Financial Transparency and Sustainable Development in Local Governance in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa: The Cases of Cameroon, Gabon, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire

Financial transparency is a principle of public governance that determines the effectiveness of public policies, and influences the consolidation of democracy at the local level. Thus, sustainable development, which is a fundamental objective of current development programs initiated by decentralized local authorities in countries under study, cannot happen without financial transparency. For it is an essential principle, the observance of which inevitably promotes the protection of the public funds essential to the financing of sustainable development projects. On analysis, financial transparency and sustainable development are of the same essence. Moreover, they are recognized by the local legal frameworks of the countries under study, even if their operationalization, albeit set on the right track, is hampered by such governance problems as corruption and misappropriation of public funds. However, to render financial transparency effective as an auxiliary for sustainable development in the decentralized local authorities of Africa, the normative force of the sustainable development framework must be strengthened and the dynamics of transparency must be consolidated.