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During my internship at IPCo, my project ‘Accessible Colima’ focused on understanding accessibility in Colima’s public spaces, predominantly for people with disabilities. Colima, like many cities, lacks accessible infrastructure limiting inclusivity in the city and reducing mobility for many individuals.

One aspect of the project included understanding the perception of accessibility, disability and universal design in Colima. I developed an interactive public event to be held in various public gardens throughout the historic city centre. Armed with only a box of coloured chalk, myself and, a local architecture student interning at IPCo, headed off to gardens in Colima to attempt to better understand how accessibility, disability, and universal design are perceived. Participants of all ages were encouraged to complete a phrase written on cement in the gardens using sidewalk chalk.

Phrases included:

• A disability is not “___”
• For me, accessibility in the city is “___”
• A space with universal design has  “___”
• A person with a disability I know is  “___”
• Universal design is  “___”
  

  Disability is not "___"

Almost 200 children, youth and adults participated, including the current mayor, Ignacio Peralta Sánchez. Though this process, a number of conclusions were established:

1. Participants of all ages see the need for accessible public spaces in Colima. Approximately 97% of people surveyed through an informal chalk tally believed that Colima needs gardens and parks that everyone can enjoy.

2. Generally, participants perceived people with disabilities in a positive light. Responses to the phrase a disability is not… included: a disability is not… “a reason to make fun”, a disability is not… “an impediment to achieve your dreams”, a disability is not… “a means to feel worse about yourself”, a disability is not… “a reason to not live”. At the same time, however, there were still a small number of negative responses that demonstrates the ongoing need for programming that promotes an inclusive and accessible city regardless of an individual’s physical or mental disabilities.

3. The term ‘universal design’ was a virtually unknown concept for participants. As it is a technical term this is understandable, however when I explained what universal design or accessible infrastructure entailed and then ask participants for an example of infrastructure that could be implemented in Colima’s public spaces, almost all of the participants said, ‘ramps’. This is not surprising as ramps are already a staple on street corners throughout the city. Apart from ramps however, it was difficult for participants to think of another piece of infrastructure or design technique that would enhance accessibility in public spaces.

So what does this mean for Colima? Participants recognize the importance of inclusive and accessible spaces in Colima, but many do not understand what infrastructure is needed to create these spaces.

During the next phase of Accessible Colima, Alejandra Perdomo, one of the new Sustainable Cities interns, will be hosting visionary workshops that will engage youth and people with disabilities to imagine an accessible future for Colima’s public spaces.

My hope is that one aspect of the workshops will be an educational component, allowing participants to better understand universal design and its guiding principles. Some would argue that this is not true public participation, as IPCo is attempting to educate participants to see things in a certain light. I believe, however, that participants who fully understand the concepts of accessibility and universal design will be able to create a more holistic vision for an accessible Colima that extends beyond constructing ramps and includes individuals with all types of physical and mental disabilities.

With this deeper understanding of the perception of accessibility, disability, and universal design, IPCo can begin to develop a strategy for increasing accessibility in Colima’s public spaces.

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As a fully licensed, (almost) accident free, nine-years-experienced Canadian driver, the rules of the road in Dakar remain a mystery to me.

By all accounts, this dusty West African city has been without functioning traffic lights for the past ten years, attributable to a combination of frequent electricity outages, lack of maintenance by the City, and traffic lights as the unfortunate target of political demonstrations against the government. In the result, encounters on the road often seem to involve a dangerous game of vehicular chicken, where rights of way are unclear or ignored and the ‘winner’ is the one who brakes last. Add to this a rapidly-expanding population, infamous traffic jams, open and overflowing sewers, sandy streets, fickle electricity, packed busses, haphazard construction jobs, billowing clouds of smog, and garbage, garbage, everywhere, and you get the capital of Senegal.

