The Moroccan government is providing €2 million to finance local development projects in the Congo. In all, eight municipalities will benefit, including Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire.
These days, it is no longer possible for territories to go it alone when it comes to local development. That’s the message from Morocco, which has just released 1.4 billion CFA francs (over €2 million) for eight municipalities in the Congo. These are Brazzaville, Impfondo, Pointe-Noire, Niari and Pokola, Kintele, Oyo and Madingou.
This support is part of the African Support Fund for International Decentralised Cooperation (AFIDC) set up by the Kingdom of Morocco to finance urban and sustainable development projects. “Almost all of the funds will be paid directly into the accounts of the targeted local authorities,” explains Juste Mondelé, Congo’s Minister Delegate for Decentralisation and Local Development.
In Pointe-Noire, Congo’s second largest city, the funding will be used to combat insalubrity and build the capacity of local authority employees. To this end, the President of the Departmental and Municipal Council is in talks with the Moroccan municipality of Souk El Arbaâ to benefit from its expertise in innovative waste management.
Decentralised cooperation, an alternative for financing the SDGs
“We are keen to address the persistent problem of untreated hospital waste. For household waste management, incinerators and specific treatment zones will be set up to prevent waste from being dumped in the middle of the city, thereby protecting the health of residents living close to disposal areas,” explains Evelyne Tchichelle.
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Other decentralised cooperation initiatives are in the pipeline elsewhere on the African continent, particularly in West Africa, where local elected representatives are scrambling to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is the case of the partnership between Nouakchott and the cities of Lausanne in Switzerland, Bordeaux and Metz in France in the field of water (SDG6). The capital of Mauritania has benefited from a 21 km drinking water network to supply 95,000 inhabitants in the Toujounine council. The installation is one of the spin-offs of the Community Water and Sanitation Access Project (PCAEA) launched by the Mauritanian authorities in 2018.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
