Les courtiers du développement en milieu rural sénégalais

Abstract

Abstract Development Brokers in Senegalese Rural Areas.—The context of Sahelian and, in particular, Senegalese development has two characteristics: the growing interest of foreign aid agencies for projects directly proposed by local actors and, given "adjustment programs", the public administration waning role as a "supplier of development". Social actors have thus emerged who propose to serve as intermediaries between foreign aid programs and recipient communities. These middlemen daim to have both modem, technical skills and inside knowledge of local society. Biographical accounts show how this twofold legitimacy is gradually acquired. These "development brokers" do much more than merely serve as interpreters between different cultural systems. They also control channels of communication between development agencies and rural people, and filter aid so as to redistribute it as a form of patronage.