France
Climate negociations
Territorial planning and territorial management

African Sustainable City Initiative

This project aims to support African cities in the prefiguration and realization of their development projects.

An initiative of Rêve de scènes urbaines

Overview of the project

Euroméditerranée and Rêve de scènes urbaines propose to combine the skills of a public developer and the know-how of French companies to dialogue with African cities and contribute to their urban projects.
The initiative for the African sustainable city is part of the continuity of the partnership between the two “Industrial Demonstrators for the Sustainable City” (DIVD), Rêve de scènes urbaines and EuroMediterranée Urban Lab (EMUL). This initiative aims to offer local authorities expertise in the development and construction of sustainable neighborhoods and cities.
Euroméditerranée and Rêve de Scènes Urbaines have expertise in setting up a development project, managing public-private partnerships and implementing innovative projects. As for French companies, they can provide technical expertise on a specific subject, their own experience of public/private partnerships and contacts in Africa.
Thus, the African Sustainable City Initiative (ASCI) proposes to share a method for building the city based on

  • Building a long-term dialogue with a community to better understand its needs;
  • The development of partnerships between the public developer, French companies and the local ecosystem to collectively implement sustainable and innovative projects.

This initiative is intended to be innovative and operational, with a flexible and complete formula to act quickly and freely. RSU and Euroméditerranée have brought together the varied skills of volunteer companies, which can be mobilized according to the calls for projects. This allows the initiative to have a veritable library of French companies’ know-how in sustainable cities, from which the sponsoring community can choose according to its interests.

Objective

To support African cities in the prefiguration and realization of their development projects.

Level of progress

Ongoing research

Project timeline

01/07/2020 - Ongoing project

Quantitative results

Euroméditerranée and Rêve de scènes urbaines participated in the French bid for the “Nairobi Railway City” call for expressions of interest. This call, launched by the Kenyan government in the summer of 2020, aimed to mobilize the private sector for the development and supply of urban equipment for the future Railway City. A dozen French companies applied behind Euroméditerranée to offer their expertise in development and construction. The grouping was pre-selected and invited to submit a bid.

Qualitative results

The initiative is currently being structured. After a few months of launching, IVDA has brought together some twenty companies and developed structuring institutional partnerships. The development of a cooperation protocol with UN-Habitat is underway.

Financing

The project is currently developed by the association Rêve de scènes urbaines and the Etablissement public d'aménagement Euroméditerranée. The necessary funding for our intervention will be provided by the authorities requesting the services or by institutional backers.

About the
organisation

Rêve de scènes urbaines

website
Eloïse Lombard
Chargée de mission
eloise.lombard@vinci.com
0611030162

The association Rêve de scènes urbaines (RSU) has been a winner with Plaine Commune of the national call for projects “Industrial demonstrators for the sustainable city” since 2016. Its objective is to bring out urban innovations to contribute to the ecological transition and the attractiveness of the territories. To do this, RSU proposes an original approach of dialogue between city professionals and territories.
Since the summer of 2020, RSU has launched the African Sustainable City Initiative with Euroméditerranée.
For more than 25 years, the Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Euroméditerranée has been designing, developing and building the sustainable Mediterranean city of tomorrow in the heart of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis. This program, governed by the State and local authorities, has established itself as an unprecedented gas pedal of attractiveness and economic, social and cultural development.

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Other partners / supporters

Institutional support under development: Ministry of Ecological Transition, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, French Partnership for Cities and Territories, France Ville Durable, the Permanent Conference of African and Francophone Consular Chambers.
Companies involved in the initiative: Vinci, Suez, Saint-Gobain, Resallience, RATP Dev, Ortec, Omexom, Nodalis, LafargeHolcim, JAD Holding, Engie, Dassault Systèmes, Cubik Home, Colas, Artelia, Arte Charpentier, Altereo