ECSU Holds Kick off Workshop on Urban Expansion Planning
Ethiopian Civil Service University (ECSU) Holds Kick-off Workshop on Urban Expansion Planning for Rapidly Growing Secondary Cities, Dire-Dawa, JigJiga and Wuchale, on October 27, 2023 at Development Learning Center (DLC). The project is commenced in collaboration with Cities Alliance and the Ministry of Urban and Infrastructure (MUI).
On the opening of the workshop, Dr. Abrham Hagos, Head of President's Office welcomed the participants of the workshop and expressed his pleasure on the strong partnership that ECSU and MUI. He also noted that Ethiopia as one of rapidly growing economies in the continent should give due attention to the strategic planning and holistic development of its cities, as cities are not only engines for sustainable growth and development, but also host important social and economic institutions like households, organizations, market, and the environment. “A well-thought urban expansion will only base upon the scientific data and findings. The completion of this project will play its share to provide much needed knowledge and policy directions to enable us to pursue strategic development of cities in general secondary cities in particular. The purpose of this project should extend beyond the sample cities of the project and it should be a pioneer in setting up examples for the Horn of Africa. The project should engage in policy and capacity development initiatives, dialogues and peer learning events, both in Ethiopia and Sub-Saharan African countries.”, Dr. Abrham said. He also thanked Cities Alliance and Ministry of Urban and Infrastructure expressed his strong belief of the successful completion of the project.
W/ro Tsegereda Tafesse, Cities Alliance Advisor on the program said that the major responsibility given to ECSU with this project related to institutionalizing the activities carrying out on urban expansion, on legal framework, expanding knowledge, enabling qualified professionals. She also expressed her conviction that the university has the best capacity to discharge the responsibilities vested in it.
W/ro Genet G/Egziabher representing the MUI on her part expressed her hope that the project team will come up with a better contribution to alleviate the existing illegal and mal-administered urban expansion and the MUI readiness to support the project.
On the program, Dr. Mulugeta Worku presented a brief overview of the project. According to him, ECSU has established a committee and participated by preparing a technical and financial proposal and won the competition and made agreement with Cities Alliance UNOPS on June 22/2023. The total budget of the project is 250,000 USD and ECSU contributed 30% in kind 357,000.The total duration of the project will be 2 years and six months and 12 professionals are expected to be engaged in the project. The major objectives of the project include; the establishment of a knowledge center at ECSU to conduct "training of trainers" programs in urban expansion planning, forecasting, and adaptation to promote greater inclusion, Setting up a practitioner network in Ethiopia that offers paid technical advice and services on urban expansion planning to cities and ministries, Providing technical guidance on improved urban planning and forecasting, including climate risk and gender-sensitive planning, Strengthening the regulatory framework for cities to enhance urban planning, and expanding the urban expansion planning and forecasting methods at the national level and across rapidly urbanizing regions in Sub-Saharan Africa.