The Commune of Sirakorola, a Laboratory for Local Innovation

Abstract

The commune of Sirakorola is located halfway between Koulikoro and Banamba, on national road no. 27, 110 km from Bamako. The  village of Sirakorola was initially the chief town of a district, before becoming the chief town of a commune with the advent of  decentralization. Souleymane Coulibaly has been mayor since 2004. Born in 1967 in Sirakorola, he entered school in 1975 and attended up  to 9th grade. He left school without a diploma at the age of 17. In 1991, he joined the Adema party, under whose banner he was  elected local councilor in the 1999 elections and became first deputy to the elected mayor. This work is based on a series of studies  carried out in the commune in 2006 and 20121. The first diagnostic studies showed a commune facing acute political problems, with a  mayor’s office blocked by factional struggles. As for the mayor, he was virtually without authority. In 2012, we found a relatively peaceful village. And the management of public services had improved considerably. In the meantime, he and his council have succeeded in  turning the town hall into a space for meetings, exchanges and debates, and in changing people’s perception of the town hall by using  popular representations and semiologies. Thanks to their work, the town hall has become a new “vestibule” alongside the village  vestibules. The mayor’s role in implementing the many innovations was eminent. A great political entrepreneur, he also proved to be an  entrepreneur in the Schumpeterian sense of the term, i.e. a bearer of new ideas who breaks out of routines to seize opportunities arising  from circumstances that can produce new situations. He is an entrepreneur-innovator with a flair for anticipation, who knows how to  realistically exploit potential opportunities. Thanks to his personal commitment and sense of collaboration, he was able to put in place  “new combinations of factors” to defuse the difficult situations he was confronted with, and to convince external partners to accompany  him on his journey. However, the question is whether, from the outset, the partnership between the two parties was not based on a  misunderstanding. A misunderstanding that would prove productive in the sense that it satisfied everyone without being the one  prescribed or proclaimed. Whereas for the partners, the aim of setting up the various awareness-raising and mobilization procedures  was to achieve greater transparency and accountability in the management of the commune, for the mayor, their interest was to  encourage his fellow citizens to become more committed and more involved, and above all, to contribute more to tax collection. The  question is, what motivates the mayor to devote so much time and energy to his commune, always striving to innovate?