I love it. While it is nothing like my uber-clean West Coast Canadian hometown, every day in Dakar is a study in stimulation and sensory overload. Taking public transportation, where you’ll often find yourself packed in like sardines and lurching along pot-holed streets while baking in 35+ºC heat, is one of the most invigorating experiences my sheltered North American life has known. The region’s population continues to grow as people flock to the city from the countryside – adding more stress to already-stretched infrastructure, services, and resources, not to mention more challenges for the City’s urban planning department. I have been working in that department for the past six months, learning about how urban planning happens (or doesn’t) at the municipal level in Dakar. And I have been fascinated by how traffic is regulated (or isn’t) in this city.

Traffic regulation and attitudes have, I can only assume, been adapted to accommodate for the absence of working traffic lights. In 2010, Dakar’s new Mayor started a nominally compensated “volunteer” program for five hundred unemployed Dakarois youth, aimed at getting them off the streets and working on projects for the City. One such project is directing traffic at lightless intersections, a role which is shared with the national police force. This system does work effectively, but only under the following two important conditions: a) volunteers or police are actually stationed at intersections, and b) they at least attempt to direct traffic, rather than simply observing the relative insanity all around them. Unfortunately, the ideal combination of these conditions is not consistently met. And so ensues the thrilling ‘game’ of vehicular chicken.

In the context of a project funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the City is working to create an automated, centrally managed traffic lights system, the on-site side of which involves re-erecting traffic lights throughout the city. For the past few months traffic lights, complete with pedestrian signals, have been appearing on street corners, but few save those in the downtown core are as yet functional. The inner skeptic in me thought these lights might have little impact on traffic flows in Dakar, unfamiliar as they are in this city and easily swallowed up in the cacophony of sights and sounds that dominate here. My inner skeptic was fabulously wrong. In my limited experience with the downtown’s functional traffic lights, they are being respected by drivers, and I watch in eager anticipation as the network expands into other neighbourhoods.

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There are so many obstacles to true participatory planning, and even more in trying to transfer decision-making to the communities and groups you are working with. It’s difficult to make sure you don’t try and influence the decisions, especially when they see your role as the “expert”. This is especially the case working here in the Philippines where it’s often thought that I am the one who must have the amazing solutions since I’ve come all the way from frigid Montreal to help this coastal town with their solid waste management.

Another question that comes up is how one can ensure that the decisions made by the community don’t perpetuate the marginalization of certain groups. In creating a Barangay Solid Waste Management Committee the community members didn’t include informal waste workers, usually poor people who go around house to house buying recyclables. In a stakeholder analysis workshop I suggested we include them in the committee. They cried out “why would we include them in our committee? We want them gone!” At that moment, I couldn’t explain any further why it would be important to include the waste workers (they call them scavengers). It is also obvious it wouldn’t take 5 minutes to change their minds.

In a real participatory approach, I wouldn’t be standing in front of them telling them they need to include scavengers. Leaning towards the principles of popular education, I would be helping them to explore the way in which marginalization occurs in our society. Maybe I’d help them explore how social injustices are caused by prejudice and discrimination. They need to come to that conclusion using their own reasoning and their own experience. That way, they will own their own thoughts on the matter.

Government institutions are not exactly bowing to our efforts in participatory planning. In a culture used to having to provide the answers and policies to address problems, it’s not easy to make them ease up a bit and let the people take a bit of responsibility in the policy arena. Even citizens maybe confused as to why they are being asked to help in this process – didn’t they elect the politicians to do the job?

