Source: VP Chiwenga to attend World Urban Forum in Azerbaijan – herald
Zvamaida Murwira in BAKU, Azerbaijan
VICE PRESIDENT Dr Constantino Chiwenga is expected in Azerbaijan today to attend the 13th Session of the World Urban Forum, which seeks to address issues related to rapid urbanisation and promoting sustainable urban development in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The Vice President, who will represent President Mnangagwa, will join several world leaders at the forum, which is being held under the theme “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities”. In 2024, President Mnangagwa travelled to Baku, Azerbaijan, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, where he held talks with his counterpart, President Ilham Aliyev, on bilateral cooperation.
Vice President Chiwenga will hold bilateral meetings with Azerbaijan Prime Minister Ali Asadov to explore ways of deepening cooperation.
According to World Bank ratings, Azerbaijan is an upper middle-income economy, and Zimbabwe has a lot to learn from Baku as it seeks to achieve the same vision by 2030.
In an interview yesterday in Baku, Zimbabwe’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Ambassador Winpeg Moyo, said participating in the forum gives impetus to the country’s various climate-proofing efforts.
“We are expecting our Honourable Vice President, Dr Constantino Chiwenga, who will be representing President Mnangagwa, to come and attend the event. He is going to attend the World Leaders Summit, which is scheduled for 18 May, together with other world leaders,” said Ambassador Moyo, who is also Zimbabwe’s envoy to Kenya, Uganda and Somalia.
“It is very important that he attends because this is an organisation which looks at human settlements and you know that in Africa there is a problem of urbanisation and we want to look at how we are going to address this, how we are going to build climate resilient cities and also how to we deal with our towns, how do we develop them. So, these are really important issues. We
also want to forge partnerships with other organisations, exchange best practises, foster cooperation, explore ways to get some financial aid for us to move on and what is the best thing to tackle and to have climate adaptation.”
Zimbabwe and Mozambique, she said, were recently elected to be part of the 36-member UN-Habitat board.
Also, Zimbabwe will be exhibiting at the event, with some municipalities showcasing their efforts towards climate adaptation.
“We have about seven municipalities showcasing what we are doing in Zimbabwe. And in doing so, when we discuss, we might find some partners in some of our projects in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Zimbabwe, she said, benefitted immensely both financially and technically when it was struck by natural disasters such as Cyclone Idai, which are caused by climate change.
Under the Second Republic, Zimbabwe has significantly revised its housing targets upwards after surpassing its initial National Development Strategy 1 goals.
It now targets to have one million houses by end of 2026, given that more than 70 percent of its target has been achieved.
The Government is focusing on high-rise, high-density residential developments to conserve land, particularly in major urban centres and in rural, rapidly developing service centres.
The Government has also intensified issuance of tittle deeds on property owners that are digital and highly securitised to curb fraud and rent-seeking behaviour.
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