AfriFOODlinks’ Living Lab in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

The context

The Ouagadougou Living Lab is part of the European AfriFOODlinks project, for which
EStà is responsible for an activity on Open Innovation in local African food policies.
The approach adopted emphasizes participation, equity, and cultural relevance,
with the aim of building inclusive and shared food governance tools. In
Ouagadougou, the main purpose of the laboratory was to contribute to the development
of a Territorial Food Plan (PAT) for Grand Ouaga, in synergy with other planning tools,
in particular the Management Plan for the Ceinture Verte, a crucial ecological heritage
for the city.

Why Ouagadougou

The capital of Burkina Faso was chosen because it represents a dynamic context, rich in
projects already underway on food and environmental issues (AfriFOODlinks, CRAVO, AGRES,
initiatives by Rikolto and ACRA). The city is at the center of a constellation of local and
international actors, NGOs, institutions, and financial partners, which make possible multi-actor
and multi-level governance of the urban food system. The meetings on July 7–11, 2025
were structured to promote:

• local appropriation of the Ceinture Verte Plan,
• the creation of participatory monitoring tools,
• the operational link between ecological and food planning.
• Specific attention was paid to the involvement of the arrondissements, which were no longer considered
• merely consultative bodies but true co-decision-makers.

Main activities

The program was divided into several days:

• July 7: presentation of the Ceinture Verte Plan and discussion of international experiences with urban green spaces.
• July 8–9: group work with the arrondissements on SWOT analysis, local operational plans, and monitoring indicators. Key topics: consumption, production, urban planning, product quality, and safety of production spaces.
• July 10: round table between the main consortia (AfriFOODlinks, CRAVO, AGRES) to strengthen coordination, clarify roles and responsibilities, and build common governance mechanisms.
• July 11: Strategic meeting between municipalities and main bailleurs de fonds (EU, AICS, LuxDev, World Bank, GIZ, etc.) to improve alignment between local initiatives and funding criteria, enhance existing projects, and strengthen resource mobilization capacity.