Proceedings of the Sud-Est Departmental Forum on Deconcentration and Decentralization under PME-2023

Proceedings of the multisectoral departmental forum on deconcentration and decentralization held in Jacmel on 5 November 2020, one of a series organized by the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Authorities (MICT), through its Coordination Unit for Delegations and Vice-Delegations (UCDVD), together with OMRH. The forums implement axis 6 of the State Modernization Program (PME-2023), on territorial governance, and their theme was the role of the departmental delegations and vice-delegations within it.

The framing is constitutional. The amended 1987 Constitution establishes decentralization as the state's mode of organization and deconcentration as the mode of organization of the central administration across a territory divided into ten departments and forty-two arrondissements, and the reform documents that follow from it, the National Deconcentration Policy (PND) and PME-2023, call for the territorialization of public policy. The stated objective of the forums is to harmonize working relations at territorial level, build consensus among actors toward effective deconcentration and decentralization, and help local authorities understand the new paradigm set out in PME-2023.

The opening statements are the most direct part of the record. The Sud-Est departmental delegate, Pierre Michel Lafontant, argued that the delegation should be an essential mechanism of the public administration but that its mission appears neglected, because delegations generally exercise only political functions and almost entirely ignore the administrative functions the law assigns them. The mayor of Jacmel, Marky Kessa, called for the deconcentration of public services and for effective decentralization.

The substance came in a panel of three presentations: PME-2023 by Wisner Thomas, the PND by Jean Cyrus Marseille, and a proposal document for consensus on advancing decentralization by Rosny Desroches. That third item was still an unvalidated working document, produced by the Territorial Governance Committee co-chaired by Desroches of ISC and Thomas of OMRH, drafted in response to the non-application of articles 61 to 87-5 of the Constitution. It proposes a Departmental Platform for Development (PDD) in each department, to share information on operations under way or planned, contribute to coordinating development and territorial planning policies, identify blockages and ways past them, mobilize and advocate for the regions, propose means of ensuring effective and efficient project implementation, discuss implementation reports, and align local development plans with the national economic and social development plan.

The forum closed with four recommendations. Annexes carry the agenda, attendance lists and a photo gallery, which occupy roughly the second half of the volume.