Senegal – Sustainable Urban- and Rural Development Strategy

By Julia Dreiseitl The purpose of this project is to provide the Diamniadio agglomeration, with a Masterplan, guiding and ensuring synergies between the programs of the State and the local authorities. As part of the diagnostic report, to ensure a participatory and inclusive approach, Ramboll Water conducted surveys in 400 households’ across four municipalities in a perimeter of 11.000 ha, as well as focus groups with the youth, women, environmentalists, and entrepreneurs. The project manager Audrey Benoist reports from her experience: “I took a key role in developing and implementing the surveys and focus groups. I prepared the material from Denmark and went on a 2-week field mission in order to finalize the questions with our local counter parts (Direction General de l’Urbanisme et de l’Architecture), select the surveyors together with the four municipalities and provide training to the surveyors and supervisors. The surveys were developed around fives themes: (1) the vision and satisfaction of place of residence, (2) floods and other urban hazards, (3) productive activities, (4) traffic and transport, (5) the living environment (services provided by the municipalities, infrastructures, housing etc..).” And Audrey Benoist continues: “It was a truly enriching experience to work hand in hand with the local communities and it allowed us to get a better understanding of the population’s challenges and needs. Crossing these results with the technical analysis of the perimeter helped us to develop a reliable diagnostic of the perimeter to propose a sustainable city strategy based on solid grounds.”