FROM REGIONAL TO LOCAL DEVELOPMENT: A HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY OF STRUCTURING THE TOGOLESE SPACE

The challenge of regional development has always been a concern for Togo's public policies. A reading of the historical trajectory of the evolution of this concept through the literature review as well as the data collected by interview since 2014, showed that the successive development plans of the country have always mentioned this concept. As early as 1965, the State created regions and Regional Land Planning and Development Societies with specific skills. These competences were consolidated in the second five-year plan and continued with the third and then in the fourth plan. After a period of lack of development planning, the 4th pillar of the Comprehensive Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the Accelerated Growth Strategy for Full Employment, aimed at correcting regional imbalances to help reduce poverty. Today, the effect 10 of the third axis of the National Development Plan focuses on the issue of local development. In order to contribute to the improvement of its implementation, it was important to revisit the old plans to highlight the main results as well as the theoretical and conceptual approaches that guided them. At the conceptual level, strategies based on the export-base model and growth-pole theory are noted.