Kampala Second Generation Workshop

City Development Strategy: Bukoba | Entebbe | Homa Bay | Kampala | Kisumu | Musoma
Workshops:Entebbe | Kampala | Kisumu | Musoma| Meetings: Kisumu| Documents:Publications

Introduction

The Kampala Second Generation Induction Workshop was the first in a series of activities UN-HABITAT undertaking to equip three more cities in City Development Strategy (CDS). The Second Generation cities nominated to prepare their CDS are Bukoba (Tanzania), Homa Bay (Kenya)and Entebbe (Uganda). The cities are located around the Lake Victoria Region.

The three cities join the ongoing sensitization programme on City Development Strategy process in the region initiated by UN-HABITAT, as a demonstration that local authorities can champion and deal with environment and poverty reduction concerns, by integrating the two in the development strategies and enhanced by good governance practices that involves the communities in the entire CDS process.

In doing this, UN-HABITAT has demonstrated that local authorities are also effective avenues through which some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially in the areas of good urban governance, environment protection and poverty reduction may be achieved.

The Second Generation Induction CDS workshop was held in Kampala, Uganda from 15th to 19th May 2005. The workshop participants were senior civic and council officials from the second-generation three cities and the three first generation CDS cities. Also in attendance was Jinja municipality of Uganda and Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC) officials whose active partnership in CDS initiative was valuable.

The purpose of inviting participants from the first generation cities was to give the incoming second generation cities the earliest opportunity to share experiences and learn the dynamics and challenges of CDS preparation and implementation. This would enable them move at a faster rate in mobilizing the communities and resources in the CDS process. The mix of politicians and technocrats was intentionally made so that the decision makers in the councils could appreciate the added responsibilities of the technical staff and the needed political support to make CDS a success. Furthermore, this was to ensure that the process was quickly understood and owned by the local authorities from the onset.

Group Photo of Kampala Workshop Participants

In this second phase of Lake Victoria region city development strategies for improved urban environment and poverty reduction programme, UN-HABITAT entered into a friendly cooperation with Center for Development and Planning Management (CDPM), a regional based consultancy organization with wide hands on experience in environmental and development planning together with communities and local authorities to assist in developing training materials, facilitating workshops and helping the cities to prepare and implement the City Development Strategies.

This first meeting marked the beginning of many more discussions and backstopping to ensure the second-generation cities prepare quality CDS that are homegrown to mitigate their environmental and poverty concerns.

During this first workshop, the issue of capacity building (training needs assessment) was discussed. The participants suggested various areas they felt more training was needed to adequately equip the stakeholders to prepare quality CDS.

The suggested subject areas were to be included in a training of trainer's workshop that was slated to be held in the next two months.

Having gone through the expected CDS process workload and timeframe within which second generation cities are to complete their CDS, each council committed itself to a probable work plan.

The work plan took into account that East African local authorities also have tight annual statutory obligations e.g. annual budgets, performance appraisal, between May and August. The three Second- Generation cities however factored this in their work plan and promised to complete the CDS draft document by September 2005.

Workshop Objectives

The objective of the workshop was to build the capacity of cities/towns around the Lake Victoria Region in participatory planning for improved urban environment and poverty reduction.

Specifically, the objectives of the training workshop were:

•  To introduce the three additional Lake Victoria cities to the CDS methodology and approach.

•  To share the experiences of the pioneer CDS cities in the Lake Victoria region.

•  To refine the CDS approach to integrate environment and poverty concerns.

•  To identify the capacity building and training needs of Lake Victoria cities in urban environment and poverty reduction.

Expected outputs

The expected outputs from the workshop were as follows:

• Equip new cities with understanding of preparing CDS, approaches, methods and tools.

• A refined CDS approach integrating environment and poverty concerns.

• Identify existing capacity building gaps and suggest training needed to improve process.

• Review CDS of the three pioneer cities.

Training Needs Assessment

A capacity building training needs assessment was carried out with each city being asked to highlight the areas they felt needed capacity building. The results of capacity building assessment are contained in a separate Capacity Building Action Plan Report.

A proposed date for a training of trainer's workshop was set for mid July and the working groups for each city will be the focus of the trainers with about 12 participants from each city being trained.

The participants suggested among other training areas to include, City SWOT analysis, participatory planning approach, communication and information sharing, teamwork (group dynamics and motivation), project management, resource mobilization (financial management, incomes and expenditures, and the budgetary process), and institutionalizing the CDS process.

The Way Forward and Lessons Learnt

At the close of the workshop, the participants agreed that the way forward lay in the participatory CDS process. The three new CDS cities were urged to conduct a revenue enhancement study and implement the findings to increase their source of revenue. The mayor of Bukoba expressed the hope that the CDS process would be implemented on schedule and urged the other lake region authority officials to form closer ties under the auspices of LVRLAC and the EAC.

In conclusion, it was stated that the lessons learned from the workshop is that stakeholders are crucial in the process and the organization must build capacity – both technical and financial, exchange experiences and put their all into the process to make it a success. The participants were informed that a donor stakeholder is crucial and they need to seek out donors. The focal point officials in the CDS process must also have the capacity and confidence to steer the process.