Learning from the Swedish-African Cities Municipal Partnership Programme

Background

Many African countries are confronted with severe environmental health challenges, such as declining green space, waste, poor housing conditions and pollution in air, water, and soil. Climate change and environmental health risks contribute to inequalities by worsening poverty, poor health and well-being and causing an increase in extreme weather events such as heatwaves and floods.

Local governments have a key role in addressing these issues by combining local needs with global climate goals through inclusive governance that can engage citizens, local communities, civil society and businesses to come together to address some of these challenges. By involving different interests, local governments can develop collective actions to mitigate climate change and reduce environmental health risks.

Implementation of inclusive methods to address climate and environmental issues is a shared challenge for local governments in the global north and south. Through exchanging experiences, practice and policy implementation, some local governments in Kenya, Tanzania and Sweden have approached these issues jointly.

SEI and ICLD have recently started collaborating on inclusive governance and sustainable development in urban areas in Africa. The purpose is to support cities to implement measures for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on local interventions and development actions.

Webinar outline

The webinar is organized in the following format

1. Introduction to SEI sustainable urbanization research and policy interventions in selected African cities, with a focus on Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Senegal.
2. Introduction to ICLD support for inclusive, participatory local governance on climate and environmental issues and overview of local government projects in Kenya and Tanzania
3. Panel of project teams from twinning partners between 2-3 Eastern African and Swedish cities within the Municipal Partnership Programme
   (MPP): Project design and implementation built on peer learning, local ownership and mutuality with a Q&A with the panel and further discussion
4. Way forward on areas and topics of possible collaboration with a summary and final remarks.

Desired outcomes

The purpose of this webinar is to share experiences and map out opportunities and potential areas of collaboration between ICLD and SEI in Africa. The webinar will provide opportunities for SEI and ICLD to showcase experiences, research and policy dialogue engagements in Africa and provide a platform for beneficiaries and boundary partners to share their lessons and experience. This can contribute to informing future joint activities.

Webinar objectives

1. Present the work of SEI and ICLD in Africa to promote sustainable urban governance
2. Provide a platform to share lessons and experiences from selected cities in Africa and Sweden that are participating in the MPP
3. Identify strategic areas and topics for collaborative partnership and interventions in supporting use of data and tools for urban planning and policy implementation at local levels in Africa

Webinar approach

The webinar will bring together both SEI and ICLD staff, partners, and beneficiaries of the two organizations’ activities in Africa. The webinar will be hybrid to give opportunity for partners and participants in Sweden and other parts of Africa to participate and interact with the SEI and ICLD team.