Rec’d 15 October 2009
1. TITLE OF PROPOSAL: Integrated Urban Database
2. PROPOSAL SUBMITTED BY:
Name and Title: Abraham Tekeste, Phd. Head, Policy, Research and Planning Bureau
Organization: Ministry of Works and Urban Development
Address: P.O. Box 24134, Sudan Street, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
Telephone/Fax/E-mail: Tel: 251 (0)11 554 1261. Fax: 251 (0)11 554 1259. Email:
Contact Person
Name: Lia G. Mariam. Policy, Research and Planning Bureau
Organization: Ministry of Works and Urban Development
Telephone/Fax/E-mail: Tel: 251 (0)11 554 1264. Fax: 251 (0)11 554 1259. Email:
3. CITIES ALLIANCE MEMBER(S) SPONSORING THE APPLICATION:
Name and Title: Ato Arkebe Oqubay, State Minister
Organization: Ministry of Works and Urban Development
Address: P.O. Box 24134, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
Telephone/Fax/E-mail: Tel: Tel: 251 (0)11 554 1255. Fax: 251 (0)11 554 1254. Email:
4. RECIPIENT ORGANIZATION:
Name and Title: Abraham Tekeste, Phd. Head, Policy, Research and Planning Bureau
Organization: Ministry of Works and Urban Development
Address: P.O. Box 24134, Sudan Street, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
Telephone/Fax/E-mail: Tel: 251 (0)11 554 1261. Fax: 251 (0)11 554 1259. Email:
Contact Person
Name: Lia G. Mariam. Policy, Research and Planning Bureau
Organization: Ministry of Works and Urban Development
Telephone/Fax/E-mail: Tel: 251 (0)11 554 1264. Fax: 251 (0)11 554 1259. Email:
5. OTHER IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS:
Name and Title: Ato Tefera Silishi, Project Manager
Organization: Canadian Urban Institute - Ethiopia
Address: P.O. Box: 25030 code 1000 Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
Telephone: + 251 (0) 115 535 358
Fax: + 251 (0) 115 535 409
E-mail:
Name and Title: Hans-Christian Voigt, Program Coordinator, Global Urban Governance and Decentralization Program,
Organization: German Technical Cooperation (GTZ)
Address: P.O. Box 12631, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Telephone: +251 (0) 115 540 045
Fax: +251 (0) 115 540 768
E-mail:
INFORMATION ON PROPOSED PROJECT:
6. TYPE OF PROJECT[1]: City Development Strategy Ö
7. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF ACTIVITY:
Country: Ethiopia[2]
8. EXPECTED DURATION: 18 months
BUDGET SUMMARY:
9. BUDGET REQUESTED FROM CITIES ALLIANCE: US Dollars 248,500
10. CO-FINANCING: US Dollars 251,600
11. TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET COST: US Dollars 500,100
12. BACKGROUND
“Urban Centers” in Ethiopia are defined as human settlements with a minimum population of 2000 persons, of which 50% of the working population is engaged in non-agricultural activities. Further, all statutory towns having an administration and service functions are classified as “urban.” The country’s urban population is currently estimated to have reached 12 million, which is 17 % of the total population. And Ethiopia has a high rate of urbanization estimated at 4.3 %, the highest among the sub Saharan Africa.
Since 1991, the country has been undergoing social and political transformations leading towards decentralization and greater public participation in local issues. Considerable power and decision making have been devolved to the grass-roots level. There are three levels of government i.e. the Federal, Regional and District/Local governments. The national policy of decentralization within the federal framework has resulted in the creation of legal and institutional mandates that empower local governments to make decisions on issues that fall within their jurisdictions. This urban local government level constitutes in most parts city level jurisdictions, sub-cities and Kebeles, depending on the size of cities and towns.
As a consequence of administrative decentralization, the process of urbanization in Ethiopia is now being markedly influenced by the emergence of vibrant secondary cities. This is due to multiple roles expected of the regional capitals and other towns with significant economic opportunities. There are about 925 urban centers in the country, of which only 10 have a population of over 100,000. More than 80 percent of these urban centers are small towns each with a population size of less than 10,000 inhabitants. The share of the capital Addis Ababa and secondary cities out of the total urban population stands at 25%.
