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How do we evolve grassroots democracy with regional characteristics? Hierarchical systems within most of Sub-Saharan Africa have proven to be almost completely removed from the citizens they claim to govern, the following statements/initiatives offer varying perspectives on the subject, firstly Fred Foldvary suggests that:

Democracy must start small. Each village and city neighborhood elects a local council. These would be the cells of the political body. Where a traditional clan leadership is in place, it would be recognized as the local authority. The cell would be small enough so that the people can hold meetings and know the candidates personally. There would be no need for large amounts of campaign money.

While an effort in Puntland Somalia, emphasizes the devolving of power:

Decentralisation of government by devolving decision making down to the lowest constituencies is a fundamental principle of the Puntland administration. Evidence shows that smaller, more local bodies are generally more efficient, but also that taking the process of decision making down to the community level gives rise to a more responsive organization on the one hand, and greater community involvement and buy-in on the other.

Hu Jintao building on the "Democracy with Chinese characteristics" model proposes that:

The most effective and extensive way for the people to be masters of the country is that they directly exercise their democratic rights in accordance with the law to manage public affairs and public service programs at the primary level, practice self-management, self-service, self-education and self-oversight, and exercise democratic oversight over cadres. Such practices must be emphasized and promoted as the groundwork for developing socialist democracy.

In summation we can postulate the need for indigenous, adaptive, fractal governing systems that are imbued with continuous reactive input from a representative citizenry.

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Sociolingo reports on an ongoing debate regarding The Mande Charter described as a Magna Carter for Africa.It is a document that "is presented by its promoters as a “hidden treasury”; from the West African past. It is already the basis for claims of endogenous origins of modern concepts (decentralisation, local democracy, environment conservation, feminism, human rights, cultural diversity, welfare state)"

Police forces across SSA are generally viewed with suspicion, fear and derision. They are largely seen as non-representative instruments of authority- a force apart from society itself.In further examination of the institutional decentralisation theme we look at ,a paper by Gareth Newham which examines the implementation of local civilian oversight of police forces in South Africa. It came up with a number recommendations which include:

• Developing training and other resources to enhance the understanding and practice of civilian oversight of police agencies at local level;

• Ensuring that independent evaluations are conducted on key aspects of MPD performance and conduct;

• Ensuring that local level oversight committees include a focus on the policies, procedures and systems of MPDs to receive and deal with public complaints of police misconduct;

• Inviting feedback from various stakeholders as to their perceptions and experiences of the MPDs;

• Assisting in clarifying the role of the Civilian Oversight Committees and then capacitating them to play this role.

Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura writes "...Decentralisation - the transfer of power from governments in often distant capitals to local authorities - is frequently depicted as one of the strategies that hold the greatest promise for helping the rural poor. At present, most of these people rely on agriculture for their livelihood. Yet, they have tended to exercise little control over the policies which are drawn up for rural areas, and which have a direct effect on the success of farming (for example)..."