AIMF Congress | Making partnerships between local authorities a driver of change
More than 500 Mayors and representatives of capitals and metropolises from 35 countries met in Cotonou from 11 to 14 October 2023 for the Annual Congress of the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF), at the invitation of Mayor Luc S. Atrokpo.
Mayors affirmed their desire to open other avenues of dialogue and to build their cooperation on new bases, in an international context marked by major crises.
This Congress was also an opportunity for the 190 delegations present to strengthen their partnerships. Several decentralised cooperation agreements, in particular South-South cooperation, have been signed: between the city of Cotonou and those of Dakar, Douala, Marseille and Paris; between the National Association of Communes of Benin and the National Association of Communes of Djibouti; between the commune of Kouandé (Benin) and the region of Ali Sabieh (Djibouti); between the capitals of Benin, Porto-Novo and Gabon, Libreville.
The desire to make partnerships between local authorities a driver of change was also expressed through the adoption of the AIMF’s 2024-2028 Strategic Program. While “development cooperation” has shown its limits, the AIMF intends to go ever further in asserting its model which gives priority to the expertise of the South and which makes it possible to support the innovative programs desired and implemented. implemented by municipalities. The new programming of the AIMF expresses, finally, the wish to deepen the openness already initiated by the AIMF beyond the French-speaking framework.
