Category: Water supply / sewage

Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness in the Provision of Water, Wastewater & Urban Mobility Services in Sub Saharan Africa

Posted on by erik

Between the 7th and 18th of September, 2020 in intermittent virtual sessions, about 43 participants from 24 cities and representing 7 African countries and Germany, congregated to share best practices and develop project ideas in the afore-mentioned areas

With the ever-increasing population and urbanization in most countries in Sub Saharan Africa, the demand for basic services also increases yet the municipalities and cities have not been able to match the supply to demand. A lot of challenges ail these sectors but there are efforts to sustainably sustain service provision.

The objectives of the dialogue event were to:
1. Facilitate exchange of experiences based on good practices of public service delivery among urban practitioners from municipalities in Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany,
2. Facilitate peer-to-peer advisory services to address the current challenges of public service delivery in the cities of the participants and create new knowledge,
3. Develop the capacity of the participants to analyse existing strategies and to formulate project ideas and envisaged solutions for efficient and effective public service delivery, and
4. Define future support measures to strengthen project development and implementation skills as well as ongoing exchange through the community of practice, Connective Cities.

The countries involved in this dialogue event were; Ethiopia, Ghana, Germany, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The event was a starting point for action planning for project ideas to be developed.

This report is the documentation of the virtual event.

Municipal services in the pandemic

Posted on by erik

Numerous German and international experts from 11 different countries met on 04.11.2020 at our virtual event “Municipal services in the pandemic”. The central topic was how municipal administration and municipal companies can act to improve the response to the current crisis.

Their practical experience was at the forefront. The cities of Rostock and Bremen (Germany) presented good practice examples of waste and water companies, and the Secretary for International Relations of Sao Paulo presented good practices from Brazil’s largest city. The other participants from Tunisia, Indonesia, Morocco, Somalia, Nepal, Iraq, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Palestine and the United States also shared their approach to the pandemic in the municipal services sector and discussed possible lessons learnt from the crisis.

Through our peer-to-peer consultation, the exchange was intensified and all participants had the opportunity to discuss among their peers, in order to support each other. In the end, new project ideas for further cooperation could be discussed and next steps suggested.

Call for participants: Municipal services in the pandemic

Posted on by erik

This event is part of our series International exchange of experiences: lessons learned in the Covid-19 crisis, and brings German municipal experts together with international actors to discuss how municipal administration and municipal companies can act to improve the response to the current crisis. Among other issues, this dialog will discuss good practices of response to the challenge of providing municipal services of water and waste management in the pandemic. Practical examples will be presented by experts from Rostock-Germany and abroad on the topics of waste management and water provision. The overall aim of the event is to achieve a joint exchange of experiences and to develop ideas for cooperation.

Event Registration

If you have any queries about the event and the participation process, we encourage you to contact:

Alexander Wagner
alexander.wagner@engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-455

Thiago Garcia
thiago.garcia(@)engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-633

Green Urban Infrastructure in Asian Cities

Posted on by erik

From August 3rd until August 14th, 2020 around 30 urban practitioners from 6 Asian Cities came together virtually to exchange their experiences and expertise in the field of Green Urban Infrastructure. Especially challenges in waste management and water sanitation were discussed intensively, as they represent pressing issues for many Asian cities.

The aim of the workshop was to further develop existing project ideas by discussing arising challenges and trying out new methods to find new perspectives and approaches to urban planning. The event was a follow-up to the dialogue event in Bandung, Indonesia in November 2019.

Due to the restrictions imposed on all of us by the Covid-19-pandemic, the event was conducted virtually by using the Connective Cities Platform. To ensure an enriching learning experience, the event took place over two weeks and included synchronous workdays with various keynote presentations as well as asynchronous days on which the participants could work on their project ideas at their own pace.

Six projects from Indonesia and Nepal were presented and further developed (see presentations).

Improving efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of water, wastewater management and urban mobility services

Posted on by erik

The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed what was known to be normal. In the new normal, Connective Cities has also resorted to virtual formats of the dialogue events. Between the 7th and 14th of September, in intermittent virtual sessions, about 43 participants from 24 cities and representing 7 African countries and Germany, congregated to share best practices and develop project ideas in the areas of water supply, wastewater management and urban mobility.

The rapid urbanization in Sub Saharan Africa has seen an increase in the urban population and subsequently the demand for basic urban basic services such as water, sanitation and sustainable transport.  More than half of the urban population in SSA is yet to access these basic services.

This event provided a platform for utilities and cities to share on solutions to increase access to water supply, different approaches in management of wastewater and approaches in implementing sustainable urban mobility.

