Overview

Connective Cities brought together urban practitioners from Sub-Sahara Africa and Germany to meet at the dialogue event “Improving public service delivery at local level – solutions for participatory and accountable management” in Harare, Zimbabwe from 20^th to 22^nd of August 2019.

Especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, dynamic urbanization and significant environmental and demographic changes are stating new challenges with regard to basic service delivery. Therefore, the focus was on developing approaches to improve public service delivery through public participation in order to achieve social accountability in the sectors of water, sanitation, waste management and transport.

Twenty-one representatives from Zimbabwean municipalities as well as a number of municipal practitioners from South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, Kenya and municipal experts from Germany exchanged their experiences based on examples of Good Practices on public service delivery and defined possible solutions for the improvement of public service management.

The dialogue event was organized in cooperation with the GIZ project in Zimbabwe, “Strengthening the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) to promote inter-regional and municipal knowledge transfer and capacity development”.

Keynotes

Welcome remarks by the mayor of the city of Harare CLR H. Gomba

Welcome remarks by Cllr Josiah Makombe, President UCAZ

Keynote: STRATEGY EXECUTION THROUGH EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
Johann Mettler, City Manager /
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality

Results

These action plans ranged from projects focusing on:

• the development of a functional information management system by the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ)
• the increase of revenue collection by 80 per cent through the reduction of non-revenue water
• an Integrated Solid Waste Management Project including waste separation facilities and the elimination of illegal waste incineration
• the reduction of sewage discharged into water bodies by fifty per cent within the next five years
• and an Improved Solid Waste Collection through the creation of transfer stations and purchase of refuse collector trucks
   

Also within the framework of the dialogue event, consultation sessions between the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) and the Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) took place, which were supported by the German Association of Cities.

In these peer-to-peer consultations, questions concerning the constitution of the respective organization were discussed and differences in the working structures with its advantages and disadvantages identified. One significant difference between the two organizations concerns its management. While LGAZ is managed by a CEO, who has the mandate to make relatively far-reaching decisions independently, UCAZ has a secretary general, who is much more dependent on the mayors and town clerks. The meeting also discussed LGAZ's experience in integrating a municipal expert - this shared experience was enrichment for UCAZ, which is now also targeting a cooperation with a municipal expert.

All three parties, UCAZ, LGAZ and the German Association of Cities, agreed on the benefit of a follow-up meeting, which will take place during the UCLG world congress in Durban/ South Africa, facilitated by Connective Cities. During this workshop, the constitutions will be closely examined in order to formulate reform proposals for UCAZ.