Loumbila, Burkina Faso, 30 September 2019 - The Mayors of Ouagadougou, Komki-Ipala, Komsilga, Koubri, Loumbila, Pabré, Saaba and Tanghin-Dassouri gathered on 27 September 2019, in Loumbila, Burkina Faso, to sign the Memorandum of Understanding to settle the Metropolitan Governance of the Greater Ouagadougou.

During a two-day International Workshop on Metropolitan Governance, members of local and central governments as well as international institutions, discussed the implications and challenges of a metropolitan governance for the area of the Greater Ouagadougou. UN-Habitat facilitated dialogue between the different spheres of governance, as well as supporting the organisation and moderation of this workshop. The event was placed under the presidency of the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Mr. Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré.

The Greater Ouagadougou, also known as “Grand Ouaga’’, is a geographical area of approximately 3,304 km2. It incorporates the central and surrounding municipalities of Ouagadougou, Komki Ipala, Komsilga, Koubri, Loumbila, Pabré, Saaba and Tanghin-Dassouri. The expansion of the city of Ouagadougou, as a result of accelerated urbanization and population explosion, has provoked the development of the city outside its administrative boundaries and the transformation of the neighboring communities into “city-dormitories’’.

This phenomenon leads to enormous difficulties and challenges in terms of inter and intra municipal mobility, waste management, access to decent housing, management of green spaces and land reserves for construction of public facilities, etc. It was therefore crucial that all the stakeholders involved could discuss these issues in order to strategically plan the future of the Greater Ouagadougou, given that from 1.5 million residents in 2006, this territory will increase to about 4.7 million in 2025, (estimates by SDAGO).

The mayor of Ouagadougou, M. Armand Roland Pierre Beouindé, noted that, “Local authorities, currently not under the same instance of governance, with a inter-municipal cooperation, could raise new prospects in terms of common public services management, construction of local infrastructures, in the objective of reducing costs and producing economy of scale in the collective management of projects of development.’’

UN-Habitat contributed to the discussion with the presentation by Mr. Remy Sietchiping, leader of the Regional and Metropolitan Planning Unit. He emphasized how the metropolisation could be used as a developing tool, and for a successful urban governance, three foundations should be taken into account: legitimacy, authority and sharing of responsibilities. UN-Habitat, based on its global experience and through the MetroHub, has a wide range of tools to support the development and management of metropolitan areas.

The workshop also benefited from the international experiences of the Greater Bamako, Mali, and Greater Lyon, France. The Director of the Urban Agency of Bamako, Mr. Ousmane Sow, and Mr. Hugues la Fay, Deputy Director of the Branch for Territorial and Users Relation for the Greater Lyon, both gave presentations.

The International Workshop on Metropolitan Governance resulted in the stakeholders agreeing to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a Metropolitan Governance for the Greater Ouagadougou, it also established the roadmap for the next steps implementation.