It’s important to make sure that a government institution understands that they don’t hold the expertise in addressing problems – rather they are mainly experts in knowing the level of bureaucracy and red tape that needs to be sliced through in order to get things done. It’s the citizens who, in living their everyday lives immersed in whatever problems they perceive to be in the community, who have a fuller understanding of what’s going on. Even further, it’s when you get several members of the community who are all each living a different reality of that problem together that real analysis can occur. In sharing stories and experiences they can help themselves realize all the angles and realities of the issue. Only then can effective solutions be created to tackle the problem. We are not here to tell them what to do, rather we are only here to get them together and realize they are the best people to create the solution. Now if only we can convince those at the top…

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Sustainable Cities International funds demonstration projects around the world through partner organizations. The Learning for Life – Recreation for Girls demo project is based at the Amaoti 3 school located in the Amaoti informal settlement just outside of Durban. The project is managed by Indlela, a non-profit organization based in North Durban. The Recreation for Girls project hosts an after school programme including netball, aerobics, motivational talks and life skills lessons for groups of girls in grades 7, 8 and 9.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss the project with 6 of the girls involved. All the girls spoke up and all were enthusiastic about the club. They were very outgoing, confident, and seemed to be genuinely happy to be involved with the girls recreation club. They placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that they were learning about building self-confidence and accepting their bodies, as well as, their enjoyment of the aerobics classes and the ‘music that gets you moving’.

The poverty in Amaoti cannot be ignored and there are significant safety concerns as the rates of crime and sexual violence are high. This makes the recreation club all the more important since it provides a safe place for girls to spend time after school. Many of the girls are expected to cook, clean and perform other household chores daily. Some of the girls mentioned that aside from school they were rarely allowed out of the house (this is likely due to their parents’ legitimate safety concerns). The girls recreation club gives them a space to play and have fun.

It was a pleasure to meet such confident and enthusiastic young women. The potential to expand to other schools is limited due to a lack of resources. However, Indlela has seen the potential for such projects and is strategizing on how they can sustain the programme at Amaoti 3 beyond the funding period.

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When I arrived in Colima I was aware that the focus of my position would be on urban mobility; I didn’t know what urban mobility looked like in Colima or what kind of alternative transportation infrastructure and culture existed.  I soon discovered that the metropolitan zone of Colima consists of five municipalities: Colima, Villa de Álvarez, Comala, Coquitmatlán, and Cuauhtemoc with a total number of 334,240 inhabitants. Taxis are abundant, inexpensive and considered public transportation; there are bus routes that link the five municipalities that are cheap but not particularly reliable, and finally, 9km of painted bike lanes. On the world stage, the metropolitan zone of Colima is in third place behind Los Angeles and London for the number of automobiles per 1000 inhabitants with 385, even higher than Mexico City. That being said, congestion is an epidemic and car culture is ever-present in Colima and we can leave that to several explanations. Alternative transportation (buses, bicycling, walking) is quietly stigmatized and not taken seriously. Despite the not-so-visible culture of alternative transportation, it does exist and is propelled by different social groups.

My role is to take the culture that exists and promote it. Build upon it. Circulate it.

Mapping Your Route: Youth identify their trajectories and the modes of transportation they use between home and school.

My principal project is to design and deliver an urban mobility curriculum to grade six students in three primary schools in the historical downtown. This ‘curriculum’ is a mini 6-session program that makes an effort to understand children’s perceptions around transportation, collect data on the obstacles they face in moving around their city, self-reflection on transportation issues and creating their visions of urban mobility in Colima. Why children? They are one of the most vulnerable groups and are unlikely to move autonomously around the city. The objective is to stimulate their thinking around transportation issues while they are young and can make choices pertaining to their transportation options while challenging stigma. Currently, I have two sessions of the program left in each class and I have learned a great deal about effectively engaging youth. Let me share a few tips that I think will be helpful in all types of youth engagement:

1. Practice makes perfect: Usually the first workshop is the least predictable; you can plan a workshop to the second but you never know how the children are going to interpret the activity or what questions will be raised, by the fourth workshop on the same topic, you’ll notice that the format has changed a bit and you’ll deliver it like a pro.

2. Be adaptable: Allow for the order of activities to be changed, permit more time for some activities and less for others. Be aware that depending on the group of youth, especially in classrooms, different people are accustomed to different teaching methods and it’s good to make note of this as you get to know the children you’re working with and utilize these methods.

