Building on community engagement in Dakar

Residents of Dakar (Senegal) have been working with the Sustainable Cities Plus Network to improve the stakeholder process on urban planning.

The Sustainable Cities Network is an international peer learning network of cities sharing their experiences, expertise and tools to undertake long-term planning for urban sustainability. A program of the International Centre for Sustainable Cities, more information is available at www.plusnetwork.org.

The project in Dakar began with interviews and data gathering with various stakeholders, done to get a sense of what was happening on the ground. A result of these meetings was a set of recommendations on implementation strategies.

Also, seven community projects were recommended to the Demonstration Seed Fund Executive Committee for further exploration. The focus of these projects will be to strengthen the capacity for youth as agents of change, and to engage community members to take ownership of their environment.

ICLEI’s Local Agenda 21 (LA21) Campaign promotes a participatory, long-term, strategic planning process that supports local governance by identifying local sustainability priorities and mobilizing local governments and their citizens to implement long-term action plans that address these sustainable priorities. Using the LA21 approach of participatory sustainable development planning, ICLEI aims to assist local

authorities to move beyond general sustainable development planning and to apply this approach in tackling areas of priority concern. For more information, please visit www.iclei.org/la21.

Dakar is one of 37 local governments in Africa that are currently Members of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. For more information on ICLEI and its programs in Africa, please visit www.iclei.org/africa.

Source: “Dakar – Building on Community Engagement”, Sustainable Cities PLUS Network Network News, March 2007.

- - -