Six years. Six years of a voyage which is already long, from one continent to the other. A voyage which started with a conviction and an intuition: the conviction of some, foremost among them being the French sociologist Paul-Henri Chombart de Lauwe who recently passed away, and Teolinda Bolivar, that it was necessary to review completely the perception of government institutions on the common man’s habitats as also their policies concerning (or aimed at) these localities; the intuition that, despite the immense differences in the contexts of one country or one continent from the other, the authorities responsible for public policies had something to learn from each other. This led to the meeting at Caracas and the discovery of fundamental principles that were to be adopted in order to implement policies with the inhabitants. These principles were found in the Caracas Declaration. This was the beginning.

The second step was the meeting and the Salvador Declaration in 1993. It involved verifying and studying the Caracas principles in association with a much larger population. This time, it also meant widening the scope of the debate to include professionals and inhabitants. We discovered that political and administrative officials, professionals and inhabitants could all agree on common principles for an action, despite everything that separates them and opposes them with each other in real life. As a result, the idea that these principles could be fundamental for any plans or dialogues gained ground. People’s organisations also began to see that the international legitimacy of these principles can be used as an argument to demand strongly that their administrative and political mediators implement them. As a third step, a Latin-American network for exchange of experiences was created through a bulletin called Ciudades de la Gente published by Teolinda Bolivar and her team with the support of the University of Caracas. The book "les Habitants Aménageurs" (the Citizen-Planner) appeared at the same time (Pascal Perck, Editions de l’Aube, 1994). It provided guidelines to apply the Caracas principles in France.

The idea that a city cannot be constructed without its inhabitants or even against them, especially with regard to poor localities, gained force everywhere, even if it is probably due to the depletion of public funds. The "participation of inhabitants" was spoken about everywhere, but the battle was still not won. It often meant that the inhabitants should participate in government projects; it rarely meant government support to the projects defined by inhabitants. This was evident at the conference ‘Habitat 2’ held in Istanbul in June 1996. Participating countries and NGOs all found the required means to pay for their flight tickets and take part in the conference but never had the means to make the inhabitants meet there. For this very reason, as a fourth step, we decided to take the challenge and organise within the framework of ‘Habitat 2’ an international forum of inhabitants. This forum, whose intensity and quality were noticed, led to the term "citizens’ voice" and created an urge, that can rarely be satisfied, for real respect and partnership on the part of government institutions. It led to the idea that a set of regional networks of inhabitants should gradually be constituted in order to promote this partnership.

Then came the fifth step, towards the end of 1996: the meeting of 9 European cities to create, as our African friends say, "the three legs of the pot": the dialogue between inhabitants, the elected representatives and professionals.

The Istanbul meeting also opened some perspectives towards Africa with inputs from the Mayor of Dakar and a Senegalese citizen. The idea for an inter-African meeting of the three elements germinated there. The courageous attempt had two objectives: to create links between people’s organisations in different countries of French-speaking Africa which are not familiar with each other (and which had to be identified) and to set up a dialogue between the three contexts which never meet on an equal footing.

The challenge was taken. For one full week, from 1 to 7 February 1998, representatives of grassroots organisations from ten French-speaking countries in Africa met. During the last three days, they were joined by town planners, local elected representatives and representatives of national associations of mayors from these very countries. They all had extremely intense exchanges. The inhabitants were offered the possibility of setting up a collective body which would enable them to have dialogues on an equal footing with town planners and local elected officials. The final declaration led to vigorous prospects of setting up an inter-African network of inhabitants, local charters for dialogues based on the Caracas and Salvador principles and mutual training for citizens, technicians and elected officials.

The virus of "la ciudades de la gente" continues to spread slowly but surely.

* Pierre Calame is President of the Foundation Charles Léopold Mayer for the Progress of Humankind.

Principles of the Salvador Declaration Recognise the dynamics at work in poor districts; make use of them and endeavour to strengthen them. Provide greater security for residents, and undertake not to drive them from their living spaces. Admit that representative democracy is not sufficient in itself to make the voices of certain social groups heard-4ncluding children, women, foreigners, refugees and the elderly; ensure that their voices are heard and taken into account. Reform public action at all levels, enabling the authorities and the disadvantaged groups to devise together the most appropriate solutions for each case and to implement an integrated policy, combining all aspects of individual and collective life. Make policies subject to the true social context of each district and its residents, from resaving urgent problems to implementing long-term strategies. Set up financing systems coherent with the objectives pursued.

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