3. Speak their language:One of the principal challenges I have faced is communicating with youth in a foreign language. I’m not a teacher but when it comes to this project sometimes I am and attempting to engage 11-year olds while keeping them inline has been exhausting! The best success I’ve had is to have a local colleague accompany me to help me maintain the kids’ attention.

“I go to school...on the bus.” Children draw how they get to school and make a pictograph to observe how many of their colleagues use each mode of transportation.

4. Be patient: Kids have A LOT of energy! If a few become distracted, no big deal, take some time to engage them one-on-one. Help them out because perhaps they’re stuck and need some extra attention. It’s okay if they get a little bit loud – sometimes they’re debating the issues!

5.  Play games: Probably the most important lesson I’ve learned is to start the workshop off with a game. Games or icebreakers are essential to burning off a little bit of that extra energy and quickly get the kids engaged. If you can create an easy game that is relevant to the workshop, great, but if not, just about any icebreaker can be modified to be applicable to the topic.

6. Learn names: If possible, learn the names of the youth participating. My biggest mistake was not paying enough attention to this until a few weeks in. Try and make an effort right away; the participants will have more respect for you when you call them by name and this goes a long way.

Students share road safety tips so that passengers, drivers, cyclists and pedestrians can move around the city in harmony.

I’ve been really impressed with a lot of the opinions and ideas that these youth bring to the table when we’re talking about urban mobility in Colima. After the program wraps up, I’ll analyze and report on the information and visions of their mobility that they have provided through the workshops. Hopefully the next step will be to revise the curriculum to make it more effective and scale-up this pilot project to include more schools and more youth and expand the conversation around children’s urban mobility in Colima.

As part of the Youth-Led Development Project in Campbell River, a local artist and graphic facilitator (Jill Banting) created this visual representation of the Youth Action Committee’s vision for their city.

Since the kick off weekend workshop in October, the CR YAC has been meeting every two weeks to refine a Youth Charter for a Sustainable Campbell River, integrating feedback from their peers, and to provide project specific input for municipal department managers.

Issues identified by youth during the weekend workshop have been integrated as policy statements within the Campbell River Sustainable Official Community Plan and Sustainable Cities continues to develop a youth engagement strategy for the City, which will be completed in spring 2012.

It is great to see another Network city tapping into the energy and enthusiasm of young people to further their sustainability objectives!

Stay tuned for further updates…

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A few months ago at a tourism exhibition I attended as part of promoting DarTourism (a destination marketing organization that promotes Dar es Salaam as a Tourist destination), an older ex-patriot gentleman approached our booth and asked me “ What is so appealing about sitting in traffic all day?” At the time I answered that every city has its problems and that Dar es Salaam had much more to offer than meets the eye, but after giving some thought to this, I realized that this negative impression of the city is something that would need to change in order to convince people that Dar es Salaam is a worthy tourist destination.

Imagining a Dar es Salaam without the dreaded traffic that the city is associated with may seem like wishful thinking, but on November 26th, 2011, The First Dar es Salaam Pedestrian Festival became a reality in a small section of the city center. One side of Lumumba Street (adjacent to the popular Mnazi Mmoja grounds) was shut down to cars and opened to pedestrians and other forms of non-motorized transportation. Pedestrians and operators of motorized vehicles alike were surprised and intrigued by the concept.

Karimah Gheddai. SCI Youth Intern, at the First Dar es Salaam pedestrian Street Festival

Previous SCI Intern Ryan Whitney first initiated the idea for the First Dar es Salaam Pedestrian Festival back in 2010. The festival that took place this year was implemented in partnership with DarTourism, The Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) and the One Stop Youth center. The event was also made possible through financial contributions from DarTourism, The French and Danish Embassies, New Africa Hotel, Coastal Aviation, Afriroots, and the Kesho Trust.

