Right to Development Approach to Local Governance in Africa

Obtaining from the premise that Africa is relatively underdeveloped and that underdevelopment manifests largely at the level of local communities, we make the argument for a right to development approach to local governance in Africa. The argument is anchored on two compelling reasons; on the one hand that local governance provides an appropriate framework for the realisation of the right to development and on the other hand, that the right to development can, in turn, significantly enhance local governance. The proposition is motivated by the fact that African state governments are under an obligation within the framework of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to ensure that socio-economic and cultural development is guaranteed for all the peoples of Africa. The obligation embodies a directive responsibility for policy making and, as part of the political dimension of development, to put in place mechanisms to ensure implementation of the right to development. However, this remains a cause for concern. The lack of functional governance mechanisms, especially at the level of local communities, produces unsatisfactory development deliverables. This chapter explores the framework of local governance and enquires whether its mechanisms provide opportunities for the involvement and active participation in, contribution to and equitable collective sharing of development gains by local communities? Two community-based initiatives are presented to illustrate how the right-to-development approach to local governance could be conceived as a workable model for dealing with the perennial development challenges that adversely impact livelihoods in local communities across Africa.