From local initiatives to city plans changing scale for shared management of the urban environment

1 - INTRODUCTION 3

2 - AGENDA 4

3 - MEETING REPORT 12

3.5 - Sathurday 27 June (morning) : Publicfeedback for the debates / Closing ceremony 48

 The Habitat and Environment Committee (HEC) of the Habitat International Coalition (HIC) and the Popular Urban Environmental Economy Programme (PRECEUP) jointly organized a meeting in Bamako from 23-27 June 1998 on the theme; "From local initiatives to city projects. Changing scale to achieve consultative management of the urban environment".

The objective of the meeting was to brainstorm on scale-changing as a step towards social change. Usually, initiatives undertaken by most urban development actors are situated at a very local level, that of the district, and at best that of a few districts. However pertinent these initiatives may be, they lead only very rarely to actions on a larger scale, and by the same token, severely undermine our claim of contributing to social change...

In view of this new challenge, there is the need for a different strategy from now on : we must shift from a micro to macro level. We must endeavour to attain shared management involving all actors for urban development, and gather all ideas, whether they come "from above" or from the grassroots. The effective and adequate coordination of all these actors and all their actions is the very essence of "scale-changing", the overarching objective being to make it possible for urban development actors to negotiate together on an equitable basis, discuss priorities, and have a real political voice; in short, to be in a position to co-manage the city.

The over 70 participants in this meeting came from different backgrounds across the five continents, including representatives of international organisations, regional organisations, governments, local authorities, several NGOs, popular organizations and consumers' representatives, researchers,...(Please see list of participants in annex 5).

The meeting was organized in the form of workshops, plenary meetings and field visits so as to enrich the brainstorming exercise with concrete experiences and problems encountered on the ground.

We shared the outcomes of this brainstorming exercise with the President of the Republic of Mali, His Excellency Alpha Oumar Konare, who was kind enough to receive us with great simplicity. Also, we had the occasion to present the conclusions of the meeting to the press with the active involvement of Mrs. Aminata Traore, the Minister for Culture, who was present at the opening session of the meeting alongside the Minister for the Environment (meeting chair), and the Minister for Town Planning and Housing.

Nota Bene : This is not intended to be a comprehensive report, but a synoptic presentation of all issues addressed during the meeting held in Bamako from 23 to 27 June, 1998.

(field visits coordinated by Enda Mali, in 4 or 5 small groups).

11h00 - 11h15 Coffee break

15h30 - 16h00 Proposal for the implementation of habitat/urban watches

16h00 - 16h15 Coffee break

16h15 - 18h45 Workshop for practical organisation of the habitat/urban watches

The workshop commenced with field visits (Tuesday 24th June in the morning). This helped to anchor the workshop in the context of concrete issues. Brainstorming on issues such as scale-changing did not cause us to lose sight of the fact that this is a means of working towards social change for the majority. Without remaining too "down-to-earth" and without degrading the quality of debates, the work nevertheless attempted to concentrate on concrete recommendations for implementation by the town actors, whoever they may be. The field visits therefore helped refocus those prone to overly abstract brainstorming.

The workshop continued in the afternoon (Tuesday 24th) with the official opening ceremony, followed by the presentation of two programmes responsible for the co-organisation of the meeting (HEC and PRECEUP). There was also a presentation by guests representing organisations that can play a major role in the follow-up to this meeting (one of the objectives of the workshop was to contribute to better co-ordination between organisations working on similar themes).

On Wednesday 25th, the workshop proper began. This was divided into four brainstorming themes, each one taking half a day.

These four, closely linked, themes constituted a logical progression.

Scale-changing relies on the premise that we can no longer content ourselves with laboratory-style activities, regardless of their success. This does not mean suppressing every initiative at district level, but obtaining the wherewithal to surpass this stage and work for and with the majority of society. We must claim to contribute to social change.

The objective of the first theme was to brainstorm on scale-changing strictly speaking and highlight different ways of grasping the concept. The aim was to demystify the scale-changing concept, which is a frequent source of confusion. The workshop therefore aimed to encourage this, so that more activities have an impact at town level (and beyond).

The second theme lead to brainstorming on the possible types of partnership between various town management actors and their implementation methods. Local authorities, in general, do not have the means available to carry out their mission. Working within a context of progressive reduction in external aid, all the actors – without discrimination – should pool their efforts to reinforce the capacities of the principal town actor, the town council. The underlying idea here was none other than reaffirmation of the partnership principal advocated by Agenda 21 and the Habitat Agenda. But, we are sometimes quite far from the implementation of said principal…and this is where the habitat/urban watches covered by theme 4 comes in.

Using some concrete cases, the brainstorming on partnership focused on utilisation of this principal as a scale-changing tool.

Thursday morning was devoted to the third theme, which was first of all try to highlight a number of urban management tools used in different areas of the world, generally based on talents developed by local actors. Every activity capable of improving the urban environment is in itself a support to local authorities. Therefore, these tools which have helped various town actors to undertake or improve such activities (production of urban services, etc.), although developed by civil society, are also capacity building tools for town councils. The tools were explored by contributors who had analysed a number of case studies throughout the world; each contributor being responsible for the analysis of a region.

Secondly, the brainstorming focused on operation of these tools which could be carried out as part of a global partnership the underlying idea being their operation in the context of the habitat/urban watches.

Drawing on the work accomplished on scale-changing, the brainstorming also centred around the issue of adapting these locally-defined urban management tools at town level.

The fourth and final theme focused on the definition of habitat/urban watches definition in terms of conception first of all, then in terms of its implementation. Urban watches, nothing more than a tool for towns, will attempt to channel a number of previously existing, but sometimes dispersed, initiatives. They will also attempt to implement new initiatives helping to integrate a large variety of actors.

To a certain extent, the three themes discussed over the preceeding day and a half helped clarify the conceptual steps that form the essence of urban watches. This final half-day focused primarily on the definition of the very concept of urban watches (which activities should they cover? with what objectives? etc.).