Mr. Tobias Otieno Ogweno
1
PRESENTATION BY MR. TOBIAS OGWENO, FIRST SECRETARY, AT
THE KENYA MISSION TO THE UN, NEW YORK, ON INTEGRATED
SERVICE PLANNING IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: EXPERIENCES
FROM KENYA
Mr. Xi Zhengyi, Party Secretary of Yangzhou Municipal CPC Committee
Mr. WU Hongbo, Under Secretary General, UNDESA
Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants
Ladies and gentlemen
1. At the outset, I thank UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the
Yangzhou Municipal People’s Government for organizing this important and timely
High Level Symposium on Sustainable Cities and Urbanization. It is great pleasure
for me to be here in this beautiful city, to discuss sustainable cities and urbanization.
Excellencies, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen
2. My topic of presentation is “Integrated Service Planning in Cities and Urban
Environments: Experiences from Kenya”. Let me start by saying that integrated
service planning means different things to different people. But in the context of
Kenya, it means “developing tailored and improved services that are brought together
and delivered in ways that are ‘joined up’, and easy to access for individuals and
employers. It is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Rationale for Integrated Service Planning
3. Integrated service planning supports development of an effective employment and
skills system. It is also promotes drivers of change in public service delivery in
sectors such as health, transport, waste management, transport and social care
services among others.
4. The approach improves client outcomes and provides good quality services which
can be accessed more easily, and used by greater majority. It addresses client issues
holistically, and meets complex or multiple needs by overcoming service delivery
gaps. Over time, integrated service planning and delivery may reduce duplication and
enable the sharing of resources in service delivery, thereby increasing cost efficiencies
and improve consistency and accountability.
BUT integrated service planning can only succeed where common objectives are
clearly communicated, and collectively understood, and when participants share and
are committed to the value of integration and common objectives.
Why in cities and urban areas?
5. Today, integrated service planning has become more relevant for cities and urban
areas because: (i) the world is rapidly urbanizing. This means that many people are
migrating to cities and urban centres thereby putting further strains on the available
2
limited resources and infrastructure (ii) the world is witnessing phenomenal growths
of cities and urban areas. Because of this, production and consumption of goods and
services are increasingly being concentrated in cities and urban areas. Accordingly,
climate change and other environmental challenges are increasing giving rise to
numerous health problems, loss of livelihoods for some urban populations.
6. But in the midst of these challenges, integrated service planning in cities and urban
areas present some opportunities. For example, it provides formal legal mechanisms
to promote economic growth, social development as well as protection of the
environment. This can be done through appropriate architectural designs, building
codes, zoning schemes, spatial plans, strategic choices, and enforcement of city
management laws.
7. The diagnosis of these problems gives a clear prognosis of the magnitude of the
challenge of service provision in cities and urban centres. In fact, if the projected
world population of 9 billion becomes reality by 2050, and 60 % of that population
live in cities and urban areas, then the challenges of service provision could increase
manifold if anticipatory visions and strategies are not developed and implemented.
8. Governments must therefore embrace integrated service planning to provide quality
services in cities and urban areas in the most effective and efficient manner, and to
reach the majority of those who need the services. In other words, we must be
innovative, and as Albert Einstein once said, “we can’t solve problems by using the
same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
The Kenyan Experience
9. The strategic vision of the Government of Kenya is to make our cities and urban areas
globally competitive. That means that our cities and urban areas must be planned in
manner that addresses three key issues of sustainability namely: sustainable economic
growth, social development and environmental protection. But in the interest of time,
I will briefly discuss our experiences with integrated service planning in the health,
waste management and transport sectors as these three are closely interlinked.
Our own experiences have shown that integrated service planning needs the
following steps (i) identify the problem (ii) identify target group(iii) identifying the
means of mobilizing resources and support (v) establish clear labour division among
stakeholders ( vi) Undertake implementation (iii) evaluate the success, and possible
areas of improvement of the project.
Health
10. Healthy populations are more productive to the economic life of a state. In Kenya,
during the early 1990s, many families in towns and cities were affected by HIV/AIDs.
3
The problem became acute due to lack of resources to control it. As this challenge
continued, the Government adopted an integrated services planning for reproductive
health care including treatment, managing of the STIs, providing health education and
promoting condom use.
11. The Government adopted the policy of integrated services planning for reproductive
health care because we realized that reproductive health care and HIV/STI services
have similar characteristics, target populations, and desired outcomes. For example,
clients seeking HIV services and those seeking reproductive health services shared
common needs and concerns. Because of this, integrating service provisions enables
health care service providers to efficiently and comprehensively address challenges.
For example, integrated reproductive health care affords clients VCT services for
HIV/STIs, prevention of mother to child HIV infection and other family planning
methods. A pilot project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation proved
successful and paved the way for replication and scale-up.
