Digital Transition for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities: ASToN Baseline Study

The ASToN Network

ASToN is a network of eleven African local authorities looking to use a digital transformation as a catalyst for becoming more inclusive and sustainable cities. ASToN member cities are doing this through exchange and peer-to-peer learning, engaging their local stakeholders in a process of change and transformation, blending urban intelligences1 and adopting new ways of working, all with a results-oriented approach. As a network, our hope is that by creating a cohort of partners, and collaborating in this way, ASToN cities will be empowered to effect change. They’ll become more effective, competent, autonomous and recognised enablers of economic and social wellbeing for their citizens, enabled by appropriate digital tools and in a sustainable manner for their local context.

This flagship initiative is funded by the French Development Agency (AFD), managed by the National Agency for Urban Renewal (ANRU), and using URBACT knowledge and tools. URBACT is a European cooperation program for cities. For 18 years, URBACT has worked with more than 1000 cities in Europe, to build cooperation networks between cities. Through URBACT, cities have developed tailor-made solutions to solve their local problems. In 2018, AFD and URBACT launched a call to African local authorities to create a network of partners in the transition to digital - ASToN.

ASToN stands for the Africa Smart Towns Network. 11 African partners were selected, each from a different country, and participated throughout the first phase of the project: Bamako (Mali), Benguerir (Morocco), Bizerte (Tunisia), Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Kumasi (Ghana), Lagos (Nigeria), Matola-Maputo (Mozambique), Niamey (Niger), Nouakchott (Mauritania), Sèmè-Podji (Benin).

The Baseline Study

This publication is the result of a baseline assessment of the ASToN network. It provides a reference so that network members can share their collective knowledge, understanding and a common language of certain fundamental concepts related to smart cities, and to share first thematic focuses for the project. Through eleven city profiles, it also assesses the present situation of each member city and their respective local authority. Finally, the identified problem, or sub-theme, towards which each city will work in Phase 2 of the ASToN project, will be introduced.

The publication is made up of four Sections:

• Introduction and background
• State of the Art
• City Profiles
• Synthesis and Ways Forward for phase 2

The Background and Introduction section addresses the nature of the ASToN project and establishes the key pieces of terminology surrounding the “smart city” and digital local authority. The State of the Art presents an overview of the current digital transition within the African continent, the opportunities and challenges for urban digital development in Africa, and the role of local authorities in engendering, steering and supporting this change.

City Profiles focuses on the existing needs and expertise relating to the specific issue that each ASToN member will address during their time in the network. Preliminary work will feed into the synthesis report, and enable the detailed definition of the experimental research questions that network partners will work towards.

The Synthesis and Ways Forward section brings together analysis of the city profiles, their typology, common trends and specificities, and provides the methodology for the following phases of the project. It presents the proposals of each local authority, and discusses how the ASToN network will function, including its expected outputs.