Abstract
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally-oriented organic quality assurance systems based on the active participation of stakeholders. PGS enable stakeholders to enhance the economic value of their products derived from sustainable agricultural practices, and also to benefit from advice and technical solutions for the continuous improvement of their production, processing and marketing systems. As a result, PGS can be seen as genuine levers for reducing the use of chemicals. To ensure their sustainability, the question of institutional recognition of PGS by public authorities is at the heart of many debates. The aim of this article is to analyze the obstacles and levers to institutional recognition of PGS in West and Central Africa, as well as stakeholders' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of harmonizing them. To this end, we organized the first regional workshop of PGS in West and Central Africa, bringing together 31 participants from 13 PGS in 10 different countries. The results of the workshop multiple discussion sessions show that actors' perceptions are mixed, but convergent. While institutional recognition is seen as an important factor, stakeholders fear that the collective achievements and self-organization of these initiatives will be undermined by a heavy involvement of public authorities. Therefore, they aspire to co-management governance, with responsibilities shared between governments and local actors. This aims to avoid verticality in the management of PGS, and to enable the different rules to be adapted to the specific contexts and realities of each PGS. This article thus contributes to better informing the choice of public authorities, so that their involvement in PGS can be a lever for reducing the use of chemicals in West and Central Africa.