Filières cotonnières en Afrique : restructuration, défaillances de coordination et règles collectives

The process of liberalizing cotton sectors in Africa was initiated by mid-1980s but modalities of their reform were only debated when it was attempted to extend the process to francophone countries. In this article, diverging positions regarding the restructuring of cotton sectors are analysed through the concept of coordination failures. Recommendation for liberalization was based upon an implicit reasoning emphasizing state failures. In the opposite, market failures which are overlooked in the Structural Adjustment Plans help to argue against such a recommendation. Whilst the target of a proper State/market balance is increasingly acknowledged, little is proposed to help achieve it.. The Resocot Project, a network device involving the cotton sectors of six countries in Western and Centre Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali), provides some input in this regard. This project carried out a method to assess cotton sector performance in connection with development goals. This method enables also to appraise the occurrence of coordination failures, deriving either from the State or from the market. It came out that all potential failures do not materialized. This situation results mainly from the operation of collective rules that stakeholders achieve to put in place, from long term relationship, in particular to address state failures. The method carried out provides hence the first empirical results to evaluate the degree of expression of coordination failures. In view of monitoring cotton sectors to reach performance gain, the method is also of operational interest by permitting to identify coordination failures to correct.