structures are invented in this sometimes conflicting relationship between the doings of Urban Popular Economy and Ecology and the State. |
In Bamako, in an urban crisis environment, various initiatives of social management and production of basic services emerged :
- Health Community Centers (CSCOM),
- Basic and community schools,
- Sanitation groups of economical interest (GIE), trying to fill up public services lacks in waste collecting and of which about a hundred ensure the essential of household wastes home pre-collecting.
The following case study looks at sanitation groups of economical interest (GIE), questioning on whether it is possible to truly transform initiative capacities of urban population facing crisis, into dynamic elements for a durable social production in third world cities ?
The case study also wonders what perception people and institutions have of these GIE and how GIE perceive themselves, through two GIE points of view.
Finally, the case study concludes on what lessons to keep in mind for the following stages of these experiences :
- this sector needs an internal evolution,
- the articulation between popular initiatives and municipalities responsibilities is fragile.
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