SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Urban Development Programme, South Africa
Location: Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa
Abako International Partners AB was involved in the Sida-supported Urban Development Programme as a subconsultant to Sipu International AB (www.sipuinternational.se).
Mr Asplund was the resident Urban Advisor 2002-2006 in NMBMM and facilitated the urban development support to the municipality, which included urban planning, transportation planning, housing, environmental projects, cultural projects and support to the HIV/AIDS prevention scheme.
Building Capacity for Urban Development and Effective Land Tenure in Lusaka
Location: Lusaka City Council, Zambia, 2007-2011
Abako International Partners AB was, as a sub-consultant under Sipu International AB (www.sipuinternational.se) and Swedesurvey (www.swedesurvey.se), engaged in the project Building Capacity for Urban Development and Effective Land Tenure in Lusaka” in Zambia. The project was funded by Sida and contracted to Swedesurvey and Sipu International AB, aiming to improve the service delivery especially to the poor people of Lusaka through community based planning, improved capacity within the municipality planning, budgeting and service delivery departments and improved land management.
Mr Asplund from AIP was mainly engaged in strategic planning, spatial planning, community based development planning and capacity building within Lusaka City Council.
Embassy of Sweden in Kenya:Urban Development Programme
Mr Asplund from Abako International Partners AB has been contracted by Embassy of Sweden in Kenya in 2009 to advice on and support Swedish Urban Development Support to Kenya. The work, which is still on going, is done in direct collaboration with the Embassy as well as with Sida, Stockholm.
The four main on going urban development interventions during the period 2010-2015 are:
1.The Embassy of Sweden is, together with World Bank and Agence Française de Developpement, supporting two big national programmes, Kenya Municipal Programme, KMP, and Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Project, KISIP, both through Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development, MoLHUD.
2.The elaboration of a National Urban Development Policy, NUDP, also through MoLHUD
3.Support to the Civil Society Urban Development Programme, which includes funding of demonstration projects and support to the urban Campaign “Whose Town is It Anyway?” with setting up Local Urban Fora in 14 Kenyan urban centres and a central Civil Society Urban Forum. For further information on this project support, go to www.csudp.org
4.Strategic support to the overall urban development through UN-Habitat
5.In 2014 the Embassy started support to a country-wide SymbioCity programme, implemented by the Council of Governors in cooperation with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, SALAR, and its subsidiary SKL International.
Mazabuka, Zambia: SymbioCity Urban Sustainability Review
Mr Asplund from Abako International Partners AB was contracted by SKL International to support the town of Mazabuka to do an Urban Sustainability Review, USR, in line with the SymbioCity Approach.
The work was done together with the Municipality and including all stakeholders in Mazabuka during the period from Jun 2012 up to August 2013.
Mazabuka is situated 125 km outside Lusaka, on the road to Livingstone and further to Botswana and South Africa. The town with its soon 100,000 inhabitants is nearly surrounded by Zambia Sugar’s big sugar plantation and other farms. Main challenges are the need for densifying the town, the handling the through-traffic and to ensure that the inhabitants have a good living environment with water, sewer, collection of solid waste as well as education, cultural services and more job opportunities.
The result of the USR, a report formulated as a joint team-work including communities, professionals, local business, as well as central government agencies, suggests different strategies and projects that will improve the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the town of Mazabuka and its population. The report has been taken by the Mazabuka Council and will guide the future development of the town.
The project was the first pilot project for Africa within the SymbioCity Approach concept development.
