Sports and decentralization: An outline of a typology of municipal sports policies in Benin

Abstract

The process of decentralization implemented in most of African countries and precisely in Benin by the years 2003 with the election of the town councilors transferred to the new municipalities competences in sport’s field. These competences lead the municipalities in the implementation of the municipal sporting policies with the intention of ensuring the sporting development of their territory: physical-activities and sporting considered as activities that came under general interest and public service mission. This mission, inherited from French colonization, remains overall little implemented in Benin confronted with economic, sociocultural and policies realities quite different from those of France. These various realities led the municipalities to adopt various strategies and actions to ensure or not the development and or the animation of sport life of their territory. Thus while inspiring by the model of Loret (2004), various types of municipal sport policies are identified in Benin during the period 2003 to 2008. They are the proactive municipalities, the reactive municipalities, the tag-along municipalities and the passive municipalities. This diagnostic and comparative study of the municipal sport policies actually proceeds of a contribution to the current reflections giving to better including/understanding the effects of decentralization imposed on the development of the sport in the majority of the countries of French-speaking Africa.