Support for Boma’s Urban Transformation

Boma is a strategic city located in Kongo Central Province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was formerly the country’s capital. It currently faces many urban challenges, such as aging infrastructure, demographic pressure, environmental risks, inadequate public facilities, and growing needs for local governance.

To meet these challenges, Agence Française de Développement is funding the Boma Sustainable City programme, which is implemented by Expertise France in partnership with the DRC’s National Agency for Land-use Planning (ANAT), the City of Boma, and the provincial authorities.

Overall financing for the programme is €50m, of which €10 million is being implemented by Expertise France over a four-year period (2025-2028). National, provincial, and municipal authorities work together on this programme, with a common vision of sustainable urban development.

This pilot project is one of the first integrated sustainable urban development actions in the DRC. It seeks to make Boma a laboratory of urban innovation that can inspire other secondary cities in the country.

The project uses several levers to help improve the living environment of Boma’s residents over the long term.

First, it supports the development of urban planning tools to anticipate the city’s development over the next 10 to 15 years, in order to manage better flood and erosion risks, to organise transport and travel, and to improve waste management.

The project is also helping to boost the city’s resilience to the effects of climate change, for example by having urban planning better take into account erosion and flooding risks.

We are planning to build or rehabilitate three major public facilities:

• the Women’s Centre;
• the Youth and Culture Centre;
• the “24 novembre” Sports Complex.

These facilities will offer residents new spaces dedicated to social, cultural, sports, and civic activities.

The project supports local institutions so that they can better plan, manage, and finance the city’s development and future public facilities.

Capacity-building actions are carried out with the city hall, municipalities, and national institutions in charge of land-use planning.

At the same time, the programme promotes citizen participation through awareness campaigns and the establishment of consultation mechanisms enabling residents to contribute more to decisions that affect their living environment.

A call for projects targeting civil society organisations was launched to encourage involvement by local actors. Response to this initiative by local stakeholders was enthusiastic, with 46 proposals received.

The projects selected will benefit from financial and technical support to help improve the living environment, social inclusion, local economic development, and citizen participation.