Major African cities participate in the Cities Leadership Workshop
Mayors from five major African cities participate in the first capacity-building workshop arranged by the new Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) at the African Development Bank (AfDB)
Mayors from Antananarivo, Madagascar; Bizerte, Tunisia; Conakry, Republic of Guinea; Dodoma, Tanzania; and Libreville, Gabon, worked together with international urban experts at the Cities Leadership Workshop organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) on 25 and 26 September in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
In April 2019, the African Development Bank launched the NDF co-financed Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) to support African cities and municipalities to improve their resilience and better manage sustainable urban growth and development—by improving planning, governance, and quality of basic services. The UMDF seeks to enhance technical assistance and capacity-building on urban planning, governance, and project preparation.
The objective of the workshop was to test the proposed methodology and approach for intervening in African cities. The workshop allowed the mayors to present visions for their cities, major challenges they face and opportunities. The workshop included a number of international urban experts from both AfDB and research institutions plus representatives from important city networks such as the Cities Alliance and the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa).
Another objective of the workshop is to start a city learning process. A special session had Ellis Juan, former lead of the IDB Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative, convey the main lessons learned from this successful Latin American urban programme that went from five pilot cities in 2012 to more than 80 participating cities in 2017. In another session, the former Mayor of Copenhagen, Morten Kabell demonstrated how bicycle transport could become a viable urban transport solution in African cities.
The Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) of the African Development Bank is a multi-donor Trust Fund intended to scale up interventions in urban development and drive sustainable growth in cities across the African continent. The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) is the main contributor to the UMDF.
