Spatial planning policies and reduction of territorial inequalities in DR Congo: A critical look at the preliminary results of the local development programme for the 145 territories

Democratic Republic of the Congo Development projects and programmes Economic policy Land use planning policy Local development Territorial inequalities. Since 2021, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been experimenting with the implementation of an ambitious development program, entirely dedicated to rural areas, with a view to reducing development inequalities and biases in the allocation of resources, observed for many decades between cities and rural areas, despite the fact that they are populated by the vast majority of the population. This is the local development program of 145 territories, financed in December 2022 by the government of the DRC and its partners. Data collected from various program documents, as well as direct observations from the field, were used to conduct a critical analysis of the program. The statistical results indicate a large disparity between the start-up rate (estimated at 93%) and the completion rate (weakly estimated at 38%), with a nonsignificant statistical relationship between the two rates, at the critical threshold of 5% (i.e., 7.5%). Given that the expected variable (the completion rate) is not satisfactory, a new study on the fundamental factors influencing the failure of public interventions in the DRC is needed. Contribution/ Originality: This study is distinguished by a critical analysis of the preliminary results of an ongoing program, where few scientific evaluations are conducted in the DRC. It aims to prevent the failure of public interventions by identifying gaps between the start-up and completion rates at an early stage.