Kisumu city will host the 9th edition of the Africities Summit from May 17th to 21, 2022 under the patronage of President Uhuru Kenyatta. This is the first time ever that an intermediary city, Kisumu City will host the 9th Edition of Africities Summit.
The 9th Africities Summit will bring together more than 10,000 visitors from around the world is slated to be held in Kisumu. The Summit will address challenges of urbanisation facing the African continent and the growing importance of intermediary cities in future urbanisation of the continent.
The summit is organized every three years over a 5 day period in different regions of Africa. The Africities summit is the largest democratic gathering organized on the African continent with the theme of this year being ‘The role of intermediary cities in Africa in the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the African Union Agenda 2063.’
More than 10,000 participants are expected to discuss the 2030 and 2063 Agendas which call for urgent reflection on resilient and sustainable urbanization in Africa, given that by 2050 most of the African population will live in cities, and most city dwellers will settle in intermediary cities.
The event that is set to take place in Mamboleo showground will be a platform to grow not only Kisumu County but also the entire Lake Region Economic Bloc and Kenya at large. According to the Kisumu County Governor, the Summit will place Kisumu in the world map. He said Kisumu’s accommodation and meeting facilities are sufficient. There are 4,961 decent beds in the city and about 9,866 others in the region.
Africities is the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa’s (UCLG- Africa) flagship pan-African event that is held every three years in one of the five regions of Africa. It focuses on the need for Local Africa to learn, promote and present a new approach to sustainable development. It is premised upon SDGs 11 –sustainable cities and communities which seeks to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable and the need to address challenges that hamper the realization of UN’s 2063 Agenda.