Change by Design Sierra Leone Update

The Community Action Area Plans (CAAPs) for two informal settlements in Freetown are now available on ASF-UK’s website:

These plans are the culmination of an eight-month participatory planning partnership between the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) and ASF-UK using the Change by Design methodology. 

The findings from Cockle Bay and Dworzark illustrate the current realities faced by residents from these inner city communities, their aspirations, and how they would like their communities and wider city to be transformed. This work is part of a wider initiative to revive urban planning efforts in Sierra Leone and explores approaches to inclusive city making in Freetown by including a broad range of stakeholders from government, city officials, civil society and NGOs, as well as residents, particularly those in living in informal settlements. 

ASF-UK is continuing to build on our partnership with SLURC and the learnings produced in the CAAPs. Currently we are engaged in knowledge coproduction workshops which aim to create detailed settlement profiles using participatory planning tools as well as facilitating urban data visualisation and knowledge sharing workshops. The overall aim of our work in Sierra Leone is to develop methods working toward inclusive Action Area Plans, a crucial component of Local plans outlined by Freetown City Council.