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Experiments were conducted in the Senegal River valley between 1996 and 2000 to design and test methods likely to ensure the lasting success of decentralisation and local development processes. The actors design their own information systems and the process differs from the usual participatory approaches by the appropriation of complex technical information instead of the acceptance external technical expertise, and by the choice of consultation and learning processes instead of prior analyses and development plans. Technical advice is thus no longer in the foreground of this process of territorial consultation, which is based on adapted maps.