After a productive two-year run, the Cities Alliance-funded program, Strengthening Urban Local Governments in Uganda, implemented by ICMA and the Urban Authorities Association of Uganda (UAAU), ended on a successful note. ICMA and UAAU entered this partnership to assist the Government of Uganda with Transforming the Settlements of the Urban Poor in Uganda (TSUPU), a national program that focuses on the urban management needs of local governments and including the urban poor in community development. The two objectives of the project were:

• To increase the capacity of five pilot municipalities (Arua, Jinja, Kabale, Mbale, and Mbarara) by improving their urban management and planning systems to meet the goals of the TSUPU project
• To improve the capacity of UAAU to be a more effective municipal association representing the interests of urban local governments in Uganda.

Over the course of the program, ICMA provided training and technical assistance for the local town clerks and city managers in all five of the designated municipalities. ICMA conducted three public service training courses for each of the municipal leadership teams throughout the two years, and according to Tim Honey, ICMA’s consultant on the project and former city manager of Portland, Maine, it was evident that the communities made progress after each session. The officials began to understand the importance of working and communicating with their neighboring slum communities. They had the opportunity to assess the needs of the slum dwellers in regard to planning and budget processes.

All five municipalities created municipal urban forums, which were designed to bring together stakeholders in each pilot city to discuss the most pressing urban issues facing their communities. The municipal leadership teams then set priorities and selected projects for funding. In Kabale, one issue the community members chose to address was how to access water from a spring originating from the police barrack. The barrack is closed to residents at night, which restricts their access to the water. However, maneuvering the channel of water to stream outside of the barrack will ensure that residents will have access to water at all hours of the day and night.

Before the program, solid relationships did not exist between the five municipalities and their slum communities. Therefore, when the town officials made decisions regarding urban planning and developing projects, the slum dwellers were underrepresented and their interests were not taken into consideration. Now, the five pilot municipalities and their slum communities are beginning to communicate regularly and work together to design and implement projects that will benefit everyone.

Although ICMA’s portion of the program has ended, the World Bank has expanded the project into a $130 million dollar program that will implement infrastructure improvements in nine additional municipalities. Tim Honey commented, “We had tremendous success with citizen engagement and connecting the municipalities with their adjacent slum communities. Slum dwellers tend not to have much representation in Uganda; they’re still trying to incorporate all voices in local government.”

To learn more, visit the ICMA International website, the Uganda page, the International Development topic area in the Knowledge Network, and the International Dispatches and Notes from CityLinks blogs, or e-mail international@icma.org.