Case Study developed by UN Habitat’s Urban Lab.

As an extension of the Great Conakry Regional Plan, the Coyah Neighbourhood Plan main objective at the local level is to build a symbiosis between the projected urban growth of the area as well as its economic development, and the protection of the mangrove and its ecosystem. The Coyah Neighbourhood Plan will be providing urban regulations and a clearly defined zoning supported by an economic feasibility study to reach its objectives. Furthermore, the Neighbourhood Plan will demonstrate how the planning regulations can be implemented step by step in specific areas. By addressing the different areas of governance, environment, economic development, provision of services, among others, the Neighbourhood Plan will allow the localization of many of the objectives of the global agendas such as the 2030 Agenda and its resultant SDGs and the New Urban Agenda.

KEY ACTORS AND PARTNERS

Both The Coyah Neighbourhood Plan and The Great Conakry Regional Plan, are part of the broader project “SANITA – Villes Durables”, funded by the EU and being led by different UN-Habitat Programmes, such as the Regional Office for Africa (ROAf), the Planning, Finance and Economy Section (PFES) -Urban Lab-, the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) and the Policy, Legislation and Governance Section (PLGS), in collaboration with the UN-Habitat National Office in Guinea and the Ministry of Housing and Planning of Guinea.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Background:

The Great Conakry region was given the “Grand Conakry Vision 2040”, funded in the framework of the 11th European Development Fund, which was approved in 2017 by the National Government. This vision is the foundation-stone of both Regional and Neighbourhood Plans as it specifies strategic orientations to reach a future regional equilibrium. The Regional and Neighbourhood Plans are part of the broader project “SANITA – Villes Durables”, funded by the EU and being led by different UN-Habitat programmes such as the Regional Office for Africa (ROAf), the Planning, Finance and Economy Section (PFES), the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) and the Policy, Legislation and Governance Section (PLGS). The planning process of the Great Conakry Regional Plan was officially started in December 2019 during the first National Urban Forum of Guinea. 

Objectives:

The Coyah Neighbourhood Plan falls under The Great Conakry Regional Plan which has two main interlinked objectives:

• Firstly, to rebalance demographic and economic growth in the metropolitan region, which relies on the links between rural and urban areas. To achieve this objective, the Great Conakry Regional Plan will provide each intermediate city with the right level of services taking into consideration economy diversification to ensure a fair level of opportunities for all as well as the retention of the population.

• Secondly, to combat climate change and improve the environmental situation of the region; avoiding further encroachment of natural resources, development in risk areas and the preservation and restoration of ecosystems.

At the local level, the main objective of the Coyah Neighbourhood Plan is to provide a Zoning Plan and Urban Regulations that responds to the following criteria:

• Provide well defined buildable areas that promote controlled urban development which can absorb the projected population growth of the area -residential areas.

• Provide well defined buildable areas that promote controlled urban development which promotes economic development -mixed-use and commercial areas.

• Provide well defined non-buildable areas to promote the protection of the mangrove and its ecosystem.

• Provide an efficient road network that serves the whole neighbourhood and considers the population growth.

• Provide enough public facilities and well distributed spatially to serve the area.

Approach:

The Neighbourhood Plan considers an integrated approach as it is taking into consideration the results of the Great Conakry Regional Plan, the outcomes of the different workshops as well as urban planning, economic and environmental expertise. For the analysis phase, as the available data of the whole region is very poor, UN-Habitat mainly generated all the data through site surveys, desk research and validation workshops with the community. For the project proposal phase -ongoing- following the criteria mentioned above together with the outcomes of the different participatory workshops, a Zoning Plan together with Urban Regulations are under development. Furthermore, an economic feasibility study is being carried out in parallel to provide a better understanding and overview of the implementation of the Neighbourhood Plan.

PROCESS OVERVIEW

Urban Planning Expert deployed to Guinea, Conakry :

The UN-Habitat Urban Lab deployed an Urban Planning Expert to Conakry, UN-Habitat National Office in Guinea, in April 2021 and will stay until the finalization of the project, estimated to be end of June 2022. The main functions of the Urban Planning Expert are liaison with the UN-Habitat Guinea Office, capacity building and data collection.

Site surveys:

Two site surveys have been carried out with a national team led by the deployed Urban Planning Expert to collect as much information as possible of the area. Identification of buildings, construction quality, road network status, pictures, videos…

Participatory Workshops:

Despite the pandemic situation, hybrid and presential sessions have permitted to build the Neighbourhood Plan through an extensive participatory approach. Notably, through various workshops with the participation of representatives from different government scales and sectors, the civil society, and technical experts. Furthermore, various sectoral and strategic meetings were held to gather and validate the information and methodologies used.

Plan development:

The Neighbourhood Plan is being developed by integrating the “Grand Conakry Vision 2040”, the Regional Plan guidelines and projections, all the data collected through site visits and desk research as well as during the participatory workshops.

Funds:

The project is funded by the European Union and developed by the UN-Habitat Urban Lab, in collaboration with the UN-Habitat National Office in Guinea and the Ministry of Housing and Planning of Guinea.

RESULTS

The main results of The Coyah Neighbourhood Plan will be a well-defined Zoning Plan together with Urban Planning Regulations and an economic feasibility study supported with a step-by-step implementation timeline. The implementation of the Coyah Neighbourhood Plan will ensure the protection of the local ecosystem -especially the mangroves- and control the future urban development of the neighbourhood taking into consideration the projected population growth defined by the Conakry Regional Plan. 

The Zoning Plan will delimit spatially the protected areas from the urban areas and the Urban Planning Regulations will guide the future urban development in terms of land coverage, building heights and authorized uses among others. The economic feasibility study will provide an estimation of the overall implementation costs. The project is still underdevelopment so further results will be shared later.

CONCLUSION: THE INTEGRATED APPROACH

From regional planning to local planning for territorial balance and long-term vision

In a context of unbalanced territory where economic diversity and social services are not equally distributed, the Great Conakry Regional Plan intends to redirect the investments to intermediary cities to strengthen the territorial balances and rural-urban linkages while preserving the environment in a long-term horizon. In the specific case of Coyah, the Neighbourhood Plan exemplifies how to implement the Regional Plan at the local level by providing specific urban regulations and a clearly defined zoning plan for the area.

Participation of different government levels and the civil society

The Coyah Neighbourhood Plan it’s being developed through a participatory process with different government representatives together with the civil society. It has also been largely disseminated through the national media to raise awareness of the planning process.  

Capacity building

The technical staff of the National Direction of Territorial and Urban Planning (DATU) took part in field and desk research as well as in the main workshops as moderators.

Working together different UN-Habitat Programmes and Branches

The Neighbourhood Plan is being developed successfully thanks to a strong collaboration between the different UN-Habitat Programmes and Branches involved in the broader SANITA project.