Waste Management
12. Wastes are both a nuisance and health hazard whose management has become a major
problem the world over due to the ever increasing urbanization. In Kenya, we have
taken cognizance of this challenge, and adopted an integrated service planning in
waste managements since access to a healthy environment is a basic constitutional
right. Let me give an example of integrated waste management in Malindi Town.
13. Malindi town is popular tourist destination 125 kilometres north of Mombasa on the
Indian Ocean. Over the years the urban environment deteriorated so much that
residents with the support of Government decided to form the Malindi Green Town
Movement (MGTM) to introduce sustainable, integrated urban environmental
planning and management. The project targeted an area of 670 sq. km with a
population of 140,000.
14. Since its inception, the project has become very successful. Today, a visitor walking
through Malindi will see garbage bags outside every door. Members of the
community collect and bag garbage from their homes and the surrounding area. The
bags are then collected by youth groups and stored at a temporary site in the
community. The municipal council takes the garbage to designated dumps.
15. Today, the project continues to provide community members with income and boost
the capacity of the Malindi town council to involve key stakeholders. The town has
been transformed; it has regained its former beauty, and is once more attractive to
tourists. Due to the high level of awareness and increased public involvement in
environmental issues, residents are determined to maintain the improved conditions.
Shella Beach is now home to beach-football pitches, boat-building yards, public
gardens, and sunbathers.
4
16. Another area I want to highlight is that of disposal of wastes from used Health care
equipment. Used health care equipment is both harmful to health and environment if
improperly disposed of. Accordingly, my Government has been working with various
stakeholders in the implementation of various Health Care Waste Management
Projects in urban areas across the country. The main aim of the projects is to establish
a safe, environmentally friendly, and sustainable medical waste management systems
that deals with disposal of hazardous health wastes, and prevention of bio-medical
transmission of HIV and other blood-borne pathogens.
17. The Projects take three pronged approach namely; strengthening the health care waste
management system, increasing capacity in procurement and commodity management
systems, and encouraging healthy behaviour among health workers and the
community in order to reduce unnecessary use of injections, and promote safe
disposal of medical wastes. The approach has worked. Incidents of diseases arising
from the use of contaminated medical equipment have been significantly reduced.
Transport
18. I would like to state here that a shift towards a more integrated approach to public
transport planning requires a fundamental shift in thinking. This involves a shift from
making decisions for this generation to making decisions for future generations, from
planning transport and land use separately to planning transport and land use
concurrently and iteratively. It is also a shift from responding to demand to
influencing and managing demand.
19. Nairobi, which is our capital city, does not currently have integrated public transport
system. The industry is primarily driven by the private sector. As a result, there is
insufficient network of buses and matatu, less coordination between bus and matatu
for sharing and integration, no spaces for non-motorized transport, bus companies
operate on the same routes as the matatus, and compete for the same traffic. Also,
urban commuters do not use the commuter rail due to….inadequate inter-modal
transfer facilities and long walk between station and places of work.
20. Because of these challenges, my Government has been undertaking massive road
construction and expansion as well as construction of standard gauge railway in
Nairobi and other municipalities to provide commuters with viable choices. The
grand plan is to introduce Mass Rapid Transit System for Nairobi Metropolitan
Region by 2015.The new road major transport corridors in Nairobi are being done to
improve our competitiveness and overall improvement in the general welfare of the
population.
Lessons Learnt From Integrated Service Planning
5
21. Through implementation of integrated service planning in urban environments, we
have learnt the following:
i. Inadequate financial resources and lack of appropriate technologies and
capacities compromises both the quality and quantity of service delivery.
ii. Policy fragmentation and bureaucratic red tapes are a major setback. For
example, separate bodies within the Ministry of health are responsible for
maternal and child health and HIV and STI control, while population offices
outside the ministry oversee family planning policy.
iii. Lack of networking. Vertical programs reduce opportunities for policymakers
in different divisions to network. As a result, rivalry and competition for
limited resources may arise compromising the set objectives.
iv. Bad flow of information. Sometimes, bureaucratic protocols hinder
communication: For example, a director of the maternal and child health
division may rank higher than the person responsible for STIs within an
infectious disease control division.
v. Sometimes, a single blueprint is unworkable owing to the complexity of the
issues. For example, the appropriateness of an integrated HIV and STI service
depends on the prevalence of disease: In high-prevalence situations, mass
treatment may be the most cost-effective approach. But in low-prevalence
situations, targeting high-risk groups may be more suitable. Therefore, the
patterns of integration must be understood within specific local contexts.
Which Way for the Future
22. I wish to reiterate the agreement at Rio+20 conference, that well planned and
developed cities through integrated planning and management approaches can
promote economically, socially and environmentally sustainable societies. Therefore,
there is need for Sustainable Development Goals on cities and human settlement in
order to promote a clear post 2015 development agenda of our cities
I thank you.
