Bridging and bending state and society: citizen committees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

We examine the citizen committees set up to enhance public service delivery. They describe themselves and are depicted by aid and government actors alike as authentic community representatives aligned with a voluntarist ethos. While extensive scholarship debates the benefits and perils of the proliferation of and over-reliance on committees (‘committeefication’), we shift the lens to the politico-administrative settlement these committees help constitute. Drawing on over a decade of qualitative research in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we focus on some of the most well-established committees: the Health Facility and Citizen Voice and Action committees. The volunteer committees act as co-producers of the state in at least three ways. First, they function as a pathway to positions in politics, administration and the aid sector, reproducing and renewing the aid/non-governmental organisation apparatus that has become consubstantial with the contemporary Congolese state. Second, they de facto enforce and therefore arbitrate which formal regulations are translated into everyday practice. Third, they participate in creating spaces where power relations are redefined, steering resources towards particular local authorities. The volunteers of the committee are not just a tool for democracy or efficient public service delivery; they are part and parcel of a fragmented and constantly re-negotiated state.