Secondary Cities in Uganda: Technical Assistance for the co-construction of a national programme to enhance urban institutional and infrastructure development.

The city of Kampala, the Ugandan capital, still largely dominates the country's urban system in terms of population, contribution to GDP, and formal employment opportunities. Given this situation, the Ugandan government aims to diversify its urban system by supporting the development of 15 strategic secondary cities across the country. These 15 secondary cities have been identified, and 10 of them were officially recognized in July 2020. This is an important first step in making these cities operational and giving them the mandate to successfully manage their sustainable urbanization trajectories. For them to contribute to productive urbanization in Uganda, these cities need to be well-planned from the outset, with necessary investments in infrastructure and services to ensure productivity, quality of life, and sustainability. Furthermore, their urban trajectory must be climate-resilient, not only to minimize their environmental impact but also to help achieve Uganda's climate goals.

It is within the framework of these preparatory works that the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) was approached by the Ugandan government in 2022 to assist in developing a secondary cities program.

The overall objective is to create the very first network of secondary cities at the national level to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and capacity building of Ugandan cities. The AFD has mobilized funds through the CICLIA facility to finance the preparatory phase of the program and carry out two consultancy service contracts:

• The first study aims to define the content of the investment component and assess the feasibility of the projects. It has been entrusted to the G8-Espelia-URTC consortium.
• The second aims to support the structuring of the program and develop the capacity-building component through a participatory approach.