Category: Cities and climate change

Solar pumps, e-mobility, and climate-friendly street lighting in Sub-Saharan Africa

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The workshop is part of a working group for Renewable Energy Applications for Cities convened by Connective Cities in collaboration with the Romanian development agency RoAid.

Apart from the municipal experts and the Connective Cities team, the conference was graced by the attendance of Daniella Dobre (RoAid), Massimiliano Pedretti (Delegation of the European Union to Tanzania), and Dr. Tobias Godau (GIZ ProWaS – Water Security and Climate Resilience for Urban Areas in Tanzania.

The conference was a follow-up event of the kick-off workshop in Nairobi in 2023, focusing on the topic of Street Lighting and E-Mobility applications in the urban context.

Participants

The participant experts represented the cities of Nairobi, Kisumu and County of Baringo (Kenya), City of Kasungu (Malawi), Gulu city (Uganda), City of Dar es Salaam, City of Mwanza and City of Tanga (Tanzania). The Working Group is accompanied by the international representatives from the cities of Gersthofen (Germany), Slatina and Alba Luluia (both Romania).

Participating institutions were:

  • Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA)
  • Regional Administration and Local Government Tanzania (PO-RALG)
  • The City Climate Gap Fund (through the project support office of the Global Covenant of Mayors)
  • The African Development Bank (through the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Department)

Ideas presented:

All ten cities presented their projects and received advice. All ten cities are familiar with the prerequisites for funding and have completed 70% of these requirements.

Kisumu, Kenya:

Improving electric mobility and street lighting in the city of Kisumu. Piloting a PPP model for the deployment of charging infrastructure for 2- and 3-wheel motorcycles.

Baringo, Kenya:

Solarization of a water pump that pumps water from Lake Baringo to a treatment plant in Kabernet town.

Gulu, Uganda:

Solarization of the main street of Gulu City.

Mwanza, Tanzania:

Solar Project on Ijinga Island generated from solar panels to operate water pumps that push water to a treatment tank. Fundraising stage, feasibility analysis completed already.

Nairobi: Energy efficiency and Solarization of markets. Target pilot projects: City Market, City Park Market, Kangundo Road Market and Gikomba Market. Energy audits for these sites have been carried out.

Dar es Salaam: Solar powered street lighting along market street incorporating solar power radio for the market and charging stations for three wheelers.

Tanga: The cites faces an ever-growing landfill. The city intends to undertake a waste to energy project. To begin, the city therefore aims to undertake waste value chain analysis. This will highlight the waste characteristics and the attendant calorific values.

Kasungu: The City of Kasungu presented a double challenge of deforestation due to the heavy usage of biofuels (firewood and charcoal) and the high cost of power for lighting the streets compounded by lack of such streetlights in many areas. The city therefore prioritizes for the project to prepare a solution for solar street lighting still integrated with the main grid for back-up.

Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA): The proposed project focuses on installing solar-powered streetlights to improve lighting in selected municipalities and cities in Malawi. This initiative aims to enhance the local business environment, improve security, and contribute to local economic development.

Targeted Municipalities: Kasungu, Karonga, Luchenza, Mangochi.
Targeted Cities: Zomba City, another city to be determined.

Next Steps of the Working Group

In the journey to support the cities to develop solutions to their challenges, Connective Cities and RoAid plan to continue their support via:

  • Insight sessions and webinars: present emerging knowledge in short learning sessions.
  • Best practices: Publishing of innovative solutions of the collaborating cities.
  • Conferences / Workshops: to bring the city experts together to scale up peer to peer and associated learning.
  • Expert missions: will be availed to city experts with clear cases and inputs for experiential learning and exchange. This will include virtual formats where cities are connected according to relevance of needs.

Bonn benefits in the long term from expert exchange on SDG monitoring

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The city of Bonn is considered a pioneer in reporting on the local implementation of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. In 2022, it presented its second voluntary implementation report – a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) – to the United Nations. A significant milestone in this journey was a dialogue event held in April 2021, which the city organized jointly with Connective Cities.

Growing attention for Voluntary Local Reviews

Bonn embarked early on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. It was among the first of approximately 40 cities worldwide to submit a VLR. Following the publication of its first VLR in 2020, there was a desire to further advance its work through international exchange and to share its experiences with others.

Strengthening Risk-Informed Urban Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

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SADC Peer-to-Peer Learning Platform for Integrating Disaster Risk Management into Urban Planning and Development

The race against time to determine resilience-driven solutions to highly complex and existential urban disaster risk challenges is increasingly necessary more so in Africa. Projections point to the fact that by 2050, 90% of the global urbanization will be experienced in Africa and Asia. Despite Africa’s low contributions to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, the continent remains the most vulnerable to hazards and risk drivers like such as, but not limited to, climate change and (climate) variability. Evidently, Africa’s cities face exponential growth, unplanned urbanization trends and unfolding vulnerabilities threatening thus, to undo urban development gains. By 2050, most of the countries in the region will have made an urban transition, meaning that more than 50% of their population will live in urban areas, which are in turn, the cornerstone of Africa’s socio-economic development (IFRI 2022). As hubs of infrastructure, services, trade and people, cities are faced with one of the major urban threats in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), namely floods, subsequently challenging the continent’s socio-economic development ambitions. Urbanization is arguably an inevitable, unstoppable yet positive trend which nevertheless has the potential to greatly increase risk.