Urban development issues are now gradually being embraced as a national agenda and have currently become an integral part of the national development strategy. Accordingly, the 5-year development plan of the country, Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP,) has a distinct urban component designed to address urban development and management issues. This urban component of PASDEP has been developed to achieve the goals set out by the Urban Development Policy, which include making Ethiopian urban centers:
· Provide efficient and effective public services to residents,
· Compliment and facilitate rural development,
· Become models of participatory democracy, and
· Build accelerated economic opportunities that create jobs.
The implementation of Urban Development and Good Urban Governance programs, two programs designed to realize the goals substantiated by the national development plan and the Urban Development Policy, therefore represent an irreversible shift in the national development direction that validates the increasing importance being given to the urban sector in Ethiopia. It is worth noting that the government has started implementing reforms and capacity building programs since 2003, reinstituted MWUD (Ministry of Works and Urban Development) in 2005 and rolled out a number of full-fledged reform and support packages to improve service delivery capacities of local governments since 2005.
Nonetheless, there is a general agreement that Ethiopian towns, regardless of their size and level of development, are characterized by mismatches between demand and supply for basic services such as water and sanitation. Rapid urban population growth vise-a-vie poverty, unemployment, proliferation of slums, housing shortages, lack of adequate urban infrastructure and services, and limited financial resources of municipalities are pressing obstacles that need to be mitigated. The magnitude of the problems created by shortages and sub-standard quality services is augmented by, among other things, lack of proper and current information on existing demand and supply, which would have provided valid premises for predicting future trends.
Accurate data and its proper use will enable local governments and policy makers at different levels design appropriate policies and strategies, monitor their implementation, evaluate their impact, and review their development framework and implementation tools. Making available integrated urban information on many aspects of public service delivery at the local government level will improve transparency and accountability of municipalities, facilitate investment and enhance public engagement. However, the absence of reliable urban-related information and database is preventing decision makers and service providers alike from predicting trends and concomitantly, from providing for such changes and developments.
At the national level, there is no proven system for monitoring and evaluating transparency as well as understanding the impact of policies, strategies and programs in the urban sector. Lack of accurate data and organized information on cities and towns, which could have been used to monitor, inform and understand the challenges, state of affairs, trends etc. continue to obstruct the potential for making informed decisions, planning, learning and scale-up. In addition, a national urban-based database and a system for organizing and making accessible up to date and credible information to researchers, practitioners, decision makers, development partners and the general public is lacking. In recognition of the ramifications of this limitation in the long term, and in the face of rapid urbanization, “The Public Participation Improvement and Urban Planning Reform sub-programs of the Urban Good Governance Program included objectives and projects aiming to address this critical gap.
- Public Participation Improvement Sub-program: The overall aim of this sub-program is to establish participative democracy for public empowerment; and to ensure residents benefit from urban development. The sub-program has intrinsically designed a set of activities that make urban information accessible to the public, which in turn will allow building a transparent urban administration that is more accountable to its residents. The sub-program incorporates a set of activities designed to initiate and insure public participation in the development of the CDS.
- Urban Planning Improvement Sub-program: The sub-program aims at building planning capacities and institutionalizing participatory urban planning. This is envisaged to be achieved through the creation of easy access to urban-related information by organizing such resources using modern ICT at different levels of government (i.e. at Federal, regional and city levels.)
The Integrated Urban Database Project is therefore expected to produce a system for the collection, organization and dissemination of comprehensive urban data to understand impacts and to monitor trends. The system will entail the continuous updating and analysis of data. Conducting demand analysis for urban information, designing an integrated data collection and organization methodology, developing a checklist for urban indicators, creating and setting in place an appropriate information management system and establishing urban observatory desks at regional levels, establishing a system for making urban information available to the public and designing web-sites for the capitals of the regional states are some of the major activities to be undertaken by the project.
