City-Wide Approach for African cities

Around 100 participants from 16 African and 6 European countries attended a conference entitled Integrated City-Wide Approach for African Cities. The conference was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 5-7 April 2006. Three partnerships between Dutch and African cities using the CWA method – Leiden and Buffalo City, Haarlem and Mutare, and Eindhoven and Gedaref – sent representatives to the conference who participated actively in the debate.

For three days professionals employed by local and national government, NGOs, national and international development organisations, representatives of city links and education institutions held intensive discussions on the application of the integrated and interactive CWA to urban development in Africa. The first part of the programme consisted of plenary presentations and debate around the following themes:

integrated urban policy as a precondition for sustainable urban development
building consensus between stakeholders
building bridges between sectoral approaches
the role of CWA in improving the effectiveness of sustainable urban development.

A working visit to two projects in Addis Ababa followed. Then participants in four workshops worked hard to flesh out the CWA in terms of specific projects, such as slum-upgrading, improving health and housing construction.

The conference concluded with a plenary presentation of the results of the workshops, and speeches by the ambassadors of the Netherlands and Poland. The Dutch ambassador, Alfons Hennekes, emphasised the importance of urban issues in Africa and need to adopt an integrated approach.

The conference was organised by the Habitat Platform together with INTA (International Urban Development Association), Cordaid and the CRDA (Christian Relief and Development Association).
The urban population is growing faster in Africa (5% annually) than in other parts of the world. Currently, almost 40% of Africans live in urban areas, a figure that will rise to 50% in 25 years’ time.

Migration to towns and cities is driven by stagnating development in rural areas, failing agricultural policies and regional conflict. In addition, natural population growth in urban areas is an increasingly significant factor. But businesses in the formal industrial and services sectors offer too little employment, resulting in the urbanisation of unemployment.

The scale of the problems means that unconventional solutions are needed to achieve sustainable urban development in Africa. An integrated approach tackling a broad range of urban problems simultaneously is called for. The City-Wide Approach is an innovative instrument to be used by partnerships in which local government, NGOs and businesses can together develop and implement an integrated programme for urban development.

The aims of the conference were to:

exchange examples of good practice in integrated urban development;
demonstrate examples of participative planning in developing and managing infrastructure and services;
demonstrate the added value of cooperation between national and local government, NGOs and individuals.

The results of the conference will be published on CD-ROM.
For more information see: intainfo@inta-net.org

Attachments
cwadossier.pdf