The main objective of the festival was to provide temporary public space that was free of traffic and safe for the community to use at their leisure. The event also served to promote tourism in the city of Dar es Salaam through the celebration of local culture, as well as provide an income-generating opportunity for local vendors, artists and performers. Additionally, the event brought together numerous stakeholders who share similar convictions about pedestrianization and public spaces in Dar es Salaam.

The day began with an official ribbon cutting ceremony and an “Opening Walk”, which was attended by the Mayor of Illala Municipality Mr. Jerry Slaa, the City director Mr. Bakari Kingobe and representatives from DarTourism and the Danish Embassy. The opening walk was accompanied by a performance from the exceptionally talented Jembe group. It was a pleasant sight to see such an n enthusiastic group of people walking down what is normally a busy street over-crowded by motorized vehicles.

Other performances featured a local traditional dance group known as AMKA Productions; an acrobatics group from the Kigamboni area; as well as the Afrikats of the well-known Tanzania House of Talent (THT), who performed modern and local dances as well as an entertaining play on issues related to pedestrianization and public space in Dar es Salaam. This play was appropriately titled “Space” and was the springboard for a discussion amongst festival goers on issues faced by pedestrians in Dar es Salaam.

The festival also included a special artist exhibition by two groups of Painting Artists, 16Sanaa and the Shamba boys who both created special works of art based on the themes of pedestrianization and public space. Sir Alora of the 16Sanaa group created a remarkable painting piece that truly embodied the day.

Additionally, there were a number of vendors who attended the festival to promote their products and services. These included Wonder Welders (a group of polio victims who create jewellery and art using recycled products) and Afriroots (a tour company that offers cycling and walking tours of the city), Some of the groups were also organizations that have worked closely with Sustainable Cities in Dar es Salaam. These are Investours (an organization offering microfinance tours (the festival included woodcarvers who have been part of their loan program)), and Fasta Cycle messengers (a messenger service delivering parcels by cycling). Many of the groups that took part in the festival have created unique income generating opportunities for locals in the city and all embody the spirit of the pedestrian festival. It is hoped that with future festivals we will be able to identify more groups around the city that are involved in income generating projects and provide them with a space to sell their goods.

In conclusion, the First Dar es Salaam Pedestrian Festival was a great success and based on the positive responses of those who participated, efforts will be taken to ensure that the event becomes a regular occurrence so that tourists and locals alike can see that there is much more to Dar es Salaam than sitting in traffic all day. If you would like to find out more about this year’s festival you can take a look at the festival’s website at http://darpedestrianfestival.yolasite.com/

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The circus has arrived in town. Several blocks of downtown Durban have been transformed to accommodate the estimated 20,000 visitors. The UNFCCC negotiations, which attempt to create an international response to climate change, are notoriously slow paced and expectations for this conference were low from the outset. The hope is that the Kyoto Protocol would not die at this conference, as the first five-year commitment period is set to expire in 2012. However, it seems unlikely that this will be achieved.

It is not particularly inspiring to be a Canadian during these international climate talks. While the discussions are challenged for multiple reasons, Canada is seen as a roadblock that is uncommitted to progressing negotiations. This article gives quite a good idea of the Canadian approach. Having had the opportunity to travel, I can honestly say this is the first time I have had people react negatively on hearing I’m Canadian. I’m not certain that Canadians at home understand the degree to which our international reputation is being tarnished. It’s been a shock for me to discover.

That being said, fortunately there are a lot of interesting things happening in and around the conference at the local level. Imagine Durban partnered with the Institute of Democracy in Africa (IDASA) to host a two-day conference called Africans Dealing with Climate Change: Citizens Approach to COP17. The event was well attended, including many youth and civil society members from throughout the continent. The conference closed by developing a list of recommendations based on the discussions and suggestions from the participants, which were then given to Honourable Cyprian Awudu Mbaya of Cameroon who agreed to take the recommendations to the negotiations.

