Kampala and Karlsruhe exchange knowledge on smart city projects
The cities of Kampala in Uganda and Karlsruhe in Germany settled a city-to-city partnership, thanks to the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA), an initiative funded by the European Union and led by CEMR, and its partner Climate Alliance.
Following a visit of the mayor of Karlsruhe Dr. Frank Mentrup to Kampala in January 2019, both cities envisaged a partnership focused on climate action and energy cooperation. Both cities were interested in such cooperation: Karlsruhe is a signatory of the European Covenant of Mayors and Kampala of the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A delegation of five civil servants from the city of Kampala (KCCA) visited the city of Karlsruhe in September for a series of meetings with officials from the German city, as well as with local research centres and with the local private sector.
The program included, among others, a visit to the company PTV and its “Mobility Lab”, showcasing solutions in the area of transport and mobility, a visit to the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology for a presentation on recycling and resource efficiency management and a visit to the European Institute for Energy Research (EIFER), with a focus on “Smarter City and territories concepts for urban planning for efficient residential and commercial areas”.
Kampala is among CoM SSA pilot cities and is already advanced with the elaboration its climate plan (SEACAP). The next challenge for the city is to seek support for sustainable energy investments in its urban areas. Therefore, the visit to Karlsruhe provided the opportunity to share experiences with the city of Karlsruhe as well as to established contacts with key actors in the areas of mobility and energy.
Resulting from this exchange, both cities decided to sign a partnership agreement in order to ensure that the partnership will keep going on a long-term basis and communication channels will be established for regular contacts between the two cities administration.
A delegation from Djibouti was also invited by the city of Karlsruhe and contacts were established with CoM SSA with prospects of regional cooperation between Kampala and Djibouti and for Djibouti to join the CoM SSA network of signatory cities.
