"Inclusive cities": non-negotiable recommendations

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[fr]Retour sur la session « Villes inclusives : pour une meilleure implication des populations discriminées et exclues », organisée dans le cadre d'Africités Dakar 2012[en]Flashback on the session "Inclusive Cities: Improving Involvement of people marginalised and discriminated against"organized the summit Africities Dakar 2012

During the Africities Summit, the DECISIPH project held a special session on December 6 from 9:30 to 13:00 on the theme "Inclusive Cities: Improving Involvement of people marginalised and discriminated against".

The report of the session is now available.

Mrs. Aissata Tall Sall, Deputy Mayor of Podor, one of the partners of DECISIPH in northern Senegal. They focused first on the issue of the accessibility of basic local services for people with disabilities.
Ms. Mariame Dem, Regional Director of WaterAid in Senegal, highlighted good inclusive practices in West Africa from the Towards Inclusive WASH report relating to the inclusive access to water and sanitation (www.inclusivewash.org.au).
M. Raymundo Nonato from the City Council of Salvador de Bahia, and M. Heron Cordeiro from the NGO Vida Brasil then shared their experiences of local public accessibility policies in Brazil.
This also provided the opportunity for the DECISIPH project to present its experience sharing film on inclusive local development, "Local Development in West Africa : How to Make It Inclusive for All ?".
Based on these practical and concrete examples, Mylène Lavoie, Governance Policy and Local Development Specialist at the UNDP Regional Centre, finally opened the discussion on the issue of including everyone in the post-2015 development agenda, noting the particular importance of consultation and education in the structures where decisions are made.

The discussions contributed to a number of recommendations to local development stakeholders.

1) Fundamentals :
Local communities and local government authorities commit themselves to making inclusion and equity non-negotiable principles
The inclusion of discriminated groups (persons with disabilities, women, the poor, the elderly, people living with HIV, etc.) is the responsibility of all, as individuals and as an action group
The political will of elected representative must be sustained by responsible citizenship.

2) Stakeholders (local governments, national governments, civil society, development partners and citizens) must open their eyes to the discrimination affecting certain population groups, such as people with disabilities, women, the poor, the elderly. They must be made aware of the existence of barriers and obstacles to full participation on the basis of equality with others, understand the situation experienced by those affected in everyday life, understand their particular problems, be convinced, and agree to include them in local development and governance.

3) The action must be concrete and initiated in a concerted manner at grass-root level. The local community is the first "unit of social life". We must reaffirm the importance of the neighbourhood as a space for intervention and action, and consider that the local and regional levels are very important for anchoring the local policies and inclusive development strategies developed in a participatory manner. All components / stakeholders must play their part in the development of these policies and strategies.

4) African cities and local governments and their development partners should give a firm commitment that inclusion will be a central concern in the post-2015 agenda, and indicators should be developed to ensure the achievement of the objectives in support of the most discriminated against and excluded populations.

5) Inclusion should be the new dimension of governance

To the great satisfaction of panel members and participants, the principle of inclusion was incorporated into the final declaration issued by UCLGA after the summit. In addition, disabled people’s organizations were recognized in the final document, as well as civic associations, youth movements, women movements, professions, and companies.

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