Planet Earth’s ecosystems are under threat, and one of the reasons for this is unsustainable levels of production and consumption. “Unless greenhouse gas emissions fall dramatically, warming could pass 2.9°C this century,” warns the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)[1]. Cities are a significant contributor, accounting for 70 % of CO2 emissions[2].Additionally, FAO (the UN Food and Agriculture Organization) estimates that by 2050, 68 % of the world’s population will be urban[3] and 70 % [4] of food will be consumed in cities.
Case in point: like all cities in West Africa, the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, has been experiencing rising temperatures for more than ten years[5], and the degradation of the natural environment due to human activity is making life in the capital increasingly difficult, especially for the poorest. The original flora of the city is also diminishing in diversity and quantity.
Today, pressure on land in Ouagadougou is increasing due to the city’s accelerated urbanisation. Areas for urban and peri-urban agriculture are becoming scarce. “Production issues are always acute,” says Assami Tiendrebeogo, first vice president of the Special Delegation of the Commune of Ouagadougou. For example, “it is essential to ensure that urban populations receive healthy and safe food while respecting the natural balance of ecosystems.”
In 2018, the municipality joined the Milan Pact[6], and in 2022, the Glasgow Declaration on Food and Climate[7]. In item 1 of the Milan Pact, which was launched in 2015, signatories commit to developing sustainable food systems that preserve biodiversity and adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change.
Similarly, in point 15 of the Glasgow Declaration, city authorities commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from urban and regional food systems and to building sustainable food systems as ecosystems rebuild while providing safe, healthy, sustainable and accessible food for all people in the city and beyond.
This means that the Ouagadougou City Council is demonstrating its commitment to a “sustainable and healthy food” approach and to promoting this approach on their territory. With this is mind, the municipality is experimenting on the green belt, a space designed to provide protection from the Harmattan winds, the sun and very high temperatures.
The green belt was demarcated in 1976 with several goals: first, to halt the erosion caused by natural phenomena and protect water resources from siltation and sedimentation[8], and second, to provide energy – biomass, the main source of energy used in the city at that time – and food for the city’s households. Over the years, this space, created with the aim of becoming a green lung, has been occupied for activities unrelated to oxygenation.
In recent years[9], initiatives have been developed to reforest the area. After a series of reforestation efforts, the city council installed women in the space, initially as collectors, to look after the trees. In return, the municipality and its partners have developed plots of land to produce vegetables for the local market. Of this area of more than 1100 ha, 40 ha has already been developed for agroforestry, 4750 trees have been planted and the development of 230ha for reforestation and market gardening is continuing.
However, watering the trees and growing vegetables in this green space is not without difficulties. “Despite the presence of functioning boreholes, the flow of water remains too low for intensive production,” says Ms Sophie Sedogo, née Hema, on behalf of the women, members of her association La Saisonnière. She is the president of the association, which farms on the green belt. In view of this, a large part of the land is occupied by people who carry out activities that are incompatible with sustainable production. This is not to mention the pollution caused by household waste dumped on some of the land.
Rikolto is supporting the municipality in the project to redevelop the green belt. “Our aim is to support the municipality in its aim of regreening the city and to make the green belt a vegetable supply area for the city,” says Pazism-Néouindé Bernadette Ouattara, née Wininga from Rikolto in West Africa.
“We are working with them to develop a profitable landscape business model for producers who contribute to the re-greening of the city and its vegetable supply. Regarding re-greening, Rikolto’s aim is to support the city in integrating useful and/or endangered species to be planted. As for the market gardeners in the green belt, our ambition is to support them in the transition to agroecology and access to more remunerative markets.”
Within this dynamic, and in collaboration with the Béo-nèere Agroecology Association and La Saisonnière, Rikolto is providing training in agro-ecological and agroforestry practices to members of the Federation of Nurserymen and Market Gardeners of Burkina Faso.
