Just City POA, Kitwe Local Leadership Orientation

Cities Should Strive to be Inclusive, Resilient and Environmentally Sustainable

Cities are a dominant form of human settlement that significantly contribute to social, economic, political and environmental landscape at local and national levels and influence regional and global development. Cities have emerged as the focus for change and the venue where policies are realized with innovative solutions. They are able to forge new linkages among actors including national governments, the private sector, universities, civil society, and common citizens. However, over 75 per cent of the world’s cities have grown more unequal, especially in developing countries, slums and informal settlements, accommodate close to 1 billion people, which is the physical manifestation of urban poverty and inequality.
To effectively accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs and sustainable urban development, cities should strive to be inclusive, resilient and environmentally sustainable in their effort to harness the transformative power of urbanization by creating jobs and offering better livelihoods; social inclusion; reducing inequality and poverty ultimately improving living standards and quality of life for all. They should deliberately formulate, policies, laws and programmes that promote cities that are liveable, sustainable and Just for all to live and thrive without leaving no one and no place behind. Physical and social services of the city should be accessible to All inhabitants irrespective of race, creed, status, gender and age considering the fact that the marginalized and vulnerable persons including Women and men, the elderly, Persons with disabilities, girls and boys, experience urbanization and cities differently and benefit differently from the opportunities available to improve their livelihood, standard of living and quality of life.

The FES Zambia through its Just City POA, conducted a base line research in the four (4) cities namely Chipata, Kitwe, Livingstone and Solwezi the purpose of the study was to establish and synthesize base line information on social justice and urban development conditions and challenges in relation with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 11 and outcome was the issue paper report “Towards the Just City in Zambia”. As a continued effort to engage stakeholders effectively in the Just City working line in Zambia, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Zambia Office is strengthening coordination of the Kitwe City Council, and other stakeholders such as trade unions, the civil society organizations, Academics and general public especially those living in informal settlements to discuss delivery of public goods and services. This is in line with the realization of Kitwe as a pilot of the Just City project in Zambia.

The FES Zambia through the Just City working line is working to increase dialogue and policy engagement with policy makers (Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development) in an effort to accelerate the realization of the Just City working line in Zambia. This is being done with the objective of contributing towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, SDG No. 11 which aims at making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The orientation workshop in Kitwe, was graced by the presence of Her worship, the Mayor of Kitwe City Council Ms. Mpasa Mwaya - Kitwe Mayor., Mr. Rodney Banda (Director Public Health, Kitwe City Council), Mr. Christopher Msipu Phiri (Lecturer of the Copperbelt University, Urban & Regional Planning Department), Mr. Felix Chipoya (Coordinator, Kitwe Land Alliance) and Mr. Lameck Kashiwa (Secretary General of the Alliance of Zambian Informal Economy Associations "AZIEA").