Achieving Transformative Change in Rwanda Through Building Sustainable and Liveable Cities for All

Today, the world’s cities are facing many interconnected environmental, social, and demographic challenges that are caused by economic growth, human development, inequalities, increasingly rapid urbanization, and climate change, among others. In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to tackle these challenges, setting 17 goals and related targets for national and local governments to achieve and report on. While some goals mainly focus on eradicating poverty or safeguarding natural resources for future generations, all goals have a direct or indirect linkage with sustainable urban development. More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities, and this number is likely to grow to 70 per cent by 2030. Thus, local governments could act as focal points for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Many cities around the world have already adopted mechanisms to localize SDGs and report on their progress towards the goals to stakeholders and citizens. They are increasingly taking greater leadership and mobilizing local and international stakeholders in their efforts to make cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The objective of this proposed Joint Programme on Sustainable Cities is to increase the capacity of Rwandan cities to better manage existing challenges and prevent future ones. These challenges are related to urban poverty, unemployment, poor housing and underdeveloped infrastructure, natural and human-made disasters, as well as constraints on productivity, safety, and security, especially for women and girls. The Joint Programme will support Rwanda to create liveable and inclusive cities that provide security, access to jobs, decent housing, and a better quality of life for all citizens. Reducing social inequality, strengthening citizen participation, and, moreover, giving people hope and better prospects are the underlying driving forces of the programme. Strong partnership between stakeholders is at the heart of the programme. Bringing together different stakeholders will lead to a greater impact and transformation. Therefore, the urban development professionals (such as planners, built environment specialists, environmentalists, engineers, architects, and others) will have to work hand in hand with other development partners, educational institutions, public and private sectors, along with citizens and civil society to ensure inclusive, integrated and evidence-based urban development. Partnerships among members of the One UN family are also required to ensure coherent support to the Government of Rwanda to build sustainable cities. This programme will focus on the Priority Area 2 of the National Strategy for Transformation I (NST 1): “Accelerate Sustainable Urbanization from 18.4 per cent (2016-17) to 35 per cent by 2024”. The supporting UN agencies to this Joint Programme include the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women). The primary implementation partner on the Government of Rwanda’s side is the Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA). However, the Joint Programme cannot be successfully carried out without the support of other ministries and affiliated agencies.

Project symbol

RWA/22/01/OUF

Admin unit

CO-Dar es Salaam

Start date

01/04/2022

End date

31/12/2024

Total allocation

100591

Total expenditure

Status

Active

100591

Development Partners

Multi Partner Trust Fund Office, UNDP

Country/Countries

Rwanda

Outcomes

Outcome 3: Full and productive employment for just transitions