On November 8th, 2022 in Conakry, Guinea, 65 participants from ministries, development agencies, administrative authorities, public and private sector, civil society of Conakry city attended the regional workshop for the elaboration of Guinea’s National Urban Policy (NUP) as part of the SANITA[1] project funded by the European Union. The session provided an opportunity to collect local issues of Conakry region in a participatory approach. This followed the 07 other regional workshops which happened in regions of Guinea from July to August 2022.

In his opening remarks, Mr Alpha Oumar, National Director of territorial development and Urbanism explained to the audience that the platform is here to every Conakry municipality to raise his voice on the urbanization challenges facing their commune. The Governor of Conakry and president of the urbanism and development council of Conakry, Miss M’Mahawa Sylla, then officially opened the session by precising that the problems of Conakry include: overpopulation, housing, security, territorial development, sanitation and climate change.

The first part of the workshop featured the presentation of diagnosis of the urban sector that was carried out in 2020. It demonstrated to the participants the current state of urbanization in Guinea, its stakes and challenges, as well as the proposed initiatives for an improved urban and peri-urban environment. This enhanced the awareness of all the participating stakeholders on the importance of identifying and prioritizing the urban development issues at regional as well as national level. The second presentation introduced the concept of national urban policy, describing to the participants the content and process of developing a NUP as well as the actors and their role in its development and implementation.

The second part of the workshop involved a focus groups session to maximize on participation of all stakeholders. This session was based on two main exercises. The first exercise explored the links between the urban diagnosis and national urban policy, focusing on the recommendations from the Diagnosis Note. The second exercise focused on the priorities of the special region Conakry for the National Urban Policy.  The groups deliberated and presented local experiences and views, and proposed priorities for inclusion as the NUP continues to be formulated. Key priorities emerging from the workshop in Conakry include: Mobility, food security and Sanitation. The workshop concluded with a synthesis of the exchanges on the National Urban Policy and the appropriation of the process by the participants.

[1] [1] The Urban Development and Sanitation Programme in Guinea (SANITA) is a Programme funded by the European Union, with National Urban Policy being one of the five result areas of the Programme.