Background and objectives:

The project assists five cities – through Agence du Sud and the partners involved – to adopting Local Agenda 21. This is done by implementing the tools of strategic and participatory planning, capacity building of the local actors, local consultations, and setting up and implementing the projects.
The project has five specific objectives:

• Implementing the Local Agenda 21 approach as an assistance tool for decision making;
• Responding to the aims of Agence du Sud to work for innovative ways of local participatory management and durable human development;
• Support Agence du Sud in consultation with local actors, mobilization of local forces, public and private partnerships, commitment and responsibility of local partners
• Reinforce the decentralization process and new territorial policies;
• Support the municipalities to adopt operational tools for the production and management of Local Agenda 21.

Activities:
Main activities include:

• Recruiting national coordinator and local coordinators.
• Setting up Local Agenda 21 pilot committees.
• Defining priority issues and preparing city consultations.
• Setting up inter-sectoral working groups.
• Preparing Agenda 21 for the cities, summarizing the strategies and thematic action plans.
• Organizing training workshops for the elected leaders on their role as managers of the urban environment.
• Organizing training workshops for the associative sector on community animation and the set up of operational projects;
• Capitalizing on good practices, appropriating tools, and institutionalizing the approach.

Results:
The results achieved include:

• Urban environmental profiles prepared in every city.
• Consultations held with all the local actors in every urban centre
• Strategies and action plans elaborated for the consideration of the priority issues.
• Local Agenda 21 elaborated as a reference framework for the activities of the actors of urban development.
• Local stakeholders trained for the approach and the methodology and the Local Agenda 21.
• Locally elected leaders trained as urban environment managers
• The associative sector trained for community animation and project set up.