Engendering exclusion in Senegal’s democratic decentralization: Subordinating women through participatory natural resource management

As stated in the Abstract, “this dissertation demonstrates how external agency participatory programs with village committees and how multi-party competition and rivalries have undermined women's decision making and access to forest resources and land in a rural Senegalese community. Using a participatory approach based on "village committees" in Malidino Biodiversity Reserve, the World Bank and Senegal forest service have bestowed discretionary power on traditional leaders and on local elected officials. This transfer of powers to actors with questionable democratic legitimacy exacerbated divisions among political parties, consequently intensifying ethnic, kinship, and gender cleavages. In Dialakoto Rural Council, multi-party competition combined with the electoral system, party system, political culture, and cultural norms, have encouraged factionalism and petty rivalries while suppressing important issues such as gender equity, accountability, and responsiveness.”