KAMPALA HOSTS GLOBAL SMART CITIES TOP ORGAN MEETING

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has today, Tuesday 1st November 2022, successfully hosted the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGo) Executive Committee (EXCOM) meeting with focus on how to make cities smart. 

Held under the theme; Resilience in the Face of Adversity: Smart Cities as Engines for Social Economic Transformation the event, presided over by the KCCA Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka, provided an opportunity for participants to give various insights on the measures to develop agile cities and the key role of citizens as contributors to policy and implementation of smart cities. 

Kampala is the first city on the African continent to host this international event, that brings together more than 200 members around the world and serves as their international platform to improve the quality of life, innovate in the delivery of public services, and strengthen regional competitiveness.  

In her remarks, Kisaka urged cities to prioritize policies that promote diversity, increase in production, export competitiveness and investment in skills development, productive jobs creation, and capacity retention.

“Kampala City is Championing a Smart City campaign by leveraging technology to improve service delivery based on the three core pillars that drive Smart Cities that is; Technology, Infrastructure and People well-being,” she said.Ms Kisaka noted that the WeGO EXCOM 2022, will trigger a new discussion for cities’ approach towards inclusiveness and resilience amidst economic challenges. 

“Many cities are facing increased pressures to provide essential services while simultaneously coping with dramatic revenue declines,” she said, adding, “It is important for harnessing collaboration with other cities through different forums such as the WeGO and Africa Smart Towns Network (ASToN).

Through the creation of these cooperation networks between cities, we can work to strengthen the capacity of our cities to design and implement solutions to urban challenges.”Jung Sook Park Secretary General of WeGO commended the city of Kampala for their leadership and tremendous team efforts in making our WeGO EXCOM 2022 shine this year.

“Smart City is no longer a simple application of technology in city management. Smart city is a culture for the lives of citizens. We must make this smart city culture sustainable and inclusive so that no one is left behind,” she said, adding, “WeGO has always been at the forefront of representing the voice of the leading cities, corporations, and societies to build a sustainable smart city together. I strongly believe that our unified voice will serve as the milestone for pushing this agenda as the new goal for the global smart city community.”

Ms Park also revealed that the WeGO EXCOM 2022 will serve as an important opportunity to set the direction in rebuilding and transforming our cities amidst these set of transitions. “In every sector of today’s society, ranging from the economy, education, infrastructure, governance, welfare, environment, tourism, media, to arts, policy implementation is not possible without the smart city technology or mechanism,” she said. 

The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) was established in 2010 based in Seoul South Korea. It comprises 213 members worldwide including 158 Local Governments, 36 Corporations and 19 Institutions. The Core objective of WeGO is to transform cities into smart sustainable cities. Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has been an active member of WeGO since 26th April 2017. WeGO’s Secretariat is based in Seoul and supported by regional offices in Africa (Abuja, Nigeria), East Asia (Chengdu, China), Eurasia (Ulyanovsk Region, Russia), the Mediterranean (Beyoğlu, Turkey), and Latin America (Mexico City, Mexico).