PRESENTATION BY MR. TOBIAS OGWENO, FIRST SECRETARY, AT
THE KENYA MISSION TO THE UN, NEW YORK, ON INTEGRATED
SERVICE PLANNING IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: EXPERIENCES
FROM KENYA
Mr. Xi Zhengyi, Party Secretary of Yangzhou Municipal CPC Committee
Mr. WU Hongbo, Under Secretary General, UNDESA
Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants
Ladies and gentlemen
1. At the outset, I thank UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the
Yangzhou Municipal People’s Government for organizing this important and timely
High Level Symposium on Sustainable Cities and Urbanization. It is great pleasure
for me to be here in this beautiful city, to discuss sustainable cities and urbanization.
Excellencies, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen
2. My topic of presentation is “Integrated Service Planning in Cities and Urban
Environments: Experiences from Kenya”. Let me start by saying that integrated
service planning means different things to different people. But in the context of
Kenya, it means “developing tailored and improved services that are brought together
and delivered in ways that are ‘joined up’, and easy to access for individuals and
employers. It is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Rationale for Integrated Service Planning
3. Integrated service planning supports development of an effective employment and
skills system. It is also promotes drivers of change in public service delivery in
sectors such as health, transport, waste management, transport and social care
services among others.
4. The approach improves client outcomes and provides good quality services which
can be accessed more easily, and used by greater majority. It addresses client issues
holistically, and meets complex or multiple needs by overcoming service delivery
gaps. Over time, integrated service planning and delivery may reduce duplication and
enable the sharing of resources in service delivery, thereby increasing cost efficiencies
and improve consistency and accountability.
BUT integrated service planning can only succeed where common objectives are
clearly communicated, and collectively understood, and when participants share and
are committed to the value of integration and common objectives.
Why in cities and urban areas?
5. Today, integrated service planning has become more relevant for cities and urban
areas because: (i) the world is rapidly urbanizing. This means that many people are
migrating to cities and urban centres thereby putting further strains on the available
2
limited resources and infrastructure (ii) the world is witnessing phenomenal growths
of cities and urban areas. Because of this, production and consumption of goods and
services are increasingly being concentrated in cities and urban areas. Accordingly,
climate change and other environmental challenges are increasing giving rise to
numerous health problems, loss of livelihoods for some urban populations.
6. But in the midst of these challenges, integrated service planning in cities and urban
areas present some opportunities. For example, it provides formal legal mechanisms
to promote economic growth, social development as well as protection of the
environment. This can be done through appropriate architectural designs, building
codes, zoning schemes, spatial plans, strategic choices, and enforcement of city
management laws.
7. The diagnosis of these problems gives a clear prognosis of the magnitude of the
challenge of service provision in cities and urban centres. In fact, if the projected
world population of 9 billion becomes reality by 2050, and 60 % of that population
live in cities and urban areas, then the challenges of service provision could increase
manifold if anticipatory visions and strategies are not developed and implemented.
8. Governments must therefore embrace integrated service planning to provide quality
services in cities and urban areas in the most effective and efficient manner, and to
reach the majority of those who need the services. In other words, we must be
innovative, and as Albert Einstein once said, “we can’t solve problems by using the
same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
The Kenyan Experience
9. The strategic vision of the Government of Kenya is to make our cities and urban areas
globally competitive. That means that our cities and urban areas must be planned in
manner that addresses three key issues of sustainability namely: sustainable economic
growth, social development and environmental protection. But in the interest of time,
I will briefly discuss our experiences with integrated service planning in the health,
waste management and transport sectors as these three are closely interlinked.
Our own experiences have shown that integrated service planning needs the
following steps (i) identify the problem (ii) identify target group(iii) identifying the
means of mobilizing resources and support (v) establish clear labour division among
stakeholders ( vi) Undertake implementation (iii) evaluate the success, and possible
areas of improvement of the project.
Health
10. Healthy populations are more productive to the economic life of a state. In Kenya,
during the early 1990s, many families in towns and cities were affected by HIV/AIDs.
3
The problem became acute due to lack of resources to control it. As this challenge
continued, the Government adopted an integrated services planning for reproductive
health care including treatment, managing of the STIs, providing health education and
promoting condom use.
11. The Government adopted the policy of integrated services planning for reproductive
health care because we realized that reproductive health care and HIV/STI services
have similar characteristics, target populations, and desired outcomes. For example,
clients seeking HIV services and those seeking reproductive health services shared
common needs and concerns. Because of this, integrating service provisions enables
health care service providers to efficiently and comprehensively address challenges.
For example, integrated reproductive health care affords clients VCT services for
HIV/STIs, prevention of mother to child HIV infection and other family planning
methods. A pilot project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation proved
successful and paved the way for replication and scale-up.
