Future Cities Africa podcast

Janet Channing is Managing Director and Ayanda Ngcobo is Director at MetGovis. In episode 1 of the MetGovis series on Future Cities Africa we discuss how MetGovis is partnering with local government towards sustainability.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with MetGovis Listen or watch to understand:

• Who and what MetGovis is.
• How and why MetGovis was started. Their personal journey.
• How they help solve complex problems within public and private sectors.
• Overcoming the challenge of capacity within municipalities.
• Addressing the disconnect between what National Treasury is requesting and what Municipalities must comply with.
• The importance of being able to understand complex data easily by visualising it on a map.
• How challenges around municipal data can be solved.
• Their competitive advantage.
• Major accomplishments as thought leaders in municipal valuations and rating.
• Impacts of the Pandemic on how they work.
• New solutions like GovProp.
• And much more

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Monika Iuel is Chief Destination Marketing Officer at Wesgro, the Official Tourism, Trade, Investment and Film Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape. In episode 2 of the 10 episode Wesgro Series on Future Cities Africa we discuss: Tourism After The Great Disruption.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Wesgro Listen or watch to understand:

• How leisure tourism can affect a local economy and thus a city.
• How the tourism industry can find the best ways to leverage technological solutions to recover and grow.
• New trends and insights emerging from the rise in traveller numbers post pandemic.
• Remote work, the future of work, and how the Western Cape is positioned to maximise the economic benefits of this new way of working.
• How much travellers' expectations have changed in recent times.
• The challenges to a Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) to retain domestic travellers now that the world is opening up again.
• Potential emerging disrupters, new challenges and solutions for the tourism industry in the near future.
• And more

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Karen Bosman is Strategic Advisor: Office of the CEO at Wesgro. In episode 1 of the 10 episode Wesgro Series on Future Cities Africa we discuss: Harnessing the benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI), exports and tourism.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Wesgro Listen or watch to understand:

• The context of what Wesgro does and why it is important.
• Wesgro's different functions.
• The role that Wesgro plays to achieve these functions.
• The bigger context and how an agency like Wesgro supports economic growth.
• The benefits of attracting foreign direct investment and how those benefits are maximised for a local economy.
• Challenges that need to be overcome to succeed with the work they do and for businesses to succeed.
• Why it is good to have a subnational agency rather than just a national agency.

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Frank Cumming is Director for Urban Catalytic Investments at the City of Cape Town. We discuss city mega projects, the Bellville Future City and Local Spatial Development Framework masterplan, the role of partnerships, and more.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with The Greater Tygerberg Partnership Listen or watch to understand:

• How mega projects like the Bellville Future City vision impact on the sustainability of cities.
• The opportunities and, correspondingly, challenges, for the success (or failure) of these kinds of mega projects.
• The role of partnerships between the public and private sector in delivering projects of this scale.
• How large-scale masterplans can serve the needs of the users at ground.
• Overview of the vision for Bellville Future City.
• Improvement measures being implemented in the short and medium term.
• The catalyst for the development of this vision.
• Desired outcome of the public consultation process.
• How people can get involved in the process?

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Maurietta Stewart is Head of Environmental & Heritage Management for District A+D (Table Bay and Tygerberg) at The City of Cape Town and Guy Briggs is Partner and Head of Urban Design at dhk Architects. We discuss successful placemaking to build inclusive African places.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with The Greater Tygerberg Partnership Listen or watch to understand:

• The unique opportunities for effective placemaking in African cities.
• Introduction to the top 10 factors to be considered in successful placemaking initiatives.
• The challenges to incorporating some or all of those considerations within an African context.
• How to preserve a place's authentic character alongside the introduction of new placemaking interventions.
• The main priorities for placemaking interventions in Bellville today.
• The importance of heritage in creating inclusive spaces, particularly in places where heritage and memory are contested.
• Key considerations for using heritage to build inclusive communities.
• The specific opportunities for heritage-linked placemaking in Bellville.
• And more.

