The African Smart Towns Network (ASToN), 2019-2022 – episode one
In its first phase (2019-2022), ASToN has worked alongside eleven African local authorities to use digital transformation as a catalyst for becoming more inclusive and sustainable cities.
These cities are :
• Bamako (Mali)
• Benguerir (Morocco)
• Bizerte (Tunisia)
• Kampala (Uganda)
• Kigali (Rwanda)
• Kumasi (Ghana)
• Lagos (Nigeria)
• Matola (Mozambique)
• Niamey (Niger)
• Nouakchott (Mauritania)
• Sèmè-Podji (Benin)
Across 2019-2022, ASToN member cities have advanced digital transformation projects through exchange and peer-to-peer learning, engaging their local stakeholders in a process of change and transformation, blending urban intelligences and adopting new ways of working, all with a results-oriented approach.
As a network, our hope has been that by creating a cohort of partners, and collaborating in this way, ASToN cities were empowered to effect change. More specifically, they were able to 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.
Main outcomes from running the network include:
• 480 participants in trainings and transnational encounters
• 30% of the ASToN cities are already using the methods & tools from the programme to design other urban policies and innovate services
• 450 000 € invested in experimenting and testing innovate solutions
• 8 out of the 10 Local Action Plans produced by cities were validated by the respective City Councils and are included in their local strategies
• 424 people reached through the solutions experimented
5 things we wish we’d known, starting out with the network:
• Interrogate the rationale for the network. Framing our starting points as questions helped us steer the programme and adjust it along the way, to ensure it added most value for all involved.
• Work with cities as critical friends. Having a rotating ‘critical friend’ from one of the cities at any point meant we had a trusted partner to test ideas with, iterate on them, and together ensure they were aligned to needs.
• Things won’t go to plan, so plan things iteratively. There will always be disruptions to the plan and parts of the plan that are not relevant in reality. It’s only by designing a programme that’s iterative and allows for adjustments along the way that you can stay relevant and useful through external shocks.
• Connect people. Don’t underestimate the power and value of connecting people. It has proven valuable countless times throughout ASToN (2019-2022). We have seen deep relationships form, and 100% turnout to in-person events, including from city Mayors, such is the value they get from meeting with each other.
• The experiment is not the end goal. Learning to start small with an experiment can be a very new concept and way of working for a city authority. It’s easy for the experiment to feel like the goal. But really the experiment is just one part of the process that gives us enough data to start / stop / continue and enough evidence to galvanise more funds.
