On 6 and 7 November 2019, GRET participated in the conference entitled “Sustainable cities: the challenges and opportunities of waste management and urban mobility in Accra”. Organised by the French Embassy in Ghana and the Accra Metropolitan District, the objective of the conference was to ascertain the issues and challenges faced by the Ghanaian capital, and to open up prospects via discussions and sharing of experience. The conference brought together almost 250 participants, including the French Ambassador in Ghana, Anne-Sophie Avé, and the Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah.
The subjects covered during the conference will be attentively further discussed at the Africa-France Summit in June 2020 in Bordeaux, France. They will also be at the heart of future decentralised cooperation between the mayors of Paris and Accra.
In light of this, GRET’s expertise in the area of waste management and inclusion of informal operators was highlighted with the presentation on the Filipa project in the Republic of Congo, aimed at better integration of informal household waste pre-collection operators by the municipality of Brazzaville.
The presentation on this action conducted by GRET was well received. In Accra, although management of the service was delegated to private companies, there are a multitude of small informal operators providing similar or complementary services, also contributing to increasing the service’s level of coverage and improving cleanliness in the city. So, the adoption of measures aimed at greater recognition and integration of informal operators, as tested by GRET in Brazzaville, could also be a solution to improve their working conditions and urban cleanliness.
