The Food and Agriculture Organization organized a one and half day inception workshop to establish the technical foundation for the development of the Green City Action Plan at the Sarova Imperial Hotel in Kisumu.
The Organization is implementing the green Cities in Action for Africa project to support five African countries and ten cities, of which Kenya is part.
In Kenya, the project focuses on supporting the cities of Kisumu and Nairobi in identifying viable, locally adapted solutions that promote green urban development while addressing the growing challenges of climate change, rapid urbanization, and urban vulnerability.
The Project seeks to strengthen urban resilience by leveraging synergies across urban and peri-urban forestry, sustainable agriculture, circular bio-economy, and renewable energy.
The initiative funded by Italian Government, aligns with the Piano Mattei, Italy’s strategic cooperation framework for Africa, and contributes to its vision by promoting integrated, people-centred approaches to sustainable development.
Key objectives of the workshop are: to disseminate and discuss the preliminary results of the sectoral diagnostics and investment options across all technical areas of the Green Cities Initiative; gather additional information, comments and recommendations on the proposed solutions and the overall approach; and facilitate the joint identification of priority intervention areas.
The anticipated outcomes include: recommendations on technical notes summarizing the challenges, opportunities and proposed interventions across different thematic areas, identification of three to four prioritised investment options for each area jointly with associated roles and stakeholder responsibilities and development of a draft governance framework proposing the roles of national teams, city authorities, and partners; and draft of a preliminary roadmap and timeline to guide the development of a comprehensive investment proposal.
While officially opening the workshop, the PS for the state Department of forestry, Gitonga Mugambi stated that, to enhance the quality of life in our urban and Peri urban areas, land use planning is an integral part of developing sustainable cities.
He reiterated that the Green Cities Initiative falls under the natural ecosystem restoration programme where the government is carrying a lot of reforms to address the gaps in order to improve green cities. A case in example is a programme where the government targets to plant 15 billion trees by 2032.
Against the national target, Kisumu County is expected to plant 91million trees. Currently Kisumu falls short of the 10% mark as it has 17.5 million trees which is 8.8% tree cover and 0.64% forest cover.
He further called on the technical participants to be thinkers, shapers of better bankable projects that will provide solutions to the challenges faced by the people, for it is at the technical level that the rubber meets the road.
The CECM for Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Blue Economy, Hon, Kenneth Onyango, who represented Kisumu Governor thanked all the development partners and the stakeholders saying it was an honor for Kisumu to host the workshop.
He highlighted with concern, that Kisumu like many other cities in Africa, is at the frontline of vulnerability to high temperatures, climate shocks, floods, urban waste that threaten the food system, infrastructure and the well-being of the people.
However, the department of agriculture he said, contributes through promotion of climate smart agriculture, urban forestry to mitigate climate risks while advancing air quality, biodiversity, circular economy and urban agriculture.
Hon. Onyango said the workshop marks the beginning of a shared journey with strong partnerships and being responsive to realities of the times. He also called on participants to share insights, strategies openly to come up with lasting solutions to the challenges.
The workshop brought on board a range of national and international stakeholders from various sectors, with representatives from governmental institutions at both national and local levels, including the departments of Urban Development, Environment, Agriculture and government agencies.
