Access to reliable, quality, efficient and affordable services is central to the leave-no-one-behind agenda underpinning the Sustainable Development Goals.
Since 2020, Inclusive Urban Infrastructure (IUI) research consortium has been engaging low-income communities in 4 capital and 4 secondary cities in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Somaliland to research the formal, informal and often illegal ways in which water, sanitation, transport, energy and communication services are provided and accessed. The research findings reveal how access to services is mediated by a multiplicity of factors including community and household vulnerabilities and identity; perceptions and realities of housing tenure and evictability; financing and governance of infrastructure provision; geography and climate.
On 6 July 2023, the Rift Valley Forum in collaboration with Inclusive Urban Infrastructure (IUI) will host a panel discussion and a networking event to explore the lessons learnt from their research and its implications for policy and practice. Additionally, it aims to generate discussion of the relationship between the research findings and the inclusive urban infrastructure challenges in East Africa.
The forum will conclude with an informal networking session in the garden to allow participants to further engage with each other. Refreshments will be served.
Register here: https://riftvalley.wufoo.com/forms/inclusive-urban-infrastructure-iui-forum
Moderator
Mark Bradbury
Executive Director, Rift Valley Institute
Presenters
Professor Mike Collyer
University of Sussex UK and IUI Principal Investigator
Dr Nasir M. Ali
Director Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Hargeisa Somaliland and IUI Co-Investigator
Professor Jutta Bakonyi
University of Durham UK and IUI Co-Investigator
Discussants
Dr George Masimba
Head of Programmes, Dialogue on Shelter Zimbabwe and IUI
practice partner
Dr Yolanda Chakava
Infrastructure Adviser, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
Dr Xing Quan Zhang
Senior Advisor, United Nations Human Settlements Programme
(UN-HABITAT)