When Dakar meets Ouagadougou: the Network's first cross-exchange mission
Since 2018, AFD-funded urban nurseries have been experimenting with new ways of designing public spaces, as close as possible to future users. Four projects are currently underway in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) and several cities in Tunisia, where galloping urbanization requires local interventions that are collectively designed and supported by larger-scale structuring urban development programs.
An exchange network under construction
The nurseries, accompanied by a animation program supported by a consortium of players (GRET, UrbaMonde, UrbaSEN, Cabanon Vertical) is helping to build an international network of committed players.rice.s engaged in city co-production approaches, as part of a proliferation of frugal and participatory urban planning initiatives.
Among the resources available to the network, the animation program has launched, in 2021, a cycle of exchanges between incubators, in order to meet and learn from each other. And, the very first incubator exchange mission was organized from February 21 to 27, 2021 in Ouagadougou!
The Ouagadougou incubator team, supported by GRET, along with its partner Agence municipale des grands travaux (AMGT), the contracting authority for the Sustainable Development Program for the City of Ouagadougou (PDDO2), welcomed a delegation from Dakar, comprising four incubator members representing GRET, UrbaSEN, Collectif ETC... and UrbaMonde, and a representative of the Conseil exécutif des transports urbains (CETUD), the contracting authority for urban mobility projects in the city, and UrbaMonde, and a representative of the Conseil exécutif des transports urbains de Dakar (CETUD), which is in charge of urban mobility projects in the city.
An inspiring first mission
While the main aim of this mission was to meet up, to get to know each other and to consolidate links between the members of the incubator collective in the making, the week's "menu of exchanges" was packed!
The programme for the mission was devised collectively, as one of the participants recalls, adding that this made it possible to organise "relevant discussion workshops (...) that enabled each of the incubators to work on subjects/themes that made sense in terms of their stage of progress with the project". These themed workshops were also an opportunity to share experiences, tools and working methods for implementing certain key stages of an incubator, in particular calls for citizen initiatives, diagnostics of uses, and the co-design and co-management of public spaces.
In addition to these working sessions, site visits were organised to the Ouagadougou nursery as well as to emblematic places in the city, and discussions were held with local partners. Rich and fascinating debates took place, both during the day and at night. They enabled the teams to get to know each other better, as well as the nursery projects in progress, their activities, challenges and specific features. What's more, the mission provided each team with material to feed their strategic thinking and enrich their programme of activities. According to one of the participants, this mission was "a great initiative that (enabled) us to exchange views on our mutual professional practices and to learn lessons to improve them".
The mission also led to the production of the very first episode of "Radio Pépit', la radio de la capit'", dedicated to urban nurseries and the proliferation of frugal and participative urban initiatives. This first programme, "Dakar meets Ouagadougou", was co-constructed with the two nursery teams and recorded in Ouagadougou during the mission. It was then produced with the dual aim of providing collective feedback on the mission to the nursery network and capitalising on experience.
The pictorial account of the mission and all its resources are available here: exchange mission resources
... And a growing programme of events in the nurseries!
Bolstered by this first mission, the facilitation programme plans to continue its programme of cross-fertilisation between urban incubators with the organisation of a mission from the Ouagadougou nursery, which will leave to meet the Abidjan team.