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, Kampala, Uganda; Kisumu, Kenya; and Musoma, Tanzania.
Lake Victoria Region City Development Strategies (CDS) UN-HABITAT through its Urban Management Programme (UMP), with support from SIDA, initiated the Lake Victoria Region City Development Strategies Programme in early 2002, in a bid to strengthen the capacities of three centres -Kisumu, Kampala, and Musoma - located along the shores of Lake Victoria. This initiative aims to mobilise the local authorities and stakeholders to develop a programme laying out City Development Strategies for improved urban environment and poverty reduction. It also seeks to address the absence of effective planning. 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. The consensus has been used as the framework for preparing and implementing City Development Strategies for the three countries. The pioneer CDS cities in Phase I of the Lake Victoria CDS initiative are (Kenya), (Uganda), and (Tanzania). The Second Generation of Lake Victoria CDS cities, (Kenya), (Uganda), and (Tanzania) were selected by UN-HABITAT in consultation with the Lake Victoria Regional Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC) to participate in the CDS programme. The Phase II cities have each prepared a profile and the preparation of the CDS document is ongoing. In Phase III of the project, Jinja (Uganda) and Mwanza (Tanzania) have been selected to participate in the Lake Victoria CDS. The overall objective of the third phase is to develop a regional approach to improved urban environment and reduced poverty in the Lake Victoria region by enhancing efficiency in the use of local environmental resources, reducing environmental risks and strengthening application of environmental conventions and agreements; reducing poverty by promoting more equitable access to resources and environmental services; mobilizing and strengthening local capacities to plan, co-ordinate, and manage sustainable local development in partnership, and combining the complementary strengths of UN-HABITAT and other partners in supporting sustainable development commitments including improved local environmental governance. The overall purpose of this programme is to enable municipal authorities to better address priority local environmental issues and to better achieve sustainable urbanization by providing them and their partners with an improved environmental planning and management capacity, and policy application processes. The broader purpose is to reduce poverty by more efficiently and equitably managing the use of environmental resources and the control of hazards and by promoting employment through improved environmental services delivery. Related Links
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.
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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