Climate resilient urban development and financing in selected municipalities in Zambia

Short description of the project: Just and Climate Resilient Urban Development and Decentralisation (CitiZen+D) CitiZen+D is a technical cooperation project financed by the Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation of Germany and implemented by GIZ in Zambia. The objective of the project is to support urban development in selected cities in Zambia with an emphasise on climate resilience, social inclusion, and sustainable financing, setting best practice for the whole country. Context In Zambia, increasing numbers of people are moving to cities, posing a major challenge for these urban centres. Tight budgets, complicated regulations and unclear responsibilities in planning and development result in a lack of adequate urban planning. This particularly affects temporary, poor settlements in and around cities. The population here has only limited access to public services such as waste disposal, fresh water and sanitation, and safe road planning. Disadvantaged groups such as women, children, people with disabilities and people living in poverty are especially hard hit. Environmental pollution and social problems also result. Approach The project advises selected cities on planning, coordinationng and implementationing of socially just and climate-friendly urban development. This allows the cities to realise development plans created in the earlier project phase and incorporate specific financing and operating arrangements into these plans. The project promotes cooperation between civil society, governmental institutions, organised interest groups and business to enable broad-based, socially just and future-oriented development in cities. The project aims for the population to have a say in planning and design, bolstering promoting trust in democratic institutions. Traditional authorities are also involved in the project. Locally successful approaches provide an example for other cities and feed into national aspects such as laws and guidelines. This should also result in administrative decentralisation. The project is part of the "Responsible Governance in Zambia" German development cooperation programme.