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ABSTRACTThere is an obvious general trend towards decentralisation in West Africa. This leads to changes in administrative structure. In this article, we develop and elaborate on a point that is often overlooked in decentralisation reform, namely local government capacity. We present empirical evidence from local governments in three francophone West African countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. For local administrations to effectively deliver services, a sufficiently qualified staff is needed. Our argument is that staffing in general and a well-qualified staff capacity in particular are missing in most of the local governments studied. At the same time, the vocational training systems for the local civil service are structurally weak. The ongoing effort to close the capacity gap shows at once the concurrent need for and the typical limitations of externally planned development projects.