“We need agroecological practices to recover our land, the environment and even our people. We must practice agroecology to try to save everything that is life,” confirms Souleymane Belemgnegre, President of the Béo-nèereAgroecology Association.
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In particular, training in conservation techniques and agroecology has been carried out with the association. For instance, to enable the producers to enter into inclusive contracts, we have also provided training to help them improve their organisational and entrepreneurial skills.
The farmers have also received training in negotiation, sales and marketing techniques.
Rikolto also works with La Saisonnière to assess production sites in the green belt. For example, in 2023, Rikolto supported the association in making an assessment and baseline survey of the market gardeners working on the green belt. More than a hundred market gardeners and nurserymen working on the green belt have been trained in agro-ecological practices and the production of bio-inputs.
In addition, Rikolto seeks to assist the municipality in better coordinating the investments of the various actors involved in the restoration of the green belt.
Building on these efforts, Rikolto is working with the municipality to facilitate a multi-stakeholder process for better coordination of development actions and to support urban agriculture in the green belt.
This approach is based on the concept of a multi-stakeholder process (MSP), “a process of interactive learning, empowerment and participatory governance that enables stakeholders with interconnected problems and ambitions, but often divergent interests, to be collectively innovative and resilient in the face of emerging risks, crises and opportunities in a complex and changing environment”.
On 13 and 14 December 2023, the municipality of Ouagadougou, with support from Rikolto, launched a multi-stakeholder dialogue with nearly seventy representatives from forty-three structures operating in the Ouagadougou green belt.
The two-day dialogue allowed the participants to formulate a vision for the green belt:
“By 2040, the green belt will be a well-developed agroecological benchmark in accordance with its vocation, a source of sustainable production of healthy, nutritious food and local endangered species, capable of contributing to food sovereignty, a site providing green jobs for women, young people and other vulnerable groups in the municipality of Ouagadougou.”
This result of the multi-stakeholder dialogue was presented by the municipal authorities of Ouagadougou to national decision-makers, and it was incorporated into their Global and Strategic Vision for the Ouagadougou green belt.
“We are going to use the results of the reflections of this workshop to put together a roadmap for the future with a view to supporting the municipality in its actions,” explains Bernadette. “All stakeholders are waiting for this roadmap to improve their collaboration and their impact on the Ouagadougou green belt.”
A first meeting has already been organised to discuss a first draft of the criteria for selecting the farmers (old and new) who will be installed after the developments, the areas to be allocated to them and the terms of reference that they will respect. The municipality has already issued a decree setting up a committee to monitor developments in the green belt. Rikolto is part of this committee as an observer.
[1] https://www.unep.org/topics/climate-action
[2]https://www.unep.org/events/summit/unea-6-cities-and-regions-summit
[3]https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/Five-ways-to-make-cities-healthier-and-more-sustainable/en
[4] https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/expert_paper/How_to_Feed_the_World_in_2050.pdfP.2
[5]https://www.meteoblue.com/fr/climate-change/ouagadougou_burkina-faso_2357048#:~:text=Changement%20annuel%20de%20precipitation%20%2D%20Ouagadougou&text=r%C3%A9gion%20de%20Ouagadougou.-,La%20ligne%20bleue%20en%20pointill%C3%A9s%20repr%C3%A9sente%20la%20tendance%20lin%C3%A9aire%20du,en%20raison%20du%20changement%20climatique.
[6] https://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Milan-Urban-Food-Policy-Pact-and-Framework-for-Action_FR.pdf
[7] https://fr.glasgowdeclaration.org/_files/ugd/fef8dc_ed1c9362cc7748e3bf12bd1a0542529f.pdf
[8] https://www.sidwaya.info/ceinture-verte-de-ouagadougou-vivement-un-deguerpissement-des-occupants-illegaux/
[9] https://www.sidwaya.info/ceinture-verte-de-ouagadougou-vivement-un-deguerpissement-des-occupants-illegaux/
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