City mapping for sustainable urbanisation in Niamey

Niamey is the capital of Niger, located on the Niger River in the far west of the country. It had 1,802,910 inhabitants in 2018, making it the most populous city in Niger. The city has five communes and is constituted as an urban community called the Communauté Urbaine de Niamey (CUN). With a view to making quality data available for good decision-making in relation to urban issues in these communes, the Niamey City Council has implemented the Niamey Data Initiative pilot study in collaboration with the National Agency for Information Society and Akvo.

Above: Satellite images of the city of Niamey, Niger. Photo credit: BlackShore & European Space Imaging.


Partners

Municipality of Niamey

National Agency for Information Society (ANSI)


Locations

Niamey, Niger


Sector

Governance


Services

Data collection

Data analysis

Data visualisation


Tools

Akvo Flow

Akvo Lumen

Akvo Caddisfly

The challenge

The city of Niamey is experiencing fast growth, both spatially and demographically. This creates challenges not only for mobility within the city, but also for all services to the population. Moreover, the city does not have the data to gain insights into the city’s urban problems and to inform inclusive and sustainable urbanisation. Where data exists, it is not always accessible, up-to-date or of good quality.

The solution

The Niamey Data Initiative was kick-started to find a sustainable solution to the data problem that the municipality faces. Through proper data collection, analysis, and visualisation, this initiative has enabled the city council to have a better understanding of the city's urban problems. 

The impact

This pilot project has led to concrete results, recommendations and actions for the city council to promote inclusive and sustainable urbanisation in Niamey. The initiative has also contributed significantly to the digitalisation of the country's development activities by building the capacity of different actors, especially youth and entrepreneurs, and the digital ecosystem as a whole.