29 Aug 2023
Authored by Alex Kivumbi, Head of Resource Mobilization & Innovation, and Local Consultant, Climate Smart City Challenge, Makindye Ssabagabo Municipal Council, Uganda.
In June, the Municipal Council of Makindye Ssabagabo hosted UN-Habitat and the winning team of the Climate Smart Cities Challenge – Green Community Cities for a week-long mission to deepen our understanding of the city’s mission to deliver affordable, low-carbon housing and engage with a range of diverse stakeholders. The visiting team comprised of both UN-Habitat representatives, Isabel Shirin Enyonam Wetzel (Programme Management Officer) and Namrata Mehta (Urban Innovation Specialist) and Green Community Cites (GCC), represented by Donna Rubinoff and Steve Brooks from Urban Planning Constellation, Christopher Mustafa Kirwan from Impact Building Solutions Foundation, Andy Bownds and Sinan Kitagenda from EcoBrixs.
Makindye Ssabagabo Municipality is one of the four participating cities in the Climate Smart City Challenge that was initiated by Swedish agencies and lead by Viable Cities and UN-Habitat. The city is working on a low-cost eco-friendly housing demonstrator to address the dual challenge of acute housing shortage. The city will need an approximate 530,000 additional houses by 2024 – coupled with increasing greenhouse gas emissions associated with residential areas – an estimated 9% of GHG emissions in the city are attributed to residential homes. The demonstrator focuses on strengthening the enabling environment, planning low-carbon form and proximal neighborhoods, designing housing that is dense, appropriate and efficient, using locally manufactured, low-carbon and nature-based construction technologies, managing waste in a circular and integrated way, generating entrepreneurial and employment opportunities and promoting innovative financing & cooperating ownership. The Municipality is currently planning the implementation of the system demonstration. Between the 26th – 30th of June, the Municipality hosted a UN-Habitat mission with the objective of engaging with diverse stakeholders, site and benchmarking visits, building partnerships while deepening our collective understanding of the challenges the city faces.
Deepening our collective understanding of the mission
The mission kicked off with a visit to the Uganda Housing Cooperative Union in Kisaasi and the entire team appreciated how the daunting challenge of housing financing can be addressed if communities form or join housing cooperatives. This was followed with a benchmarking visit to Kwefaku Housing Cooperative in Bujuko. This women’s cooperative comprises of 34 members, largely single mothers, who were relocated from the biggest slum in Kampala, Kisenyi and whose houses were constructed using sustainable building materials specifically soil stabilized interlocking bricks.
A city tour was organized for the team to appreciate the dynamics of the project area before visiting the National Social Security Housing high end housing project in Lubowa, as another example of housing supply in the city.
The team paid a courtesy visit to the Municipal Mayor, His Worship, Ssemwanga Godfery, who reiterated his ambitions for the city and shared examples of projects that have been successful.
A significant aspect of the system demonstrator will focus on integrated and circular waste management in the neighbourhood and city. The team visited the newly established Municipal Plastic Recycling Hub in Busabala, to understand how an association of plastic waste recovery agents mobilized by the Municipal Council could bring plastic waste to be recycled into a range of products at the Hub. The team also visited the projects of members of the Green Community Cities Marula Proteen and EcoBrixs.
The Marula Proteen Black Soldier waste processing facility in Wakoko processes nearly 10 tons of organic waste from five markets in Kampala, and has begun selling black soldier larve to enable a more decentralized organic waste management process. The Eco Brixs plastic processing facility in Masaka 3-hours outside of Kampala, produces plastic poles, pavers among others.
The crowning moment of the teams’ interactions with the Mayor, was the visit, guided by the Mayor, to the 3-4 acre site in Kibiri, identified for the housing demonstrator.
Building a local and global coalition
UN-Habitat, the Municipal Council of Makindye Ssabagabo and Green Community Cities organized a stakeholder workshop bringing together a diverse group of experts working in affordable housing, housing finance, construction, government at national, regional, and local levels, research and development partners and others.
The aim of the workshop was to share Green Community Cities’ proposal and seek further guidance and feedback to build partnerships for the implementation of the system demonstrator. Detailed discussions on the enabling environment, architecture and urban design, development scenarios and waste management were led by members of the Green Community Cities and shared with the wider participant group later in the day.
As part of the stakeholder engagements, representatives from UN-Habitat and the Municipal Council of Makindye Ssabagabo also paid a courtesy call to the Swedish embassy.
Following the stakeholder workshop, interactions with potential residents and representatives from the construction sector, including masons, painters, construction workers, plumbers, waste collectors, and others, were invited for an engaging discussion on Green Community Cities’ proposal. The discussion highlighted elements of neighborhood amenities and housing design requirements for an affordable housing project.
Financing a place-based system demonstrator
The mission sparked excitement amongst the Municipal leadership that now eagerly awaits progress on the system demonstration site while the local hotel sector was boasted when the team opted to reside at the magnificent, Hot Springs Villas that overlooks Lake Victoria.
With support from Swedish agencies, we’ve advanced planning for the system demonstrator. Exploring cooperative housing models and public-private partnerships the system demonstrator aims to highlight innovative financing models that address issues of affordability. To implement the system demonstrator the Municipal Council of Makindye Ssabagabo, UN-Habitat, Viable Cities and Green Community Cities is engaging with a range of potential funders and donors. We are keen to partner with organisations to implement a successful system demonstrator on low-carbon, affordable housing in Makindye Ssabagabo. We welcome funding and fund raising support, project preparation facility, greenhouse gas inventory creation, carbon credit market definition, business modeling and municipal council capacity strengthening.
If you would like to know more or get involved please reach out to Alex Kivumbi at akivumb@gmail.com
