UCLG Africa at the Arab-African Smart City educational congress 

UCLG Africa took part in the 3rd Arab-African Smart City Congress, held from 13 to 15 May 2025 at the Mohammed VI Museum of Water Civilisation in Marrakech. 

This 3rd edition had as guests of honour Cameroon in Africa and Qatar for the Arab countries. 

The meeting was co-organised, under the aegis of the Moroccan government, by the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Prefectural and Provincial Councils  (AMPCPP); the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Communal Councils (AMPCC); the Arab Smart Cities Forum; UCLG Africa and Innovatel, founder of the Arab-African Smart City Congress. 

UCLG Africa participated in this 3rd edition of the Arab-African Congress through Dr. Fatna El Kihel, Mayor of Arbaoua in Morocco, President of REFELA Morocco, and Vice-President of REFELA for North Africa, who represented the President of UCLG Africa, Mrs. Fatimetou Abdel Malick; and through Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General, UCLG Africa. 

This 3rd edition of the conference was attended by Eng. Samira DHAYYAT, Director General of the Arab Towns Organisation and the Arab Smart Cities Forum. 

The conference was organised around six plenary sessions: 

  1. Best practices in smart governance of territories
  2. Intelligent urban mobility for sustainable territorial security
  3. Best practice in telemedicine for smart cities
  4. Telecommunications, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence: levers for the digital transformation of local authorities
  5. Sustainable energy transition for local and regional authorities: energy efficiency and the path towards a green economy.
  6. Sustainable construction, circular economy and rational water management

Workirng sessions  

Under the theme of Smart City governance, attention was drawn to the need for common support and tools to enable dialogue between the various stakeholders at regional level. The production of a common base map shared by all stakeholders to support the geographic information system, as well as protocols for processing the various layers of localised information according to the vision of the common future to which the Smart City approach should contribute. 

Urban mobility is undoubtedly one of the areas where the smart city approach is most immediately promising and producing tangible results. The Smart City approach is changing the way in which mobility infrastructures are planned and managed. It allows innovative solutions to be explored in the organisation and management of logistics and transport systems. It provides an opportunity to create platforms where all the stakeholders in mobility and logistics can come together. It makes it possible to rationalise these relationships between transport professionals and users, with a view to improving access, profitability and satisfaction. It is also one of the sectors of the Smart City that offers the most opportunities for young people to deploy their talents. 

The other sector where Smart solutions are proving to be of great social benefit is telemedicine. Digitalisation in the health sector means that medical services can be extended to those who are currently excluded, particularly people living in rural areas. Access to specialist doctors, who are often concentrated in the main towns, or even in the capital city, becomes possible if the digital infrastructure is available. Positive examples, such as the NABADY social network developed by a Moroccan start-up, offer solutions to patients for making teleconsultation appointments, to healthcare professionals for processing medical records, and to facilitate relations between patients, healthcare professionals and social security services for generating and managing shared electronic care sheets pending authorisation, managing patient consent pending the legal framework, electronic care sheets and automating reimbursements, etc. 

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can make a significant contribution in this area: AI can automate processes; AI can help prevent and predict disease; AI can help adapt telemedicine to local realities by using local voices and languages; and AI can help make telemedicine accessible to all. This is one of the most promising areas for South-South cooperation between local authorities in Arab and African countries, which the Smart City conference should make a reality. 

The issue of data protection and security remains a major challenge. The Cloud solutions favoured date for their ease of use, and which operate mainly from developed countries, nevertheless raise the issue of digital sovereignty and the creation of data centres and Cloud solutions on the continent. This is an area of research that calls out to decision-makers at national level, the world of universities and research, and economic operators in the public and private sectors. 

The energy transition is also a sector in which the Smart City can make significant progress in terms of energy efficiency, reducing consumption and managing the balance between energy supply and demand according to different uses and demands.  

At the heart of the Smart City lies the issue of the city’s relationship with its natural environment, and in particular its dependence on the water cycle. There can be no smart city without questioning its place in the circular economy in order to reduce its ecological footprint.