In the first two weeks of February, the French NGO ‘Les Ateliers‘ organised a workshop in Porto-Novo, the capital city of Benin in West Africa. Two teams of 12 international experts, of which Miranda, brainstormed to identify directions for the development of the ‘Porto-Novo, Ville Verte’ project. The project, which involves five partners (City of Porto-Novo, FFEM, AFD, the cities of Grand Lyon and Cergy-Pontoise) aims to create a sustainable urban development plan. The city, qualified as ‘sleeping beauty’ by the workshop participants, is not taking advantage of the development happening in the large West-African urban corridor that stretches from Abidjan to Lagos, and is lacking a comprehensive and integrated city vision.
Themes included resilience to climate change, sustainable and inclusive development, conservation of biodiversity and natural resources, economic and demographic growth, densification and peri-urban agriculture. The team worked on 3 key strategies (economy, mobility and urbanisation) that are firmly rooted in the existing environmental qualities, cultural identity and local economic potential of the city. The next step will be the creation of a framework based on the workshop that can serve as a base for a sustainable urban development plan.
Credit: Photo by Romarick Atoke
