In parallel to fieldwork, the research/capitalisation component was launched to identify and document experiences relevant to the themes of the programme : The integrated management of the urban environment.

This component is composed of two sub-themes.

Sub-theme I: Community management of the urban environment
·the role of community-based organisations in the local management of the urban environment, in particular by women and youths;
·the conditions for community participation (requirements for their emergence and sustainability of commmunity-based organisations);
·the degree of participation of the population in the determination of technical or operational choices, and in the development of priorities and orientations within their neighbouhoods (from simple participation in committees to the implementation of a true community management of the urban environment);
·incentives for community participation, and relations with other actors of urban development (local and international NGOs, public authorities, the informal sector);
·forms of community organisation (neighbourhood committees), and importance of leaders;
·comparison between alternative systems from organisational, legal, technical, and institutional perspectives, taking into consideration local contexts.

Sub-theme II: means of articulation of community activities with municipal policies and private activities, in particular the informal sector
·the impact of the privatisation of urban services, decentralisation policies; forms of contractualisation;
·legal and institutional effects of new forms of relations between managers emerging from the civil society and national enterprises, concessionaries or municipal technicians;
·the importance of the urban popular economy (micro-enterprises) and their relations with larger enterprises and community-based organisations;
·innovative forms of waste management, and institutional and financial structures; influence of legislation and cultural practices; forms of articulation between different scales (neighbourhood, city, state);
·sharing of tasks and definition of responsibilities; pertinence of the territorial scale as a space for dialogue, exchange and debate among different actors;
·capacity of institutions to ensure and even encourage shared forms of management of urban services.

The main objective of the research/capitalisation component is to initiate discussions with numerous partners around specific themes in view of proposing alternative practices and recommendations to decision-makers concerned by urban environmental problems.