End clap for the Mavil Forum in Saint-Louis, Sahel cities will achieve the SDGs

On the last day of the Forum on Control and Adaptation of Intermediate Cities in the Sahel (Mavil) which was held in the historic city of Saint-Louis in Senegal, Jean Marc Pradelle, president of the international association GRDR Migrations-Citizenship-Development s is delighted with the new reflections which have made it possible to move forward on the resilience of Bakel (Senegal), Kaedi (Mauritania) and Kayes (Mali). A look back at the progress of this major event for urban development in West Africa.

There were 70 local elected officials, representatives of development partners and civil society, to participate in the Forum “What trajectories for the cities of the Senegal River? Regards sur Kayes, Kaédi et Bakel” which was held from December 12 to 14, 2023 in Saint-Louis, Senegal. These three days of debate and multicultural sharing between the cities of the Sahel and Europe focused on issues essential to the development of intermediary cities, including adaptation to climate change, development infrastructure (water, sanitation, schools, electricity) or even cross-border security.

The interactive and sometimes heated exchanges made it possible to first address the issue of gender equality which, according to Diodio Diadiou, is quite crucial to achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in Africa from West. The Senegalese academic, specialist in social geography, relied on the famous quote from French researcher Yves Lacoste “the city is thought of as masculine”, to denounce the poor access of West African women to land ownership, as well as their vulnerability to the floods and prolonged droughts experienced in the sub-region.

For his part, the architect and president of Think and do tank GS-Development Luc Gnacadja widely used the verb co-construct to encourage greater involvement of residents in urban planning. The former Minister of the Environment of Benin also insisted on taking into account the cultural aspect and demographic developments. “Climate  resilience is above all cultural. We explored the challenges of rapid urbanization south of the Sahara, where rural exodus represents only 2/5 of urban population growth. With 97% of urban areas having between 10,000 and 300,000 inhabitants”, he insisted.

The question of financing was also widely raised because without capital the projects of the local authorities of Bakel (Senegal), Kaedi (Mauritania) and Kayes (Mali) remain drowned in the Senegal River which separates them. It is in this logic that diasporas have been invited to invest massively in agroecology, drinking water installations, waste recycling and solar kits so that their cities of origin can move forward with the ecological transition. In this regard, the team of the “Repat Africa” platform (returning migrants, Editor’s note) created in 2019 announced that it had already raised 300,000 euros.