Dr Lansana Gagny Sakho publishes Agences publiques d’exécution face au défi de la performance

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[ACCI – CAVIE] The themes of “emergence” and public-sector governance in Africa are at the heart of Agences publiques d’exécution face au défi de la performance (Public Executing Agencies Facing the Challenge of Performance), a new book by Dr Lansana Gagny Sakho, Secretary General of the African Centre for Competitive Intelligence (ACCI) and former Resident Representative of the ACCI in Senegal.

From the author:

“Like a popular trend, African leaders have adopted the rhetoric of ‘emergence’ to express their national economic ambitions. Nearly half of African countries now have national plans aimed at achieving emergence in the short, medium, or long term. For example, Senegal’s Plan Sénégal Émergent targets 2035, while Gabon’s Plan Stratégique Gabon Émergent sets the goal at 2030. This optimism also inspired the African Union to publish Agenda 2063 in 2015 under the rallying call ‘The Africa We Want’ — a document that seeks to be visionary, mobilising, and inspiring, positioning Africa as the continent of the 21st century.

“Like Senegal, many African nations have used the emergence slogan to promise a bright future to their populations. Yet these symbolic projections are often disconnected from the day-to-day realities of local people. The much-publicised periods of economic growth have rarely translated into social development. In most cases, inequality has deepened, and poverty has increased. The key lesson is this: there can be no emergence without courageous structural reforms. African countries must also reinvent the quality of their leadership — a virtuous leadership endowed with strategic vision and backed by a high-performing public administration is the only viable path forward.

“Emergence strategies have also prompted major transformations within African public administrations. Central administrations were often labelled ineffective, leading to a shift in how states operate. Powers were transferred to a wide range of semi-public executing agencies. This wave of administrative reform aimed to improve public management and deliver better quality services to citizens — an approach inspired by the New Public Management (NPM) model.

“Senegal, like many other African countries, adopted this strategy. However, what began as a modernisation effort has turned into excessive outsourcing, resulting in a proliferation of special-purpose entities duplicating public service functions — often without adding real value over traditional administration.

  • The human resources function, which should be a driver of performance, is often sidelined. Executive appointments rarely follow performance-based criteria.

  • Deliberative bodies, which should play a central role, often serve as symbolic advisory boards. The dominance of state representatives leads to a monolithic structure and a culture of conformity that undermines agency autonomy.

  • Nowhere in the governing texts is there provision for dismissing a general director for failing to meet performance objectives — even though that should be a fundamental principle of performance-based contracts.

“What we observe in Senegal’s public governance is reflective of wider practices across the continent. There is a pressing need to break with inefficiencies and adopt management principles aligned with performance standards. That said, some countries — such as Rwanda, Morocco, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire — appear to be showing the way. Ultimately, the question always comes back to leadership.”

— The Editorial Team (with Dr Lansana Gagny Sakho)