UCLG Africa facilitates the International Masterclass of the Municipal Development Agency (ADM) of Senegal in Morocco 

From 17 to 22 February 2025, the delegation led by Dr. Mamouth DIOP, Director General of the Municipal Development Agency (ADM), and Mr. Oumar BA, President of the Association of Mayors of Senegal (AMS), took part in the international training and benchmarking Masterclass ‘Climate-oriented Territorial Coaching’ in Morocco. The delegation was made up of 4 mayors and 16 executives from “𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞 𝐝’𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐮𝐢 𝐚𝐮𝐱 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐦𝐞́𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐝𝐮 𝐒𝐞́𝐧𝐞́𝐠𝐚𝐥 (𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐍)”.   

The participants benefited from theoretical training at the National Institute of Planning and Urbanism (INAU) in Rabat and visits to sites and institutions. The delegation was welcomed on Monday 17 February by the Secretary General of UCLG Africa, Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, at the organisation’s headquarters. 

The stakeholders stressed the urgent need to equip African local authorities in the fight against climate change. Capitalising on the Territorial Coaching approach, combining the South/South cooperation format, constitutes a strategic innovation for Senegalese local authorities, which aim to help local authorities to better understand how to integrate climate issues into territorial planning and management as part of the climate-oriented PACASEN (2025-2026). 

The ADM judged the programme developed jointly by CGLUAfrique, through its African Academy of Local Authorities (ALGA) and its Territorial Coaching Programme, and the National Institute of Urban Planning and Development (INAU) to be ‘in line with the government’s policy guidelines’.   

The different themes and the various benchmarking visits enabled the participants to appropriate the Territorial Coaching approach to dealing with climate change. ‘In addition to understanding the concepts and tools of Territorial Coaching, as well as the challenges of sustainable development and climate change, the teaching received and the pedagogical interactions enabled the various participants to develop their professional skills,’ emphasised Dr. Mamouth Diop. ‘The aim was also to develop adaptation and mitigation strategies and projects. In addition, local authorities will be able to draw up integrated territorial climate plans and, above all, mobilise funding for green projects’, he added.   

‘This Masterclass is extremely important at a time when Africans and the whole world are subject to the vagaries of climate change, but at the same time are in crisis with the decentralisation movement. UCLG Africa, together with Echos Communication, the Oriental Agency and the Oriental Regional Council, has come up with the territorial coaching approach. This approach has been applied with remarkable success in the Oriental region and has inspired cooperation between this region and the department of Kaolack. It is this approach that we want to spread, based on the successful experience of advanced regionalisation in Morocco. I think all this shows that His Majesty Mohammed VI, may God help him, has made the right choice in favour of strengthening inter-African relations, particularly at the level of local authorities’, explained Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi.   

At the end of the practical session, a feeling of satisfaction was noted. “We congratulate the DG of ADM and encourage him to persevere in this direction. This wonderful initiative is proof enough of his commitment to implementing government policy to achieve the objectives of the ‘Senegal 2050’ plan’, said Fatou Sène Diouf, Mayor of Kahone.   

As a reminder, this Masterclass was based on an interactive and participative teaching approach, encouraging peer learning, the exchange of experience and the practical application of knowledge. Over the course of six days, the students visited : UCLG Africa, the Senegalese Embassy in Morocco, the Prefectural Council of Skhirate-Témara, the Oum Azza Waste Recovery Centre, the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Communal Councils (AMPCC), the Communal Council of the City of Rabat, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC), the Constitutional Institution for Good Governance, The Communal Equipment Fund (FEC) , the Agency for Agricultural Development (ADA), the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Regional Council, the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion (CDG), the City of Tangiers and the City of Tétouan. 

Interviews  (Available in french here)  

Watch the video interviews with :   

-Dr Mamouth DIOP, Director General of the Municipal Development Agency (ADM)  

-Ms Yacine TINE, Director of the Regional Development Agency – ARD Dakar  

-M. Abdou SANÈ, Deputy Mayor of Ziguinchor in the Casamance region  

-Mrs Fatou SÈNE, Mayor of Kahone in the Kaolack Department   

-Mr Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of UCLG Africa 

Best-of video   

The summary video of the Masterclass is available below.   

 

Do not hesitate to contact UCLG Africa to take advantage of this service.