CityFuture CDS Workshop in Windhoek, Namibia
Meeting of Namibian Local Governments on a joint proposal on City Development Planning for small and medium sized cities.
Between the 9th and 12th June, over 30 representatives of Local Governments, LG Associations, National Government and their international Partners met in Windhoek to prepare a proposal for the Association of Local Authorities in Namibia (ALAN). The proposal will be presented to Cities Alliance to promote nationwide CDS efforts with a focus on local employment. On the request of ALAN, UCLG provided advice. Namibian local authorities and association got a clear picture of the recent development tools and results of CDS tools in South Africa.
ALAN has been receiving continuous support of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities since Namibia’s independence. Also now, when ALAN looks forward to take on new tasks, the support of FCM is very committed. Nevertheless, also the South African association, SALGA, confirmed their availability to build capacity to the sister organization ALAN, and the city of Durban went straight to act as a mentor for the 6 municipalities, ensuring a clear picture of means and opportunities of strategic planning. By this, the Namibian team could focus their proposal and envision their possible outcomes and roles for the upcoming years.
Besides a clear outcome of a revised proposal that was presented to the national state secretary of local governments (their line ministry) , also CA members such as GTZ were invited to joint, looking to maximize coherence of effort.
Some Interesting debates with inputs of all government levels might be to follow up in the global debate on urban development:
From the perspective of Namibia, that only counts on a population of 2 million, what does urban development mean? Small and medium sized municipalities want to consolidate the urban and local economic development, so that they, in a form of cluster, can positively grow, taking up more functions and opportunities besides agriculture, to reduce unemployment and become attractive for youth to stay and not to leave to larger cities. All the cities, including the capital city of Windhoek are aware that regional balance of population is important, convinced that locally driven strategies will be the best way to ensure this in a sustainable way.
