Shanghai Award recognizes Kampala’s efforts for sustainable development

Kampala, Uganda won the Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award) at the 2023 World Cities Day event held in Shanghai.

Namazzi Olive Kagobola, city executive secretary for Public Health, Environment and Education of Uganda, said she was very excited to be part of the inaugural winners of Shanghai Award. The award recognized the hard work for building Kampala into a sustainable and livable city.

“It is encouraging,” she said, “It helps to boost the emancipation of the cities and also to make people feel appreciated.”

Located in the East African region, Uganda is known as “the pearl of Africa”. Kampala is the capital of Uganda, a big city with very good climate and excellent tourism, Kagobola said.

Winning Shanghai Award “made us feel appreciated”, Kagobola said. Kampala has a forward-looking plan for Sustainable Urban Development in a number of ways. It has carried out quite a number of activities, especially in air quality monitoring and increasing green spaces.

As quite a number of people are suffering from non-communicable diseases because of the poor air quality, the city formulated a climate change action plan and green infrastructure ordinance to protect green spaces and improve the air quality.

Also, Kampala has cooperated with partners to have a number of monitoring machines in place to detect the sources of air pollution.

The city has also taken measures to budget for Sustainable Development Goal 11 of having a sustainable city, he added.

To make Kampala a better, greener and smaller city, the city has worked with institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UN-Habitat and Water Aid. “It was important to institutionalize programs promoting or fostering sustainable development cities so that we did not have to depend on donors,” said.  

Kampala has also participated in a number of platforms, like the World Cities Day, which helps cities network with different peoples. It was important to form a pool, a network where participants could pull resources and resources could be allocated to different areas, Kagobola said.

“With a global network we can have a better bargaining power, get stronger, and help those with money to come and support us,” Kagobola said. “I want to say 1+1 is 11.”