Africa: Cities deepen fiscal reform efforts to support development goals

 

Urban areas across Africa are growing at a remarkable pace, but many city governments are being asked to deliver more with limited fiscal space and constrained access to capital.

Despite these pressures, some city administrators say they are “seeing real progress,” as explained by James Muchiri, Deputy Governor of Nairobi City County: “In the last financial year alone, Nairobi’s local revenue rose by one billion shillings, and the year before, by nearly the same amount.”

This view is shared by Chilando Chitangala, Mayor of Lusaka, who noted that the city has long struggled with revenue leakages but is now learning how to build stronger systems – “how to collect more effectively and manage what we collect with greater accountability.”

The two city leaders were speaking at the close of a high-level side event co-organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), UN-Habitat, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) on the margins of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville.

The session focused on how African cities can mobilize domestic resources and strengthen financial systems to support the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063.

Both Nairobi and Lusaka are among six African cities participating in the DA-15 project, a joint initiative led by ECA in partnership with UN-Habitat and UNCDF. The project supports city administrations in evaluating their financial performance, identifying reform priorities, and building the tools needed to strengthen public finance at the local level. Other participating cities include Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Kigali, and Yaoundé.

The first phase of the project involved in-depth financial assessments across the six cities. The findings revealed significant gaps in revenue collection, expenditure management, and investment planning, but also surfaced promising areas for reform.

“By using ECA’s methodology, we got a report that was independent of our own systems,” said Mr Muchiri. “That helped surface issues we hadn’t seen before, and gave us something concrete to act on.”

To support implementation, ECA has also developed the Fiscal Space Performance and Monitoring Dashboard, a digital tool that enables city officials to track real-time indicators such as liquidity, solvency, and revenue collection efficiency.

The dashboard is designed to strengthen transparency and support evidence-based decision-making at the local level.

“The dashboard enhances transparency, strengthens accountability, and supports smarter financial decisions,” said Hana Morsy, Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA. “It’s a practical tool city can use to stay on top of their fiscal health.”

While digital tools and financial diagnostics are central to the DA-15 approach, both Nairobi and Lusaka emphasized the importance of local capacity and political will.

“We now have the skills and structure to move forward,” said Ms Chitangala. “And we hope this knowledge can benefit other cities across Zambia as well.”

“Ultimately,” added Mr Muchiri, “we want to reduce our dependency on central government transfers. That means we have to build strong, reliable systems that let us collect and manage our own revenue with confidence.”

Ms Morsy called on national governments, development partners, and the private sector to invest not just in infrastructure, but in the financial systems and institutions that make local governance work.

“What if we stopped viewing cities as beneficiaries,” she said, “and started empowering them as leaders?”

Atkeyelsh Persson, Chief of Urbanization and Development at ECA, stressed the importance of ensuring that capacity gains are shared more widely.

“It’s encouraging to see the impact being felt on the ground,” said Ms Persson. “The capacity built through this work shouldn’t stop with just Nairobi or Lusaka. It has the potential to scale across other cities in Kenya, Zambia, and beyond.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).