Administrative centre

In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and many African countries), a chef-lieu (French pronunciation: [ʃɛfljø], plural form chefs-lieux, literally 'chief place' or 'main place'), is a town or city that is important from an administrative perspective.

This is the town or city where the prefect of the department (and all services under their control) are situated, in a building known as the prefecture.

Many of the West African states which gained independence from France in the mid-20th century also inherited the French administrative structure of Departments and Communes, headed by a Chief-Lieu.

States still using Chief-Lieu to identify the administrative headquarters of a government subdivision include Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, and Niger.

The larger portion of the terminology of administrative division is inherited from colonial rule as part of French West Africa, and has survived and been somewhat modified over time.

[2] With the decentralization process begun in both nations in the 1990s, the chef-lieu has transitioned from the location of the Governor, Commandant, or Prefect and their staff, to the location of Commune, Cercles of Mali/Departments of Niger, and Regional Councils and a variety of decentralized bodies.

Smaller sub-divisions in Mali's Communes (Villages, Tribal councils, Quarters) are administered from or identified as a Place/Site (Site in French), so the chef-lieu is literally the Chief-Place even at the lowest level.

In Russia, several million-plus cities in federal districts have the official status of an administrative centre: Moscow (as the main city of the Central Federal District), Vladivostok, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Pyatigorsk, Rostov-on-Don and St. Petersburg.

In Sweden there are two levels of administrative centre; the local municipal and the regional county.

Central locality (Swedish: "centralort") is a term commonly ascribed to the settlement that serves as a municipal administrative centre.

This level handles the local administrative and political tasks of the surrounding settlements.

This level handles the more regional political and administrative tasks of the county, such as healthcare and public transport.

In the newer amalgamated "greater counties", often referred to as "regions", the administrative centre is placed in one of the older residence cities.