Start Date : 22 Sept 05   End Date : 23 Sept 05 Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Some 50 delegates from East, Central and Southern Africa participated in a two-day highly successful meeting on the Cities Without Slums (CWS) programme at the UN-HABITAT headquarters in Nairobi on 22-23 September 2005. They included delegates from the eight CWS participating cities- Addis Ababa ( Ethiopia), Kisumu (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda), Arusha (Tanzania), Blantyre (Malawi), Maputo (Mozambique), Maseru (Lesotho), and Durban (South Africa), who comprised of officials from local authorities, representatives of NGOs, CBOs, HPMs and UN-HABITAT country teams .

GTZ officers from Addis Ababa and Durban attended also the workshop. In addition to the CWS team at UN-HABITAT, some members of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR), representatives of Kenya Slum Upgrading (KENSUP) and other UN-HABITAT programmes were also present. The workshop was jointly organized by Shelter branch and the Regional Office for Africa and Arab States (ROAAS).

The meeting was designed to review and learn from the experiences of the inception phase of the CWS programme. The Programme contributes to the realization of the Millennium Declaration goal, "Cities without Slums," by working with Member States to improve conditions of people living and working in informal settlements. The CWS programme had been initiated in response to increasing urban poverty manifested in unplanned settlements, where between 40 to 60 percent of people lack adequate water, sanitation and, very often, security of tenure.

In a speech read on her behalf, UN-HABITAT's Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka said the challenge of slums was an enormous one adding that the agency, in association with the development partners, would support the programme implementers in their endeavours to address the issue. "Your strategies may differ slightly, but your goal is the same: providing them with decent and well-serviced housing, but also, in the future, offering the poor alternatives to slums. Access to affordable, properly serviced and well located land is central to this process," Mrs. Tibaijuka said.

The first objective of the CWS-Regional Workshop was to exchange experiences and consolidate lessons on the most effective tools, approaches and processes to achieve CWS goals. This opportunity arose out of the main findings of the Situation Analyses undertaken in the cities of the eight countries in the programme. In keeping with this objective, each of the eight cities made presentations outlining:

• the main findings of their individual situation analyses,
• ongoing activities and progress as well as
• Action Plans.

In addition, each country focused on particular issues confronting them. The Ethiopian delegation made a presentation on the challenges of community mobilization in Slum Upgrading in Addis Ababa . The Kenyan team presented a paper on the role of civil society and community organizations and their importance in slum upgrading. Uganda 's presentation focused on women and youth in slum upgrading. Other briefings were from Lesotho (opportunities and challenges facing the shelter sector in Lesotho ), Tanzania (the role of grassroots communities in slum upgrading) and Mozambique (experiences in engaging the government). There were also presentations from South Africa (upgrading strategies) and Malawi (the implications of title registration in informal settlements).

The second objective of the workshop was to reinforce the linkages between CWS initiatives and Global Campaigns, Global Programmes and other UN-HABITAT activities in view of assisting the selected cities in engaging decisively in the implementation phase.

Water for African Cities presentation	Slum Upgrading Facility presentation	Gender Unit interaction

Then, the meeting involved not only discussions amongst the eight cities but also potential collaboration with Sustainable cities, Regional Urban Sector Profile Study, LA 21, Gender unit, Water for African Cities, Safer Cities, Monitoring Systems, Slum Upgrading Facility, Training and Capacity Building. Presentations were also made by several UN-HABITAT units, such as the Regional Office for Africa and the Arab States (on RUSPS the “Regional Urban Sector Profile Study”), SUF (Slum Upgrading Facility), Water & Sanitation Branch,

Cities Alliance presentation

The Cities Alliance, a potential partner of the target cities in the next phase, was represented by William Cobbett, Senior Urban Upgrading Adviser. He made an extensive presentation of the Cities Alliance objectives and potential areas of partnership with the Cities without Slums Sub-Regional initiative and its member cities.

Following the presentations, there were significant opportunities for discussion and debate as well on the last session of the workshop. Among the recurring themes were:

• Need to address slum upgrading in its larger socio-economic and political context,
• Localization of MDG strategies towards a chieving significant improvement in lives slum dwellers,
• Continuation of efforts of all participating cities to broaden the process of participation and consultation in the quest for innovative and durable solutions,
• Gender participation and empowerment in access to land as a priority,
• Resolution of the crisis in our cities to be solved, not by external intervention alone, but essentially through the involvement of all partners including slum dwellers,
• Consistent political support from national governments in slum upgrading policies with the supporting role of the international community,
• Need to mobilize funds in view of leveraging domestic financial resources

Participants exchange with KENSUP partners.

They lauded the participants' resolve in engaging the implementation phase toward a substantial improvement in the lives of slum dwellers, as seen in the Millennium development Goals.

Genral view of Kibera slums.

In particular the participants had an opportunity to assess the severity of the situation in Kibera and the general lack of services. Discussions with KENSUP partners included the issue of community participation and mobilisation, organisation of saving schemes, and participation of communities in the planning of the future upgraded settlement.