On Monday January 18, 2021, Alvin ATEBA ANGONI, junior researcher within the framework of the R4D project, defended a doctoral thesis in political science, entitled “Strategic hybridization and economic development policies in Cameroon: Case of social housing policies”. The defense took place in the proceedings room of the University of Douala in Cameroon. The jury was composed as follows:

– Magloire ONDOUA (Professor, Rector of the University of Douala, President of the Jury);
– Antoine KERNEN (Master teacher and research master at the University of Lausanne, Examiner of the thesis);
– Didier PECLARD (Master teacher and research master at the University of Geneva, Examiner of the thesis);
– Célestin KAPTCHOUANG (Professor at the University of Yaoundé 2, Reporter);
– Fabien NKOT (Professor at the University of Yaoundé 2, Reporter and Director of the thesis).

The jury after deliberation awarded the candidate the honorable mention with special congratulations. The objective of the candidate in the context of this work was to show that the State of Cameroon, through its policies for the development of social housing, practices a managerial manipulation between liberal model and self-centered model, influenced by formal and informal logics. actors, both in terms of the socio-historical trajectory of these policies, the promotion of national public / private partnership, and counterbalance strategies between the various international partners.

The research week of the Chaire de Bioéthique de Bouaké, held in Abidjan and at the University of Bouaké, from the 27th to the 31st of August 2018. This week, which closed the second year of the research project “The Developmental State Stikes Back?”, gave the opportunity for Ivorian, Cameroonian and Swiss teams to meet and to disseminate their research results to academic, development professionals, Ivorian authorities and general public. Furthermore, visits and interviews were organized on some of the most iconic sites symbolizing the return of “Developmental State” in Ivory Coast.

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28-30 June 2018: CA/AC 5th International Conference (Brussels, Belgium)

Title : Infrastructures of power: Chinese investments and dynamics of State reproduction in Africa

Participants: Obert Hodzi (University of Helsinki), Fabien Nkot and René Faustin Bobo Bobo (University of Yaoundé II), Guive Khan-Mohammad (University of Geneva) and Linda Yin-Nor Tjia (City University of Hong Kong)

9-12 July 2018: Rencontres des études africaines de France (Marseille, France)

Title: Le retour de l’Etat développementaliste en Afrique?

Participants: Nancy Andrew (Sciences Po, Bordeaux IV), Moïse Williams Pokam Kamdem  (Université de Dschang), Toussaint Kounouho  (Université Félix Houphouet-Boigny d’Abidjan-Cocody), Christel Dior Tamegui (Université de Rennes I), Mélissa Haussaire (Université de Lille), Yves-Patrick Mbangue Nkomba  (Université de Yaoundé II) and Jacques Fleming Mandeng Nyobe  (Université de Yaoundé II)

The research week of the Centre d’études et de recherche en dynamiques administratives et politiques, held in the Hotel Merina in Yaoundé, from the 11th to the 15th of September 2017. This week, which closed the first year of the research project “The Developmental State Stikes Back?”, gave the opportunity for Cameroonian, Ivoirian and Swiss teams to meet and to disseminate their first results to academic, development professionals, Cameroonian authorities and general public. Furthermore, visits and interviews were organized on some of the most iconic sites symbolizing the return of “Developmental State” in Cameroun, such as the deep sea port of Kribi.

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The Developmental State Strikes Back? The Rise of New Global Powers and African States’ Development Strategies

Panel organized by Antoine Kernen, Didier Péclard and Guive Khan-Mohammad

Short abstract
This panel intends to analyze the development strategies of African states in a context marked by the end of the Washington consensus and the diversification of international donors, and in which the state is given again – and takes – a more important role as driver of development.

Long abstract
This panel proposes to study the place and role of African states in the context of a changing development landscape at the global level as well as on the continent. Our reflection builds on two interrelated observations: since the end of the Washington consensus, new paradigms in the field of international development are emerging, whereby the state is given a more important role as driver of development; thanks to unprecedented levels of economic growth and a diversified donor and investor landscape, African states are in a position to increase their room for maneuver and thus able to play a more central role in the definition of their development agendas. In this panel, we therefore intend to put the development strategies of African states at the centre of the analysis, by interrogating how they react to and appropriate changes in development policies at the global level as well as the arrival of new players such as China and other emerging economies on the development scene. Moreover, we  propose to ask whether and to what extent the strategies of African states in this new setting are conducive to long-term changes in terms of social and human development, or whether they tend to reproduce and reinforce long-established power relations and the deepening of social inequalities. We call for communications coming from various social sciences and humanities discipline, but based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Africa.

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