City Development
Strategies
The Urban Management Programme, as an extension of the City Consultation methodology, has implemented City Development Strategies in several cities to further improve the capacity of municipal authorities to implement participatory management mechanisms. These cities include Bamako, Mali; Cuenca, Ecuador; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Johannesburg, South Africa; Santo Andre, Brazil; Shenyang, China; Tunis, Tunisia and cities in the Lake Victoria Region namely,Entebbe and Kampala, Uganda; Homa Bay and Kisumu, Kenya; and Bukoba and Musoma, Tanzania. |
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UN-HABITAT will sponsor a networking event on Cities and Lakes jointly together with Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC) at WUF III in Vancouver, Canada.
The objective of the networking event is to highlight and discuss the problems and issues facing cities in lake regions around the world with regards to the impact of the growth of the cities on the urban environment.
The target audience for the networking event is local authorities, associations of local authorities, mayors, civil society organizations, national government representatives, and private sector representatives. Between 60-70 participants are expected to attend the event.
For further information on the event, please contact Dr. Julius Ayo-Odongo, Secretary General LVRLAC at secretarygeneral@lvrlac.net, or Cecilia Kinuthia-Njenga, Human Settlements Officer, UN-HABITAT at cecilia.njenga-kinuthia@unhabitat.org |
Lake Victoria Region City Development Strategy
UN-HABITAT through its Urban Management Programme (UMP), with support from SIDA, initiated the Lake Victoria Region City Development Strategies Programme in early 2002 to strengthen the capacities of urban centres located along the shores of Lake Victoria. The initiative aims to mobilise local authorities and stakeholders to develop a programme for laying out City Development Strategies for Improved Urban Environment and Poverty Reduction. It also seeks to address the absence of effective planning in the urban centres.
The pioneer CDS cities in Phase I of the Lake Victoria CDS initiative are Kisumu (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda), and Musoma (Tanzania). The respective local authorities have endorsed the CDS programme, and multi-sectoral coordinating committees have been set up. The initiative has focused on building a consensus on key environmental issues and the consensus has been used as the framework for preparing and implementing City Development Strategies in the three countries.
The Second Generation of Lake Victoria CDS cities, Homa Bay (Kenya), Entebbe (Uganda), and Bukoba (Tanzania) were selected by UN-HABITAT in consultation with the Lake Victoria Regional Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC) to participate in the CDS programme. The cities have each prepared a profile and the preparation of the CDS document is ongoing.
Related Links (Lake Victoria CDS)
 Kisumu declared first Millenium City in the world
Lake Victoria Clean Up Week (9th – 16th July 2005)
Click here to view documents from the Lake Victoria Region City Development Strategy
Summaries of the CDS cities are available by clicking on the relevant links below. These illustrate the process through an examination of the challenges and opportunities presented in the implementation of the CDS in the four regions. It is hoped that these summaries will provide a valuable base of knowledge for the undertaking of similar activities and future city development strategies. Full reports of each CDS are also available.
Please click here for a concise overview of the CDS activities of UMP/UN-HABITAT, including overall lessons learnt.
To download the Urban Management Programme publication No.29 "City Development Strategies: Lessons from UMP/UN-HABITAT", which includes the overview and brief and detailed summaries as above, please click here.
Click here for a list of CDS City Contacts in each of the seven cities.
The City Development Strategy (CDS) is one of the two key approaches within the Cities Alliance. The Cities Alliance was conceived in 1999 as a coalition of cities and their development partners, committed to address urban poverty reduction as a global public policy issue. Consultative Group Members are UN-HABITAT and the World Bank, Associations of Local Authorities and Governments. For more information on the Cities Alliance, visit their website <http://www.citiesalliance.org/>.
A CDS is seen as an instrument to develop pro-poor urban governance in cities. Ultimately, it is about participatory decision-making. For cities facing the challenges of urbanizing poverty, increasing competitiveness and emerging pressures on economic and environmental sustainability, the CDS provides a framework for economic growth, making it sustainable and equitable through pro-poor policies, strategies and actions. These CDS exercises have provided an opportunity for UMP partner institutions to scale up the UMP city consultations in seven cities, and to include the dimension of economic growth. The experience also provided important lessons for adopting participatory processes involving all stakeholders in a CDS exercise.
The UMP CDS approach is based on three important principles of enablement, participation and capacity building. Empowering local authorities and other partners, through enabling legal and institutional frameworks, is a necessary condition for the CDS exercise. Without the participation of those at the local level - local authorities and the urban poor - sustainable citywide strategies cannot be achieved. This participation must be genuine, resulting in local ownership of the process. For that participation to be meaningful, civil society organizations and city government institutions need solid institutional and technical capacity.
The goals of a CDS process include a collective city vision and strategy, improved urban governance and management, increased investment and systematic and sustained reductions in urban poverty. The most important product of a CDS is a citywide strategy that turns the city into an engine of equitable economic development and has a direct impact on poverty reduction, local economic growth and improved governance.
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