To incorporate integrated Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and climate change adaptation measures into multilateral and bilateral development cooperation programs – within and across all sectors -, Connective Cities (CC) and the Resilience Initiative Africa (RIA) have called the joint initiative on risk-informed urban development (RIUD) to enable peer to peer exchanges through a hybrid modular learning processes (LP). The LP focuses on strengthening risk-informed urban development by creating innovative solutions for flood risk management in urban systems situated in Sub-Sahara Africa with a focus in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region.

The LP enables the use of an agile, barrier-reduced learning and exchange platform for RIUD, which is used by regional, national, and local governmental and non-governmental actors. The modular and systemic approach of the LP for RIUD includes areas related to “Sustainable Urban Development” and “Good governance” facilitating the formation of new partnerships across vertical and horizontal scales for urban/regional resilience. Through the differentiated yet complementary political counterparts, between CC and RIA, the GIZ is able to ensure scalability and wide-spread transfer and communication of the results (i.e. RIUD SADC Publication).

To enhance resilience in southern African cities, CC and RIA developed a series of hybrid modular LPs (Live Events and virtual Insight Sessions) which focus on peer to peer exchange on integrated flood risk management in SADC as part of Sub-Sahara Africa.

The kick-off event in Windhoek, Namibia took place in April 2023 and marked the first round of the LEP by creating feedback loops to inform the development of context-specific, gender-equitable and climate-change-sensitive solution options directed at tackling urban flood risk challenges in both structural and non-structural terms. During the kick-off event, the peer-to-peer exchange was guided by initial thematic areas i.e: 1) Understanding and managing flood risk drivers, 2) Green infrastructure and nature-based approaches for risk-informed solutions, and 3) Risk communication flows and good governance.

Local Economic Development Forum in Tbilisi

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Tbilisi, June 7th – Connective Cities Southeast Europe convened a parallel session during the Local Economic Development (LED) Forum in Tbilisi, focusing on “Renewable Energy Options at the Municipal Level.” This session provided a platform for mayors from Georgian municipalities, including Senaki, Eredvi, and Khoni, to exchange insights, challenges, and innovative approaches in advancing renewable energy initiatives within their jurisdictions. Furthermore, Dr. Irakli Samkharadze, Energy Advisor of Omnia, provided insights into the European Green Deal and its implications for municipalities, enriching the discussion with a broader perspective on sustainable energy transitions.

The Mayor of Senaki Municipality shared notable advancements, including the integration of renewable energy sources into municipal buildings and the installation of solar panels across various locations to raise awareness and support action plans aligned with the Covenant of Mayors.

Showcasing the Amman Urban Observatory

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The insight session on “Showcasing the Amman Urban Observatory” was held on 24 April 2024, delivered by Mr. Akram Khreisat from the Greater Amman Municipality. The session was organized by Connective Cities and presented to the global community of urban practitioners, as part of the Connective Cities network. Among the participants were urban practitioners, local and national government actors, academic researchers, non-governmental organizations, and local community members.

Mr. Akram Khreisat, director of the Amman Urban Observatory, introduced the participants into the working mechanisms and the fields of action of the Amman Urban Observatory and its role in tackling planning challenges in the capital city of Jordan.

The Amman Urban Observatory generates ‘urban indicators’ to monitor various aspects of the city that are important for urban development. Based on real-time monitoring of these urban indicators, planning processes in urban development are improved, as planners and developers are empowered to make informed decisions. In doing so, the observatory works together with ministries, government departments, national organizations, NGOs and companies from the private sector. The observatory works together with over 40 partners and stakeholders. Such urban indicators include vital characteristics for measuring sustainable urban development such as unemployment rate, land cover or the percentage of people living in poverty.

The Amman Urban Observatory has proved itself to be an effective tool for strategic and urban planning. Mr. Akram Khreisat described the observatory as not being a tool, but as a “process to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”. In the case of the Amman Urban Observatory, the indicators created focus on the thematic areas of the following SDGs: Good Health and Well-Being (3); Affordable and Clean Energy (7); Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (9); Sustainable Cities and Communities (11); Climate Action (13) and Partnerships for the Goals (17).  

After the presentation by Dr. Akram Khreisat, the attendees asked questions about the Amman Urban Observatory. When asked about the challenges and difficulties the observatory faces, he elaborated on the large influx of refugees that Amman receives and the associated challenges for the measurement of urban indicators. As the city recently receives many refugees, indicators need a certain flexibility to account for the inconstant change of inhabitant numbers. Furthermore, Mr. Khreisat was asked whether the observatory uses the gathered data for spatial analysis or 3D cadaster purposes. In answering this, he elaborates that they work together with the city’s GIS Department in order to deliver scenario plans for spatial growth.

