UFIs featured in African Cities Magazine #6
Urban Fabric Initiatives are featured in the latest issue of African Cities Magazine with two articles published in its October edition.
Entitled "Public spaces, drivers of African urban transformation", the magazine explores how urban nurseries are helping to rethink the fabric of African cities by drawing on local dynamics, citizen participation and the co-construction of inclusive and sustainable public spaces.
In Antananarivo, designing the city with its residents
In the article "The Antananarivo Urban Fabric Initiative: Designing public spaces with residents and users", Clémentine Laratte Warde, Rina Soafara and Olivier Bedu look back on the experience of the Antananarivo UFI.
Residents, local associations and municipal authorities were involved at every stage — from participatory assessment to the implementation of micro-developments (pathways, squares, meeting spaces). This approach aims to strengthen social cohesion, improve soft mobility and encourage collective management of urban common goods.
The Antananarivo UFI is thus a replicable model for other African cities facing the same challenges of urban growth and inclusion.
Capitalising on lessons learned: listening to users to better transform the city
The article "Public space projects that listen to their users: lessons from the Urban Fabric Initiatives in Africa", written by Fatou-Maty Diouf and Virginie Rachmuhl, provides a summary of the results of the Urban Fabric Initiatives programme across the continent.
This article, taken from the project notebook produced by the programme team, will be available at the end of the year. It highlights the lessons learned, successes and tensions of a programme that combines rapid action, institutional innovation and citizen engagement.
Beyond physical projects, UFIs foster collective reflection on urban governance and alternative ways of building cities, placing users at the heart of the process.