The conclusion of the event was crowned with six project ideas for Connective Cities to consider for further support in refining the concepts.

Call for participants: Provision of municipal services during a pandemic

Posted on by erik

Covid-19 pandemic has caused a lot of negative impacts to many cities and municipalities across the world. According to UN Habitat, about 44% of the total African population live in urban areas of which 47% live in slums and informal settlements characterized by poor access to potable water and safe sanitation, overcrowding and often deficiency in service provision. The inadequate capacity of many Sub-Saharan countries to provide adequate water infrastructure despite being a major necessity in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic has made it difficult to contain the virus spread within many cities. This makes cities more susceptible in the ongoing spread of the pandemic in the region and the enforcement of the WHO guidelines on prevention and fight against the pandemic a challenge. Sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid and unplanned urbanization is therefore seen as a huge risk factor of Covid-19.

The impact of this pandemic has been felt worldwide yet cities have responded with different measures to avert the spread and cushion against long-term impacts and even future pandemics. It’s against this background that Connective Cities1 is offering a platform in which cities will share the challenges they have experienced and interventions that have either been implemented or are being planned to safeguard against the negative impacts and future pandemics.

In the first series, we look at the provision of municipal services and specifically water supply and solid waste management services.

Conference language is English.

More information:Concept paper [pdf 3 pages]

Participation and contact

If you have further questions or would like to participate, please send an e-mail to Sophia Kamau (sophia.kamau@giz.de), Regional Coordinator for Connective Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa

South-East European Local Governments in Post Covid-19 Socio-Economic Recovery

Posted on by erik

South-East European (SEE) local governments (LGs) have been and will certainly remain at the forefront in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic social and economic crisis. In serving and protecting their communities they have been facing unprecedented challenges in multiple dimensions. SEE local governments have been responding to these challenges with a strong spirit of solidarity, putting their citizens lives before everything else and working tirelessly to provide support to the most vulnerable.

The crisis required local governments to take timely measures to shut down selected local services, quickly switch to remote working practices and digitalise administrative services, expand programs for securing citizens healthcare, expand social protection and care for a significantly higher number of vulnerable people, take measures to allow the smooth implementation of online or long-distance learning, etc. In the aftermath of the control or minimisation of the first wave of infection SEE local governments have taken specific ad hoc measures to support the survival of their local communities and economies.

The purpose of this survey is to help improving the understanding over the impact of the COVID-19 crisis at the local government level in South-East Europe, identifying effective and innovative social and economic recovery strategies and ultimately helping formulating concrete policy proposals to inform advocacy efforts of NALAS member Local Government Associations.

C40 Mayors’ Agenda for a Green and Just Recovery

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As the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, mayors’ immediate priority is to face this unprecedented crisis and protect lives. At the same time, the city leaders who together established the Global Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force are leading in taking the first steps towards recovery. They have committed to providing the swiftest and strongest possible rebound for their citizens and reaffirmed commitment to the principles of the Global Green New Deal — to protect our environment, strengthen economies and build a more equitable future – and reach out to other cities, youth, unions, business and civil society to join in this effort.
[…]
By taking a sustainable path at this critical juncture, by respecting science, fostering unity and embracing a spirit of innovation and purpose, cities will secure the best recovery they can and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Amid the devastation of this global pandemic, mayoral leadership has never been more important.

Nine principles for a green and just recovery are elaborated that can support cities’ recovery efforts.
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Water and Climate Change

Posted on by erik

Climate change affects – and is affected by – global water resources. It reduces the predictability of water availability and affects water quality. Climate change also increases the occurrence of extreme weather events, threatening sustainable social-economic development and biodiversity worldwide. This, in turn, has profound implications for water resources. As such, climate change exacerbates the ever-growing challenges associated with the sustainable management of water. Conversely, the way water is managed influences the drivers of climate change.

The 2020 edition of the UN World Water Development Report addresses the critical linkages between water and climate change in the context of sustainable development. It also serves as a guide for concrete actions to address these challenges. It outlines actions, supported by examples from across the world, in three areas: first, enabling people to adapt to the impacts of climate change; second, improving the resilience of livelihoods; and, third, reducing the drivers of climate change.

Municipal Response to Covid-19 Pandemic II

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More than 30 municipal representatives from around 20 cities in MENA and Sub-Sharan Africa participated in the second virtual event of the knowledge-exchange series on Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Municipal representatives from both political and technical levels were invited and they engaged in knowledge-exchange to analyse and discuss practical examples of municipal response related to provision of urban basic services such as water and solid waste management.