Success Story - Implementing an Urban Programme within the COVID-19 Context

Sustainable Urban Economic Development Programme

Implementing an Urban Programme within the COVID-19 Context

Figure 1: The British High Commissioner H.E. Jane Marriot, the Elgeyo Marakwet Governor H.E. Alex Tolgos, the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture H.E. Dr Amina Mohamed and the Principal Secretary for Forests and the Environment Dr. Chris Kiptoo unveil the IAAF world Heritage Plaque during Iten’s in-person UEP launch.

Why Hybrid Stakeholder Engagements are the Future “Developing a plan that captures the aspirations of our diverse stakeholders is not easy, more so with a pandemic in place. By working with the municipality and the county to develop a responsive and allinclusive urban economic plan, SUED has done just that” shared Elgeyo Marakwet Governor, H.E. Alex Tolgos, during Iten’s UEP launch. Iten is one of 121 municipalities that is benefiting from the UK

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Lake Region Economic Bloc- Bungoma and Kisii, North Rift Economic Bloc – Eldoret and Iten, Frontier Counties Development Council- Isiolo and Mandera, Mt. Kenya and Aberdares Region Economic Bloc- Kathwana and Kerugoya/Kutus, South Eastern Economic Bloc- Kitui and Wote, Jumuiya Ya Kaunti Za Pwani- Malindi and Lamu.

Government funded Sustainable Urban Economic Development Programme (SUED) to develop urban economic plans and attract investment for critical infrastructure and value chain projects.

Urban centres both at city and municipal level have profoundly been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustainable urbanisation continues to provide the way in which governments can offer a recourse to their citizens to mitigate against future socio-economic shocks. For this to work, there is need to put in place a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder invested framework that ensures that urban centres are well-planned and managed to create an enabling environment for populations to thrive.

During the pandemic, SUED carried out an impact study to better understand how the programme can work with the municipalities to assist with addressing the COVID-19 challenges that they were facing.

When the pandemic measures were put in place in Kenya, SUED had just commenced the UEP development process for Iten, Kathwana and Kisii municipalities. Further it was in the processes of kick starting its investment attraction activities in Kitui, Isiolo and Malindi. With the Government issuing strict containment measures that entailed banning of in-person meetings and inter-county travel, SUED’s heavy stakeholder engagement process had to pivot from in-person stakeholder meetings to virtual interactions.

The programme heavily benefitted from its strong groundwork in developing workable relationships with the municipalities that were strengthened within the virtual spaces. As a result, the programme was able to hold key virtual engagements such as post-assessments with Mandera, Lamu, Eldoret, and Kerugoya.

These post-assessments were critical in helping SUED share with the municipalities its new stakeholder engagement approach. The programme additionally held virtual meetings with the County leadership led

by Governors. The meetings played a key role in informing the top leadership how SUED would use a hybrid format to continue to support them to achieve their urban economic development objectives.

SUED’s hybrid approach entailed having in-person meetings when the Government restrictions were lifted and reserved for key decision-making points within the programme as well as prioritised virtual engagements during containment measure periods and for follow-up meetings.

The utilisation of the hybrid format resulted in SUED supporting Kisii, Kathwana and Iten to fully develop their urban economic plans. Further, the plans were publicly launched with potential investors invited in Kisii and Iten. The launches were physically held with strict adherence to COVID-19 measures to curb chances of infection. The programme was able to support Malindi, Isiolo and Kitui to carryout prefeasibility studies for their short-listed projects in anticipation of investors. As such, with SUED support 9 prefeasibility studies were completed utilising in-person meetings when necessary with virtual sessions incorporated.

During the pandemic, the programme was able to carry out a Capacity Needs Assessment for all the initial2 10 municipalities. The assessment was conducted in-person complemented by desk study and virtual key-informant interviews with the national government. The utilisation of the hybrid format enabled the programme to access senior government officials who may not have been available for physical meetings within the COVID-19 context. As a result of the utilisation of the hybrid format, SUED was able to determine how it could build the capacity of the municipal and county staff to implement the newly developed UEPs. The programme was able to train the staff on financial management and revenue enhancement for them to gain knowledge on public financial management and how it linked to the UEPs. Utilising the lessons learned from the development of the UEPs for Kathwana, Kisii and Iten, the programme kick-started the UEP development process in Lamu, Mandera, Kerugoya and Eldoret. The preferred methodology that works for SUED is having the initial meetings in-person and sharing with the stakeholders what the UEP development process entail. Subsequent engagements can be held virtually

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After its inception in September 2018, the programme ran a competitive process to select the initial 10 municipalities through a Call for Proposal (CfP). The CfP attracted 53 out of a possible 59 municipalities in Kenya. In July 2019, the then Secretary of State for International Development Rory Stewart announced an increase in SUED funding (£10 million) to enable the programme to support an additional two municipalities (Bungoma and Wote).

through various meeting platforms; however, a merit remains in having follow-up phone calls and emails to ascertain concurrence on decisions.

SUED’s hybrid format has enabled the programme to maintain its strong relationships with its key audiences while accessing new ones such as senior-level national officials due to the lack of geographical boundaries. Previously getting appointment with senior government officials would entail a lengthy process due to the peripatetic nature of their roles. As such, its engagements have been enriched by having diverse stakeholders from various key sectors provide insights on how to strengthen programme outputs. “Our UEP has been a culmination of many sessions with the SUED team. They have come to Kisii to meet with us directly and have also engaged us virtually through various forums to ensure that its development encompassed our ideas” shared Jamil Shamji- Kisii Municipal Board Chair on the UEP development process in Kisii.

The programme was also able to hold its first ever virtual consultative forum3. Previously due to the COVID-19 containment measures the programme was not able to host the municipalities for their quarterly consultative forum. However, with the adoption of the hybrid format of implementation, the programme was able to hold two virtual consultative forums in February and July 2021. SUED was able to utilise the platform to enable the programme work with experts to share insights on how the municipalities can own the urban economic development process and ensure that their municipalities are resilient to future economic shocks such as the pandemic. The utilisation of the virtual space has enabled the programme to navigate within its various workstreams effectively ensuring that the programme is on course to meet its objectives.

As it continues to implement its activities within the COVID-19 context, SUED is cognizant that the pandemic has brought to the front the inequalities that urbanisation has poor infrastructure that can support the informal sector within the pandemic and is working with the municipalities through its various workstreams to address this. The utilisation of a hybrid format has ensured that even when the SUED team is not able to physically meet stakeholders, there is a virtual space that is available that they can converse on how best they can flourish and develop. By working closely with the municipalities remotely and in-person to continue with the development of the UEPs and investment attraction work, amongst others, SUED is demonstrating to the counties and municipalities how critical planning is in spurring changes that can drive urban economic development. Its partnership with municipalities to attract investors to support the implementation of the UEPs shows the programme’s commitment towards assisting the county and municipal leadership to build back better and emerge stronger post-pandemic.

This collative stakeholder engagement approach is geared towards identifying future ways in which sustainable and inclusive development can be achieved in the face of pandemics. “The utilisation of both virtual and in-person meetings has ensured that as a municipality we are not left behind in the development of our UEP and that we are strategically positioned to attract investors into our Municipality” shared Hassannoor Abdullahi, Municipal Manager, Mandera during their post-assessment meeting

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SUED’s consultative forum are quarterly meetings that the programme has with all municipalities participating to share programme related experiences, peer to peer learning and replicate best practices.