State Withdrawal and Socio-Economic Reconfiguration in the Sahel: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, 2012-2025

Etienne Fakaba Sissoko ()
Additional contact information
Etienne Fakaba Sissoko: Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako - USSGB - Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako, CRAPES MALI - Centre de Recherche et d'Analyses Politiques, Economiques et Sociales du Mali, Faculté des Sciences économiques et de Gestion - USSGB - Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: State withdrawal in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad between 2012 and 2025 did not create a neutral vacuum. It transferred costs onto households, reorganized authority around armed, customary, humanitarian, and community actors, and deepened socio-economic differentiation across territories. Drawing on humanitarian, educational, conflict, and macroeconomic materials, this article identifies four interlinked effects: the contraction of essential services, the fragmentation of markets and mobility, the politics of distance in access to care and schooling, and the household-level privatization of risk. The analysis argues that selective military return cannot by itself restore credible public authority. Durable reconstruction requires reconnecting coercive authority, administration, basic services, and territorial representation so that the state reappears not only as commander, but also as provider and recognizable framework of equal citizenship.

Keywords: state withdrawal hybrid governance public services displacement livelihoods Sahel; state withdrawal; hybrid governance; public services; displacement; livelihoods; Sahel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04-21
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05597697v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-05597697v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-05597697

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().