Khadidiatou Diop Diouf: The one who deploys Territorial Coaching in the Golf Sud Commune
Elected a year ago to head the Commune of Golf Sud (Guédiawaye, Senegal), Khadidiatou Diop Diouf is a young and dynamic mayor. Having taken office on February 11, 2022, the local mayor fell under the spell of the Territorial Coaching approach in May of the same year.
Indeed, during her participation in the 9th edition of the Africities Summit in Kisumu, Kenya, Mrs. Diop discovered this approach initiated by UCLG Africa in 2013 in the Oriental region of Morocco, as a pilot region.
Since the 9th Africities Summit, the municipal council of the Golf Sud relies on Territorial Coaching to implement the commune’s development projects. The mayor also justifies this choice by its effectiveness in implementing participatory management. “I believe in territories and participatory democracy. I think that the territories would benefit from better involving the populations, and more importantly from making all the actors adhere to the community projects. As a young elected official, my objective was to federate all the energies around our vision and also to allow the blossoming of all the talents in the commune of Golf Sud. This approach of Territorial Coaching came at the right time at the beginning of my mandate, through my meeting with the coach Abdoulaye Diarra in Kisumu, in May 2022 during the Africities 9 Summit. This approach of Territorial Coaching allows me to implement citizen participation and allows me to federate all the actors of my municipality around it and to make them actors who carry the project and not actors who watch the project evolve alone,” explains Khadidiatou Diop Diouf.
After eight months of implementation, this approach has been successful for the commune. On October 17, 2022, as part of a benchmarking mission on the Territorial Coaching approach applied in the elaboration of the Communal Development Plan covering the five-year period 2022 – 2027 (CDP) of the Golf Sud Commune, Mrs. Mayor Khadidiatou Diop Diouf and Mr. Raymond Diégane Ndong, President of the CDP Steering Committee, welcomed the Territorial Coach from Burundi, Mrs. Lynca Pacis Mugisha and the Territorial Coach from Mali, Mr. Boubacar Dramane Traoré. The guests took part in the information workshop that the PDC technical committee conducted with the neighborhood delegates of the Commune of Golf Sud for a better involvement of the latter in the process and the facilitation of the diagnostic phase with the mobilization of actors in the neighborhoods. On January 18, 2023, the first Territorial Coaching facilitators of the commune presented their internship report. Indeed, after a remarkable journey of the beneficiaries of the Territorial Coaching Animator Program, a day of restitution of their practical internship on the 6 themes (Health and Social Action, Local Culture, Local Economy, Education, Mapping of CBOs and Sanitation – Development – Security) was carried out on January 17, 2023. The internship reports were presented on January 18, 2023 to a Jury composed of. Mr. Lamine Diop, Special Advisor to the Mayor in charge of Administration and Finance, Mrs. Mame Venus Kinè Dieng, Deputy Mayor, Mr. Ibrahima Diop, Special Advisor to the Mayor in charge of Programs and Projects, Mrs. Kiné Diop, Deputy Mayor, Mr. Mandiaye Ndiaye, President of the Decentralized Cooperation Commission and Coordinator of the 20 Commune Commissions, and Mr. Pape Mesta Anne, Certified Territorial Coach. The day was marked by the presence of the Mayor of the Golf Sud commune, Mrs. Khadidiatou Diop Diouf, her Chief of Staff, Mr. Alioune Diack, and her Chief of Protocol, Mr. Pape Samba DIOP.
“Coaching has brought a mass adhesion to our vision, a popular appropriation. It allowed us to know the economic dynamics of our community, the different sectors on which we are called to be mayor: the local economy, culture, youth, the problems and dynamics of women and all the issues we face in terms of organization in the neighborhoods. Thanks to Territorial Coaching and the facilitators that we have in our territories, we can now think of an inclusive communal development plan. We hope to inspire our sister communes,” explains the mayor.
Ms. Khadidiatou Diop Diouf holds a master’s degree in industrial management.