Africa-Press – Uganda. Top city and local government leaders in Africa under their umbrella of Africities have called for joint planning with intermediary cities, saying they cannot develop main cities while leaving out small ones.
Intermediary cities are those with between 50,000 and one million people operating and staying in them.
Speaking to Daily Monitor in a telephone interview yesterday during the official opening of the 9th summit in Kisumu, Kenya, Dr Juma Nyende, the director of United Cities and Local Governments in Eastern African, said this year’s summit will focus on a joint plan for intermediary cities in terms of service delivery and governance.
“Currently the main challenge in cities is urbanisation but whenever we are planning for change and improvement a lot of emphasis is put on the already big cities, we forget the role of intermediary cities in decongesting the big cities,’ he said.
Mr Nyende said city leaders must include intermediary cities while planning their future.
“We need to share the priorities and opportunities with intermediary cities so that they can support the big cities which are in emergency situation in terms of service delivery and division of power,” he said
He revealed that they are tackling several topics related to intermediary cities such as migration, promoting safe movement of refugees and sharing funds.
“We are looking at all aspects which can support the intermediary cities in terms of development, we want to make sure that we include them in whatever issues we are dealing with,” he said.
Africities is a Pan Africa conference convened by the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa’s (UCLG-A) and brings together the leadership of cities and sub national governments and their associations for the advancement of decentralisation and local governance.
The summit is also aimed at improving the living standards of the citizens. Africities summits have been held after every three years since 1998. The first meeting was held in Abijan, Ivory Coast.
Mr Nyende noted that Uganda can benefit from this summit by bench marking other cities for support and various opportunities.
The mayor of Jinja City, Mr Peter Okocha Kasolo, said there is need to start planning for small cities.
“It is very challenging for small cities when handling emergencies from big cities as most of the time we are not involved in decision making. We find it hard to manage several issues,” he said.
Mr Kasolo said Uganda is one of the countries with a big number of delegates at the summit because of proximity, interest and high level of mobilisation through Uganda Local Government Association and Urban Authorities Association of Uganda (UAAU).
“Jinja has brought a delegation of 20 people because they are one of the cities in Africa benefiting from the partnerships of Africities,” he said
He revealed that Jinja with the support from Africities is running two projects worth Shs8.5b with Morocco.
“The projects focus on governance and urban resilience in greening of cities, which are the main challenges cities face,” he said.
About the summit
The 9th edition of Africities Summit that started yesterday and will end on Friday is held under the theme
“The Role of Intermediary Cities of Africa in the implementation of Agenda 2030 of the United Nations and the African Union Agenda 2063.”
These two agendas call for the urgent need to develop resilient and sustainable urbanisation in Africa, cognizant of the fact that by 2050 the bulk of African population will be living in cities, and that the majority of city dwellers will settle in intermediary cities.
Fourteen countries and over 10,000 delegates are expected to attend the five-day summit.
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