URBAN GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR MUNICIPAL BOARD MEMBERS AND SELECT STAFF UNDER THE SUSTAINABLE URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

The Sustainable Urban Economic Development

Programme (SUED) is a £70 million, six-year programme supporting twelve fast-growing municipalities in Kenya to develop sustainable urban economic plans and attract investment for critical climate-resilient infrastructure and value chain projects to better harness inclusive economic growth. These municipalities are provided with support in the form of;

  • Urban Economic Planners (UEP): To help them develop integrated and sustainable plans to spur inclusive growth hubs of the future investment attraction (IA) experts to help the municipalities develop and implement investment promotion strategies and draw in investments (including PPPs).
  • Investment Climate/ Business environment Reform Advisers (IC/BER): To help the municipalities address policy and regulatory constraints to private sector-led urban growth.
  • Investment Attraction (IA) Experts: To help the municipalities develop and implement investment promotion strategies and draw in investments (including PPPs) to fund commercially viable climate-resilient infrastructure and value chain projects.
  • Capacity Building Specialists (CBS): To support priorities identified in the urban economic plans, enabling municipalities to enhance their capacity and generate revenue to manage the increased activity after the programme ends.

SUED has completed the development of Urban Economic Plans (UEPs) for nine municipalities that serve as advisory documents anchored on the existing work and priorities identified under county and municipal plans such as County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs), Municipal Integrated Development Plans (MIDPs) and other planning documents. In order to meet the ambition captured in the UEP’s, the targeted municipalities are required to establish investor and financial ready governance and leadership structures, processes, systems, policies and be able to engage, onboard, and provide aftercare services to investors to achieve sustainable urban development.

It is against this backdrop that a Capacity Needs Assessment (CNA) was conducted in 2020, which involved ten municipalities, recommending the need for capacity development in leadership and governance. The five municipalities targeted for this training are therefore selected from the ten based on the Capacity Needs Assessment outcome, and they include; Kisii, Iten, Eldoret, Malindi, and Isiolo