Another promising local event came from Asiye eTafuleni, a local NGO which is implementing an Imagine Durban demo project funded through Sustainable Cities International, who held a public event to showcase their work. Asiye eTafuleni works with informal recyclers in the inner city. They do this by designing carts to ease the collection of recyclables, giving recyclers uniforms to improve their presentation, and running a Friends of the Recyclers Program which aims to improve the relationship between the recyclers and local businesses. The project has been successful in increasing the recyclers’ weekly income, improving co-operation among recyclers, and lifting their ability to interact with other members of the public. At the event, the recyclers were able to meet with other recyclers from India and Brazil who had come to the conference with their own supporting NGOs. Recyclers discussed issues such as managing illegal metal scavenging, group organization, and the various price differences for recyclable materials. These events build the pride for their work and allow them to gain a broad scope for how their work contributes to waste management.

Finally, the talks have also motivated the Municipality to invest in various green initiatives like bike lanes that will ultimately improve the livability of the city.

Personally, I question the effectiveness and cost of the COP process. However, it’s difficult to deny that the conference facilitates the convergence and networking of passionate people. I suspect that this is where the real gains are made even though they will not be mentioned in the public statement on December 10th.

One of the flagship climate change response projects on show by the city of Durban during COP17 is the Buffelsdraai Landfill Site Community Reforestation Project. This project has been selected by the United Nations as one of ten lighthouse projects in developing countries that demonstrates a commitment to helping the world to become more climate resilient but at the same time improve lives. This project is an initiative by eThekwini Municipality’s Durban Solid Waste, and Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department (EPCPD) as well as a local NPO, the Wildlands Conservation Trust.

The project involves the reforestation of the buffer zone of the Buffelsdraai landfill site and the improvement of community livelihoods in the area through a tree propagation programme. Indigenous trees are planted in the buffer zone to replace sugarcane fields and invasive alien plants, and grasslands and wetlands in the area are being rehabilitated. Since October 2008, 250 000 trees have been planted in the buffer zone contributing to the restoration of biodiversity in the area and providing a sink for carbon.

Saplings grown by community members ready for planting at the Buffelsdraai Landfill Site

The project is an example of both a climate change mitigation and adaptation response intervention. The trees are all locally propagated by “Tree-preneurs” in the surrounding community. Wildlands Conservation Trust run an Indigenous Trees for Life Programme where community members are given training on how to collect seeds, propagate and transplant the plants at their homesteads. Once the trees reach a certain height they are bartered for items such as basic foods, school uniforms, building materials and bicycles. These trees are then planted in the buffer zone. 85% of the tree-preneurs that contribute to the Buffelsdraai reforestation project are women and 65% are youth. 500 tree-preneurs provide trees to the project. When mass planting needs to be done temporary jobs are created and community members are given cash for these services. Community members are also educated on the value of conservation and about looking after the environment for the future. The tree-preneurs are rewarded with visits to national parks after a certain number of trees are grown.

Senzo, a community member that has benefited from the tree-preneur programme acted out a poem in isiZulu about how his behaviour towards nature has changed since becoming part of the programme. He has developed a greater respect for nature and is proud that he is contributing to conservation.

Senzo reading out his poem about his respect for nature

 The Buffelsdraai Landfill Site Community Reforestation Project began in 2008 as the city of Durban, and other host cities in South Africa, prepared to host a carbon neutral 2010 FIFA World CupTM. The buffer zone around the landfill site was selected for reforestation in order to offset some of the carbon emissions emitted from the event. The project was successful in mitigating some of the carbon emissions from the 2010 FIFA World Cup and through the Wildlands tree-preneur programme has increased the capacity of local communities to adapt to climate change. Reforestation has continued post the World Cup and the project serves as an innovative example of how the city of Durban is wrestling with the challenges posed by climate change and responding through mitigation and adaptation interventions.