Our City 2030, Young Minds Envision a Resilient Kampala City

Posted on 14 August 2019

Last week, WWF together with Plan International held the Youth Climate Council. The event attracted 9 primary schools who fully participated in the climate council exhibiting their visions for sustainable and resilient Kampala City.

The Lord Mayor of Kampala Elias Lukwago, together with city officials were amazed at the visions and solutions that the pupils have for Kampala. This was depicted in the exhibitions of the city that they want to see in 2030.

n their architectural exhibitions, they took visitors through the steps that need to be taken to attain a resilient Kampala city by 2030. Some of their visions for the city included the adoption of clean and renewable energy; solar, briquettes and proper housekeeping practices like sorting of waste. The pupils also envisioned proper planning of the city by putting down slums and replacing them with skyscrapers to provide planned settlement.

“Our other challenge is the encroachment on wetlands to give room for infrastructure such as roads. Our recommendation is construction of flyovers. These will not only curb traffic but will ensure that our wetlands are not encroached on to give space for the roads”, the pupils argued.

Other visions included construction of non-motorized ways, cyclists ways, pedestrians walk ways and moving towards mass transportation by use of buses and electric trains. They also emphasized greening the city with parks and pushing all industries away from the city.

The Lord Mayor appreciated WWF and its partners for the approach of allowing children take lead in shaping a future that they will live in. “I have learnt a lot of these children. Their visions are realistic and attainable. Their illustrations are brilliant. As leaders, we must stop assuming that we are planning for them. We must plan with them because they are the ones going to live in this city a few years from now”, he said.

Our City 2030, Youth visions and sustainable solutions for climate smart cities is a project that is engaging schools, teachers, youths and city planners to work towards cities fast tracking the implementation of the Paris Agreement. In the Paris Agreement, countries committed to put measures in place to achieve a reduction in global temperatures not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The project also works towards contributing to sustainable cities by reducing carbon footprint which is a strong contributor to climate change crisis. In Uganda, Our city 2030 project is implemented by WWF and Plan International working directly with partners like the Kampala Capital City Authority among others.

The implementation is in 10 primary schools in Kawempe division. Primary school children, youths out of school (all referred to as youths) are involved as key drivers to influence decision makers to commit and act towards climate resilient and sustainable cities.

Primary children showcasing their innovative ideas on how Kamplala should look by 2030