Waste Management
12. Wastes are both a nuisance and health hazard whose management has become a major
problem the world over due to the ever increasing urbanization. In Kenya, we have
taken cognizance of this challenge, and adopted an integrated service planning in
waste managements since access to a healthy environment is a basic constitutional
right. Let me give an example of integrated waste management in Malindi Town.
13. Malindi town is popular tourist destination 125 kilometres north of Mombasa on the
Indian Ocean. Over the years the urban environment deteriorated so much that
residents with the support of Government decided to form the Malindi Green Town
Movement (MGTM) to introduce sustainable, integrated urban environmental
planning and management. The project targeted an area of 670 sq. km with a
population of 140,000.
14. Since its inception, the project has become very successful. Today, a visitor walking
through Malindi will see garbage bags outside every door. Members of the
community collect and bag garbage from their homes and the surrounding area. The
bags are then collected by youth groups and stored at a temporary site in the
community. The municipal council takes the garbage to designated dumps.
15. Today, the project continues to provide community members with income and boost
the capacity of the Malindi town council to involve key stakeholders. The town has
been transformed; it has regained its former beauty, and is once more attractive to
tourists. Due to the high level of awareness and increased public involvement in
environmental issues, residents are determined to maintain the improved conditions.
Shella Beach is now home to beach-football pitches, boat-building yards, public
gardens, and sunbathers.
4
16. Another area I want to highlight is that of disposal of wastes from used Health care
equipment. Used health care equipment is both harmful to health and environment if
improperly disposed of. Accordingly, my Government has been working with various
stakeholders in the implementation of various Health Care Waste Management
Projects in urban areas across the country. The main aim of the projects is to establish
a safe, environmentally friendly, and sustainable medical waste management systems
that deals with disposal of hazardous health wastes, and prevention of bio-medical
transmission of HIV and other blood-borne pathogens.
17. The Projects take three pronged approach namely; strengthening the health care waste
management system, increasing capacity in procurement and commodity management
systems, and encouraging healthy behaviour among health workers and the
community in order to reduce unnecessary use of injections, and promote safe
disposal of medical wastes. The approach has worked. Incidents of diseases arising
from the use of contaminated medical equipment have been significantly reduced.
Transport
18. I would like to state here that a shift towards a more integrated approach to public
transport planning requires a fundamental shift in thinking. This involves a shift from
making decisions for this generation to making decisions for future generations, from
planning transport and land use separately to planning transport and land use
concurrently and iteratively. It is also a shift from responding to demand to
influencing and managing demand.
19. Nairobi, which is our capital city, does not currently have integrated public transport
system. The industry is primarily driven by the private sector. As a result, there is
insufficient network of buses and matatu, less coordination between bus and matatu
for sharing and integration, no spaces for non-motorized transport, bus companies
operate on the same routes as the matatus, and compete for the same traffic. Also,
urban commuters do not use the commuter rail due to….inadequate inter-modal
transfer facilities and long walk between station and places of work.
20. Because of these challenges, my Government has been undertaking massive road
construction and expansion as well as construction of standard gauge railway in
Nairobi and other municipalities to provide commuters with viable choices. The
grand plan is to introduce Mass Rapid Transit System for Nairobi Metropolitan
Region by 2015.The new road major transport corridors in Nairobi are being done to
improve our competitiveness and overall improvement in the general welfare of the
population.
Lessons Learnt From Integrated Service Planning
5
21. Through implementation of integrated service planning in urban environments, we
have learnt the following:
i. Inadequate financial resources and lack of appropriate technologies and
capacities compromises both the quality and quantity of service delivery.
ii. Policy fragmentation and bureaucratic red tapes are a major setback. For
example, separate bodies within the Ministry of health are responsible for
maternal and child health and HIV and STI control, while population offices
outside the ministry oversee family planning policy.
iii. Lack of networking. Vertical programs reduce opportunities for policymakers
in different divisions to network. As a result, rivalry and competition for
limited resources may arise compromising the set objectives.
iv. Bad flow of information. Sometimes, bureaucratic protocols hinder
communication: For example, a director of the maternal and child health
division may rank higher than the person responsible for STIs within an
infectious disease control division.
v. Sometimes, a single blueprint is unworkable owing to the complexity of the
issues. For example, the appropriateness of an integrated HIV and STI service
depends on the prevalence of disease: In high-prevalence situations, mass
treatment may be the most cost-effective approach. But in low-prevalence
situations, targeting high-risk groups may be more suitable. Therefore, the
patterns of integration must be understood within specific local contexts.
Which Way for the Future
22. I wish to reiterate the agreement at Rio+20 conference, that well planned and
developed cities through integrated planning and management approaches can
promote economically, socially and environmentally sustainable societies. Therefore,
there is need for Sustainable Development Goals on cities and human settlement in
order to promote a clear post 2015 development agenda of our cities
I thank you.
Stakeholders