This handbook recounts the assistance provided by GRET from 2012 to 2018 to establish a waste management service in Dolisie, the third largest city in Congo. It describes how a commons-based approach was used to promote shared governance of the service.
In a context of growing urbanisation and weak public authority intervention,GRET’s support successfully forged new bonds of trust between stakeholders and established a dynamic of collective action centred around this service. This proactive approach made it possible to design a waste management service as a common. The handbook takes a look back at the successes and shortcomings of this type of approach, and explores the complexity of building shared governance of a municipal public service in a context of top-down power structures, mistrust of public powers among the local population, and a lack of resources.
Intended for associations, NGOs and donors promoting commons-based initiatives, this document aims to draw useful lessons from Gret’s experience in order to prolong the dynamic established in Dolisie and design and implement similar experimental projects in other contexts.