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Executive Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, the Mayor of Cape Town, is our first guest on the Visionary City Leader Show. We discuss what is means to be a visionary city leader, his 1st 100 days in office, how he'll define success over his 5 year term, the importance of partnerships in solving complex problems, future-proofing cape town, how the role of the mayor has changed in recent times, and much more.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with GPA GROUP Listen or watch to understand:

• Major highlights from his 1st 100 days in office and what het did not get too.
• Future thinking.
• How he managed the complexity of the transition from the national sphere of government to the municipal.
• How important partnerships are in ending load shedding, getting rail to work and more.
• The key characteristics of a visionary city leader.
• How he will define success over the course of 5 years.
• How the role of an executive mayor has changed especially since covid, and how he prioritises what is done first.
• The City's resilience and future planing directorate and what it is trying to achieve.
• What spatial transformation means to him as an individual, as a leader and what it implies to the city.
• Tensions and compromises he anticipates (on spatial transformation) and how he will tackle them differently from his predecessors?
• What his diary holds for the coming week.

Visit: www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Episode 6 of the Series focussing on urban governance and how to get it right in managing urban growth in towns and cities in Kenya.

Show guest: Dennis Abuya is a Registered Physical Planner currently working with the County Government of Kiambu. He holds a Master's Degree in Urban Management and a degree in Urban and Regional Planning - both from the University of Nairobi. Listen or watch to understand:

• How Kiambu County is developing and changing in the spatial and socio-economic form.
• The development character and trends in rapidly urbanizing and emerging towns.
• If the growth of these towns followed any management guidelines and regulations.
• Current management challenges hindering sustainable growth of these towns.
• What the future is of these towns and what role urban authorities can play for sustainability and for tackling the challenges.
• How the County has worked with AKiRNA to negotiate and drive the region's present and future development?
• Foreseeable opportunities with well managed urban and peri-urbans areas.
• Kiambu County's system to deliver better cities and towns.
• How the County is steering the development and growth of the region.
• Key priorities for growth in the next decade and how we will get there.
• Lessons learnt so far.
• How to resolve current glitches, for future resilience.
• Inspiration drawn from other African towns and cities.

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Episode 5 of the Series focussing on urban governance and how to get it right in managing urban growth in towns and cities in Kenya. Show guest: Engineer Geche Karanja is Chairman of Kiambu Residents and Neighbourhood Association (AKiRNA). He has worked in various locations worldwide including Germany; Brazil; South Africa; USA; Egypt and Japan. Listen or watch to understand:

• The role of residents' associations.
• Collaboration and partnerships between the county and residents' association in shaping the growth and development of Kiambu County.
• How to fast track collaboration.
• How effectively AKiRNA has played the role to demand plans at Neighborhood level and being the frontline compliance/ enforcement team to ensure plans are prepared and adhered to.
• How well they have been able to put local and national authorities to account for the implementation of planned infrastructure?
• How would you solve the challenges to above.
• How planners and professionals in general can participate as residents and members of residents' associations in guiding the residents in preparation of plans and adherence to the same.
• Lessons and advice for residents and neighborhood associations across the country in Kenya.
• In which areas and How residents' associations can partner with their respective governments both national and local to actively shape the growth and development of their areas

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Episode 4 of the Series focussing on urban governance and how to get it right in managing urban growth in towns and cities in Kenya. Show guest: Grace Kamweru is a Landscape Architect, Environmental Planner & Assistant Lecturer at The Technical University of Kenya. Listen or watch to understand:

• The status of climate change and associated crises in this post-pandemic era at the City level.
• How the pandemic has affected the gains and transition to the Sustainable Development Goals.
• The impact of climate action plans in Kenya and key successes to date.
• How the growth by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is no longer sustainable for countries.
• The Circular Economy as the ultimate opportunity of our time for completing the picture in addressing climate change, besides shifting to renewable energy.
• The water crisis in Nairobi and the role of water urbanism in addressing climate change in the cities and their urban countrysides.
• How cities can achieve sustainable settlements through provision of affordable housing to all socio-economic groups in the cities.
• Main challenges to addressing climate change: The main drivers, barriers and possible enablers to shift to a more sustainable future in cities.

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Episode 3 of the Series focussing on urban governance and how to get it right in managing urban growth in towns and cities in Kenya. Show guest: Mary Chege, Founding Partner of EMSI & Associates. She has over seventeen years' experience in advising on a broad range of transactions across Sub-Saharan Africa. Listen or watch to understand:

• The current state of infrastructure financing in Kenya's towns and cities
• What can be done to shore up financing for infrastructure development in Kenya's urban areas.
• Are development fees a viable mechanism to bridge such funding gaps?
• Mary's experiencing in working with local government across Kenya to implement such.
• What the future holds for Kenya's towns and cities in regard to infrastructure financing.
• Lessons can we draw from other jurisdictions; Africa and globally.

Visit: www.futurecitiesafrica.com