The Connective Cities Network intends to create a working group to identify different best practices for the observation of urban parameters. Furthermore, interested cities are intended to be assisted through the development of templates that can be used to implement in a similar process to the one in Amman. Any city representatives interested in joining the working group are very welcome to contact Dr. Muna Shalan (muna.shalan@giz.de) and Mr. Jimmy Yoedsel (jimmy.yoedsel@giz.de) for further information and the possibility to take part.

Connective Cities would like to thank Dr. Akram Khreisat and all the participants for the presentation of the Amman Urban Observatory and for the fruitful exchange and discussion.

Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project (DMDP) – Phase 1

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The Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project (DMDP) aims to improve connectivity and mobility within the city while reducing flooding through structural and non-structural measures. As part of the project, 67 kilometres of rainwater channels were built. The focus was on training local government experts, solid waste management and urban greening initiatives.

However, the DMDP also became aware of various issues and challenges that the city faces in drainage management. These include the effects of climate change, such as flooding, storms, heat, drought and sea level rise, as well as an inadequate stormwater drainage system due to a lack of suitable corridors and space for retention basins. Unrestricted access to stormwater drains has led to misuse for sewage and waste disposal.

The effects of rapid urbanisation also had to be taken into account: Around 70 per cent of Dar es Salaam’s population lives in unplanned settlements, mostly in very exposed locations. Community involvement is crucial here: it can help build trust, ensure sustainability and promote ownership of flooding control projects. Cooperation and coordination between different stakeholders, including authorities, municipalities and other organisations involved in the project, as well as effective communication and coordination are essential.

Six municipalities join forces to combat increasing heat in cities

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From 3 to 6 June 2024, the group came together in Heidelberg as part of the “Connective Cities Deep Dive” to substantiate their pilot projects and learn from the experiences of other cities.

Although the six cities have to adapt to increasing heat in different ways, they have two principles in common, as became clear during their exchange in Heidelberg. If you want to do something strategically and in the long term to combat heat in cities, you need a plan. This is just as true for Aswan in Egypt, where temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius in summer, as it is for Lüdenscheid, which is located in the cooler, densely wooded Sauerland region of Germany. They also strongly believe in the approach of initially testing innovative heat solutions in small pilot projects before implementing them on a larger scale.

There are many ways for cities to reduce the negative heat effects on the population: creating more green spaces, planting shade-providing trees, greening building facades, creating cooling corridors, for example through watercourses, raising public awareness and much more. To do this, it is first important to know where the heat builds up in a city.

Strategic planning in municipalities– Impediments, framework and benefits

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Managing municipalities effectively and achieving sustainable development for residents are priorities for local authorities. As the link between the central authority and the local population, municipalities need to develop mid-term and long-term strategies to fulfill their developmental role in basic service provision, managing resources, infrastructure development, as well as achieving economic growth and sustainability. Strategic planning is key to shaping a vibrant community and economically competitive environment. It focuses on leveraging assets and strengths rather than overcoming challenges and are characterized by a sharp focus on the competitive advantage, key clusters of opportunity, workforce characteristics, quality of life standards and other economic and demographic differentiators.

However, long-term strategic planning is weak if not non-existent in the majority of municipalities in the MENA region. While some municipalities have made significant progress in adopting strategic planning, many face greater challenges related to urbanisation, service delivery, economic development, natural resources, environmental issues, social disparities, changing demographics, and response to crises. To overcome these challenges effectively, municipalities must have up-to-date local strategies that guide them in setting development scenarios, priorities, and making informed decisions to meet the diverse needs and challenges of the local population. In essence, local development strategies are the foundation upon which successful local governance is built.

Promoting Sustainable Mining Industries

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The online event took place on 23 April and explored the challenges and opportunities in promoting sustainable mining industries and the critical role of cities in driving positive change in the sector. Key discussion points included:

  • The role of cities in promoting sustainable mining industries: How can cities actively contribute to the promotion of sustainable mining practices, taking into account environmental and social impacts?
  • Maximising benefits for local communities: What strategies are in place to ensure that mining activities best benefit local communities, both economically and socially?
  • Repurposing closed mining sites: What innovative approaches exist to transform them into new assets for communities and promote sustainable development?

The event featured insightful inputs from various sources:

A Strategy for Climate-Sensitive Urban Development in Garowe, Somalia

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Connective Cities has supported the development of a bottom-up strategy for climate-resilient urban development, known as the Climate-Sensitive City Development Strategy (CSCD). This involved a participatory methodology for identifying and analyzing key entry points for municipal action. Garowe was the first pilot project where this methodology and the design of the CSCD strategy were tested. We are pleased to present this strategy to you here.

Connective Cities was commissioned by the GIZ project “Promotion of social and economic inclusion of extreme poor IDPs and residents of host communities in Puntland, Somalia” (SEIPP) to support the development of an integrated climate protection concept (adaptation and partial mitigation) for the city of Garowe, Puntland, Somalia. SEIPP is dedicated to promoting the socio-economic integration of extremely poor internally displaced persons and residents of host communities in Puntland, Somalia.

If you have any questions about the methodology or are interested in discussing it, please contact Paulina Koschmieder: paulina.koschmieder@giz.de