Kampala — "Considering the rapid population growth that Uganda and its cities are experiencing and the failure of economic growth to catch up with this growth, the urban agenda needs to be given an immediate prirotiy". These were the views of Uganda's Minister of State for Urban Development, Hon. Isaac Musumba, during the High Level Policy Dialogue on 'An Urban Lens in Development Planning: Integrating Urbanization in Uganda's National Development Plans" held in Kampala, Uganda.
Uganda's urban areas despite accounting for less than 20% of the population, contribute to more than 70% of the country's GDP. With urbanization unfolding at a rapid pace in the country, profound opportunities are being presented for national level development as well as some significant challenges. One of the main tasks before policy makers is to start integrating urbanization into national development undertakings in order to alleviate challenges and capitalize on opportunities being presented. These issues were the focus of attention during the National Training Workshop on Urbanization and National Development Planning (19-21 February) as well as the High Level Policy Dialogue (organized jointly with National Planning Authority, Uganda) on the same topic.
Both of these meetings were part of the United Nations Development Account Project for Strengthening Member States capacities in designing and implementing strategies for inclusive and sustainable cities in Africa. The national training workshop involved senior functionaries engaged in national planning in Uganda and culminated in a consolidated action plan for the integration of urbanization in Uganda's national development plan. The workshop was facilitated by UNECA's guidebook on integrating urbanization in national development planning. which has been developed to strengthen member States' knowledge and capacities in bringing to the fore the role of the cities into each stage of the planning process and in the process promote sustainable and productive cities for Africa's transformation.
The High Level Policy Dialogue arranged in partnership with Uganda's National Planning Authority aimed to raise awareness and increase political buy-in of the issue of urbanization for national development planning and brought together participants from the highest level of Uganda's government.
During the HLPD, Ms. Edlam Yemeru, on behalf of the Director of ECA's Social Development Policy Division, noted that "by addressing urbanization in relation to economic development, many priorities could be addressed in synergy, including: job creation, poverty reduction, and sustained economic growth". In closing the meeting, Hon. David Bahati, Uganda's State Minister for Finance for Planning stated that, "urbanization was a key factor for socio-economic development of Uganda and achieving the target of becoming a middle income country". He further expressed his hope that the national training workshop and the High Level Policy Dialogue would have contributed to the development of skills in the country to harness the immense potential of urbanization." Importantly, he committed to arranging a meeting at the highest level of Uganda to build on the proceedings of these meetings to translate into reality the strategy for integrating urbanization into national development in Uganda.
CONTACT: Edlam Yemeru, Chief, Urbanization Section, Social Development Policy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
E-mail: yemeru@un.org
