ENDA MAGHREB

Urban Department

March 1999

PRECEUP is the first important program that was set up, managed and put into practice by the Urban Department of ENDA Maghreb. It concerned three projects in Morocco :

• Project for the setting up of a sound local system of household waste collection in Ahfour El Mâati neighborhood, in Khémisset.
• Community integrated liquid and solid sanitation project in Karyan El Oued shanty town, in Salé.
• Household waste valorization project, in Salé Bab Lamrissa.

Enda chose to work on environmental issues in economically under-privileged areas suffering from a deep lack of recognition from local authorities and from not been integrated to the city.

These issues are to be used as ‘entrance doors’ that will further lead to work on new themes with a wider scope.

Using a ‘proximity approach’, PRECEUP helped community structures to emerge and to be accepted by authorities and institutional actors, thus reinforcing the social integration and sustainability of these structures.

This was made possible on behalf of a working method consisting of diversifying actors in each of these three Moroccan projects and of systematically obtaining cities’ participation.

Enda’s strategy is to evolve towards new issues and to integrate various actors to this dynamic. The most astonishing example in this matter, is the Karyan El Oued example: arguing on the housing issue was finally made possible, eventhough this is a very sensitive political issue in Morocco.

This changing of scale was made possible with the help of a method and tools invented by Enda and allowing local actors to adapt to alternative solutions. This realistic and context adapted approach helped promote the UWCM network (Urban Waste Community Management), which has been reinforced by an increasing number of actors joining in.

Along with this network, an effort of communication and exchange was made (interne information booklets, data on the projects, exchange of experiences…). Furthermore, members of the network could attend a training course (environmental awareness, operating projects, interne communication and management).

This experience that Enda gained from Preceup, enabled it to establish in Morocco and to identify new actions to be set up in the future.

Two more programs are currently being operated, supported by Preceup for the ‘setting up’ phase. These consist of the PRODEC program (Moroccan Urban Development Decentralized Cooperation Initiative Promotion Program) and the REFA program (Relay for Evaluation, Training and Action), which combines action and research approaches on reasons for success or for difficulties encountered during the projects.