Kisumu hosts 9th Africities Conference
The Lakeside City of Kisumu was in carnival mood last week as it played host to the 9th Africities conference. The event provides a great opportunity for peer learning on the management of cities and local authorities in Africa. This should be the go-to event for lessons in the development and management of cities and municipalities. It brings together key actors at policy and technical level. Great opportunity to identify and seek solutions to contemporary urban governance challenges facing the continent.
These conferences have been happening for a while now. But are African states, cities and municipalities using them to learn and do things differently? Do we see gradual improvements in our urban governance? I hope that some participants in Kisumu picked useful lessons to inform the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the African Union Agenda 2063. I am certain that Kisumu City, and host country Kenya, drew some obvious social-economic benefits from the event, and seized the local and international limelight to position for future business. However, whether the country delegations to these conferences apply the lessons learnt on return remains moot.