Background and objectives:

The goal of the project was to support the Government of Anambra State to implement Master Plans for Awka Capital Territory, Greater Onitsha and Greater Nnewi through implementing capacity building activities towards achieving the goals of poverty eradication. The Government of Anambra State appealed to UN-HABITAT to facilitate access to global knowledge-base and technical expertise on resources for urban environmental management to its State agencies, urban authorities and capacity-building institutions
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Detailed objectives were to:

• Assist the State to promote and implement capacity building activities for the Office of Lands, Survey and Urban Planning and Urban Planning Authorities in Awka, Nnewi and Onitsha and national consultants in the use of the environmental planning and management (EPM) process, in organizing and carrying out socio-economic studies and analysis.
• Support key stakeholders in organizing and conducting city-wide consultations;
• Assist the relevant office and agencies in formulating the master plans for the three urban areas.
• Assist the state government in setting up the framework for plan implementation and in documenting the project as a best practice.

Activities:
The main activities were:

• Training of consultants and staff of the Office of Lands, Survey and Urban Planning.
• Conduct baseline socio-economic and land use studies in three cities to identify critical environmental and socio economic issues of development in the three cities.
• Prepare socio-economic and land use studies Reports for the three urban areas.
• Organize city consultations, agreement on priority issues for the three urban areas and prepare reports
• Prepare Master Plans for the three urban areas
• Publish, adopt and disseminate the Master Plans.

Results:
The results achieved were:

• Key staff trained in rapid urban profiling techniques
• Socio-economic and land use reports completed for three urban areas
• Master Plans drawn up.