The 2012 Cities Alliance Executive Meetings were co-hosted with three other global programmes, providing the opportunity to share the strengths of the Cities Alliance Country Programme with other partners active in Uganda.
One of the hallmarks of a Cities Alliance Country Programme such as TSUPU is that it seeks to improve synergies among development partners.
Building on that principle, the 2012 Cities Alliance Executive Meetings were co-hosted with three other global programmes: the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG).
This joint effort gave the Cities Alliance the opportunity to share the strengths of its Country Programme with other partners that are active in Uganda.
Some of the preliminary development impacts of the four global programmes in Uganda include:
- Cities Alliance. The TSUPU Programme has fostered positive dialogue on urban development at the national, local and community levels. It has also mobilised and engaged communities, leveraged US $150 million in financing for municipal development from the World Bank, and piloted an innovative new tool for enumeration (STDM).
- GPOBA. In September 2008, GPOBA launched an OBA voucher scheme to bring maternal and other reproductive health services to rural communities in Western Uganda. About 20 districts participated in the pilot, and by December 2011, when the project closed, more than 136,000 people had received a range of reproductive health services, including 49,348 safe delivery packages and 31,658 sexually transmitted disease treatments.
- PPIAF. Since 2000, PPIAF and its Sub-National Technical Assistance (SNTA) Programme have provided support to the government of Uganda to create an environment conducive to private investment in infrastructure, as well as specific support to the electricity, transport, and water sectors. In particular, PPIAF supported the preparation of a pre-feasibility study for the development of a bus rapid transit system for the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area, and is currently supporting the establishment of a PPP unit and PPP pipeline.
- PIDG. The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, one of the PIDG’s investment facilities, was the lead financial arranger for the Bugoye Hydro Power Plant in western Uganda, providing US $35 million in long-term finance at a time when no one else would. EAIF and their advisers worked closely with the sponsors to assemble the consortium and to finalise the project development. To date, PIDG facilities have supported eight infrastructure projects in Uganda with over $36m of finance and technical support.
On the occasion of the joint meetings, the Government of Uganda hosted a one-day workshop on strengthening support through collaboration June 4. In addition, the Municipality of Jinja hosted a Forum on challenges faced by secondary cities June 5.
The joint agenda also featured site visits for various projects supported by three of the programmes: Community sanitation and investment generation projects that are part of TSUPU (Cities Alliance), beneficiary areas for the Kampala Water Connections for the Poor (GPOBA), and National Water and Sewerage Corporation works in Lake Victoria and Informal Settlements (PPIAF).