Through this project, an information management system that is capable of responding to the different needs of local, regional and federal government levels will be designed and launched. Such a system permits to monitor and understand trends in growth, policy and program impact, inequalities and situations of slums, the urban economy, promotion of the urban agenda, localizing MDGs in cities and towns, enhance public awareness and participation; and to create conducive conditions for realistic strategic city development exercises. The inclusion of performance monitoring indicators at the local level helps considerably to make mid-course adjustments to programs, targeting resources and locating problem areas. This requires an integrated database approach at the three levels mentioned that will support end-to-end requirements of urban planning, management and governance. The system will entail a continuous updating and analysis of data with an inbuilt strategy of creating easy access to multiple end users.
Therefore, it is critical to:
Þ Build a comprehensive database with a system for instilling frequent updates at local government and regional levels;
Þ Clearly identify key urban indicators and measure the performance of government policies, strategies and programs, and their overall impact at different levels;
Þ Closely monitor the performance and achievements of city governments in developing and implementing city development and management strategies; and
Þ Organize an integrated urban database at the Federal level to guide overall national urban development.
At the city/regional and national level Urban Database is projected as an “integrated” tool that will support various planning levels/scales for urban areas and thus should be developed as a “one-stop” resource for urban planning and management in each city. This will provide an opportunity to avoid fragmentation and duplication of efforts at all levels and maximize resources for greater efficiency.
The project is part of an ongoing program of the federal government endorsed by regional and local governments. The Ministry of Works and Urban Development will be an implementing partner and will coordinate its implementation through its Policy, Research and Planning Bureau. The expected impact is substantial improvement in the formulation and implementation of government’s urban policies, strategies and programs at federal, regional and, especially, city government levels. One expected output of the project is an integrated and comprehensive urban database and its management.
The project directly supports those key elements of the Cities Alliance approach that aim to:
Þ help selected Ethiopian cities and the country as a whole strengthen their policy and regulatory framework;
Þ maximize coherence of current efforts being made to enhance public involvement and inclusive planning through the implementation of the national Urban Good Governance Program;
Þ promote activities that raise awareness, disseminate information, and create a global base of knowledge on “best practices” in scaling up city development strategy;
Þ support consensus-building process to establish priorities, strategies, and actions for urban poverty reduction and sustainable urban development;
Þ assess city level economic growth prospects linked to employment and to regional and national development objectives; and
Þ build capacity at different levels and share knowledge.
13. OBJECTIVES:
The major objective is to develop a national strategy for the establishment of an integrated urban information database and a system for collecting, organizing and making available up to date and accurate information on urban development at the city, regional and Federal government levels.
Specific objectives include:
Þ Identify information gaps and develop indicators that will allow comparison of performances across different sectors and urban centers; program/project implementation; monitor the level of development from Regional and Federal perspectives;
Þ Establish baseline data for performance monitoring at city and regional levels;
Þ Establish a comprehensive urban database at the Federal level;
Þ Establish a system for collecting, organizing and making available appropriate information to monitor trends in growth, outcomes and evaluate impacts;
Þ Develop a communication strategy for dissemination of data to key stakeholders;
Þ Develop and establish tools for evaluating the impact of national urban initiatives so as to gain knowledge that will make valuable contribution towards effective development and implementation of national policies, strategies and programs;
Þ Integrate the use of Internet and ICT for data exchange and availing information; and
Þ Establish a strong foundation for a sustainable system to ensure continuous use.
14. METHODOLOGY AND SEQUENCING OF ACTIVITIES
The project will have two major components:
Component 1: This is about the creation of an Integrated Urban Database at city, regional and Federal levels. A number of activities involving in many cases collection of primary data through household surveys, socio-economic surveys, land market assessments, infrastructure assessment, citizens report cards and other research instruments that provides a) useful data and b) insight into the impact of and ways forward for development of policies, strategies and programs. Already existing data and other types of information from other sources, if authentic, will be tracked, used and built upon. Careful considerations and verifications will be made that the type of data gathered will be useful and accessible to all end-users. Duplicity of previous and parallel efforts will be avoided by widening the sphere of involvement of stakeholders, particularly in this phase of the project. The compatibility of the database to be developed with other databases in the public sector is an important aspect that the project needs to develop a system for in its second component. The objective is to establish a solid foundation of research and analysis of the urban sector that informs formulation of government’s policies and programs. Specific emphasis is on poverty reduction, participatory approaches, good governance, sustainable mobilization of resources and effective urban management.