After an intense couple of months, Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe and David Mhlanga emerged as the winners from the City of Mutare in the African edition of the Multi-City Challenge. They won in the Building Urban Resilience and Digitising the Informal Economy categories  among  the five participating cities (Accra, Kampala, Kano, Bahir Dar and Mutare).

The winning pitch from Farm Community Trust Zimbabwe and partners proposed improving urban resilience in Mutare by: improving access to clean and safe water; developing a community based waste management system and enhancing the use of clean energy by informal urban settlements in Mahalape, Chikukwa farm, Federation and Gimboki 2. These solutions will be implemented through the use of  community managed water kiosks,collaboration with enterprises that are re-using and recycling waste and the use of eco-sanitation fed bio digesters.  

Dickson Mhlanga won the digitising the informal sector category with his Space Time concept which will explore ways to integrate the formal and informal economies by optimising the use of public spaces.  

To read more about the winners solutions click here

Several ideas were received from all over the country and special mention goes to the finalists below who did win but submitted innovative solutions for the city:

• Traders Excel' - Web based Platform for Informal Traders - Liberty Gadzirai Mujumi
• Boola - Data-driven Waste Management Platform - Salihu Hamisu, Boola Waste Management Solutions
• Rapid Resilience Platforms in Informal Settlements in Mutare - Dickson  Mhlanga, University of Zimbabwe Department of Social and Behavioural Studies and Department Architecture and Real Estate

At a city level, the Mutare Town council representatives identified the following solutions in the urban resilience and digitising the informal economy catergories respectivley:

•  Policy reinforcement on wetlands aimed at increasing coordination with  the government, educating and raising awareness among populations, creating a useful database and organising clean up campaigns.
•  Analysis with geo-referenced transactions: The Harare Insititute of Technology/ Local Authorities Database System is mapping informal vendor activities by frequency and sector to inform policy making on where to locate dedicated facilities or improve accessibility.

Following the selection of the winners, the UNDP Global Centre and GovLab will work with winners from five cities to develop, so that they can be potentially piloted in the chosen locations

The Multi-City Challenge Africa was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Centre for Technology, Innovation,and Sustainable Development, UNDP Zimbabwe and The Governance Lab (The GovLab) at New York University Tandon School of Engineering. The challenge builds on successful implementation of the City and Multi-City Challenge model in Latin America, the US, and Europe