Institutional & Capacity Development in Integrated Urban Management

This Component has been designed to support City Councils institutionalize and strengthen their urban management capabilities and to enhance their efficiency in revenue generation and planning as well as their effectiveness in the delivery and management of resilient infrastructure and services in a sustainable manner. The City Councils shall be supported further to lay the foundations for the well-functioning of urban centers. Through activities under this component, the City Councils shall be prepared to benefit from other related planned interventions in the country, including the next phase of urban resilience project that will support investments in the selected Cities. There are two subcomponents under Component 1.

Sub-component 1a: Strengthening Integrated Urban Planning and Spatial Data Infrastructure

Activities under this sub-component will be implemented in all project cities. This sub-component will finance the City Councils to develop and enhance their capacity in the following areas:

1. Preparation and implementation of spatial plans (master, local plans, and planning schemes)
2. Training in urban planning
3. Support to set up a building control unit at the FCC
4. Support for reviewing or developing planning laws, strategies and codes
5. Support for implementing a robust municipal spatial data infrastructure (MSDI) and related systems.

GEF resources will be used to support the City Councils acquire necessary knowledge, data, and tools for spatial planning and related functions. Through this support it is expected that the City Councils will be equipped with knowledge, data and tools to help reduce further encroachment and biodiversity loss, shape cities’ sustainable growth, and catalyze future investments. This sub-component will also finance the creation and implementation of a digital Platform for Citizen Engagement for City Councils (PCE). The purpose of setting up the PCE are as follows: –

1. Providing updates to communities on the status of public projects (including those funded under this project), and
2. Receiving feedback from the community on the quality-of-service delivery to enable the cities to address the reported issues in a timely and systematic manner.

The PCE will be built upon and linked with MSDI activities to improve the CCs’ ability to monitor and respond to citizens’ feedback.

Sub-component 1b: Upgrading urban property Tax Administration and System

This sub-component will finance capacity building and training for the comprehensive upgrading of the municipal property-tax systems. The purpose of this support is to enhance own-source revenues through:

1. Better mapping, classifying, and valuation of properties;
2. Building Data infrastructure;
3. Managing relevant data; and
4. Enhancing revenue collection procedures in all seven CCs.

With respect to modernization of the tax-system the full cycle of property-tax management will be adopted. This involves discovery, assessment (valuation), billing, sensitization, and collection. The property-tax management system in the CCs will be upgraded to technology-based systems and the processes involved automated. The system to be developed will be based on a MSDI supported by spatial framework.

Property surveys in each city will include land and properties in areas under the jurisdiction (residential, commercial, industrial, institutional of the city council. It is envisaged that these activities will help cities capture accurate information on properties and ensure further revenue mobilization. In this respect, each city will be financed to:

1. Carry out property surveys and create/or update the property-tax database
2. Assessment of existing IT of the existing property tax system, designing a new/upgrading the system
3. Conduct structured training in geographic information systems (GIS), development control and surveying
4. Develop systems (standards and guidelines) to facilitate tax-payer billing and payment
5. Carry out tax payer sensitization and outreach activities.

At the national level, this component will finance the development of a regulatory framework (municipal fiscal policy and strategy, guidelines for property valuation and fiscal cadastral maintenance), and a Monitoring System for municipal fiscal evaluation.