The majority of countries in Africa are caught up in an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions. Under the impact of recession and adjustment, African States are facing serious problems in fulfilling the basic social services, public facilities and infrastructures for their growing populations. The question of the performance of the State have come in the recent years to occupy center stage in the fields of African studies. They all share an "engagement paradigm" which has an integrative connotation, stressing institution building and collective action around the new center embodied by the State. In this paper we discuss modes of "disengagement" of the State and the way individuals and groups have attempted to cope with the State in this context of economic crisis. The challenges posed by disengagement of the State, economic recession and structural adjustment lend momentum in rural and urban areas to new kinds of : 1) urban neighbourhood co-operation — amicales de quartier — in Morocco which go beyond simple survival strategies and create new center of dialogue and mutual assistance; 2) new public-private co-operation in service delivery in Casablanca and Rabat; 3) new self-help strategies for financial resources mobilization and social services delivery in rural areas of Senegal — associations villageoises.