Welcome to the Urban    Councils Association of Zimbabwe

      Our Mission

UCAZ is an association of urban governments, which, through strength in unity of purpose and in the true spirit of smart partnership, advocates, negotiates, lobbies and initiates improvements in local and national legislation, development programmes and services to enhance urban life for both women and men in Zimbabwe.  

  UCAZ Members

WELCOME 

UCAZ is an association of all the twenty-four urban councils of Zimbabwe. It  is one of the oldest local government associations in Africa having been founded in 1923 as a forum where municipalities met to discuss matters of common interest.  Through the years, the focus of UCAZ continued to be the facilitation of meetings of the Association’s committees with little effort being made to develop strategies to address the problems facing its members.   A major shift in emphasis commenced in 1998 when UCAZ was selected as one of six national associations which were to take part in the Association Capacity Programme.  The ACB Programme was a pilot programme initiated by the International Union of Local Authorities with financial support from the Netherlands Government to enhance the capacity of selected national local government associations to effectively carry out their mandate.  It was conceived out of the realisation that the capacity of some national associations required strengthening in order to make them more effective in performing their role as effective representatives of local authorities. The other national associations which took part in the programme are National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), Federation of Colombian Municipalities (FCM), Association of Municipalities in Nicaragua, the League of Cities (LCP) and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP).  The ACB Programme created an opportunity for UCAZ to review its operations.  A Secretary General was appointed in August 1998 in anticipation of the commencement of the programme.  A Training and Programme Officer was appointed in June 1999 as part of the Programme. 

A major component of the ACB Programme was the preparation of a Strategic Business Plan for UCAZ through a demand driven process which emphasised the participation of the members and various stakeholders who included ratepayers’ associations, donors and other local government partners.  The Strategic Business Plan which was adopted at the 59^th Annual General Meeting in Masvingo in May 2000 identified seven key programme areas namely :

	Policy Develpment, Research , Lobby  and Advocacy
	Women in local government
	Income Generation Initiatives for UCAZ
	Best Practices in Urban  Management
	Human Resources Capacity  Building
	Municipal  Smart Partnerships and International Cooperation
	Urban Environmental Problems

By focusing on these areas UCAZ will be transformed into an organised lobby successfully representing the interests of urban councils on all aspects that affect the future of local government. UCAZ is grateful to the following organizations which have assisted it in the transformation process :

 

	International Council  for  Local  Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) for  supporting  the GUO Project and the establishment of this website
	IULA and the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands Government   for providing the seed funds for the ACB Programme.
	Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), Local Government International Bureau (LGIB) UK for their input into the ACB Programme
	Our own Minister  of Local Government, Public Works and National  Housing for his encouragement, support and cooperation
	The African Union of Local  Authorities (AULA) for  assistance and guidance throughout the ACB Programme.
	ZADF/PACT for supporting our Policy Development, Research, Lobbying and Advocacy Programme.

Joel B. Zowa
SECRETARY GENERAL