This Working Paper examines the processes, challenges and lessons that can be learnt from the Local Agenda 21 programme in Nakuru, Kenya, where rapid population growth and falling standards of service provision have prompted the local authority to adopt LA21 as a new approach to urban planning and management.
This Working Paper examines the processes, challenges and lessons that can be learnt from the Local Agenda 21 programme in Nakuru, Kenya, where rapid population growth and falling standards of service provision have prompted the local authority to adopt LA21 as a new approach to urban planning and management. The programme has been established under the UNCHS (Habitat) programme which particularly advocates Strategic Structure Planning (SPP). Collaboration with community groups, NGOs and industrialists are central to the programme. It is hoped that LA21 in Nakuru will pave the way for urban sustainable development, but business interests and political opportunism have stalled several actions plans to date. This Working Paper discusses these and other problems such as staff turnover, limited information flow between councillors and their officers, limited cooperation between departments, perceptions of the local council and difficulties engaging ordinary people. It also discusses lessons learnt for application both locally and to SPP initiatives elsewhere. |
