Minister of Local Government Richard Chimwendo Banda has urged city council leaders to deal with what he called extremism and terrorism to build strong cities whose economic activities could anchor national development.
Speaking in Lilongwe when he opened the Strong Cities International workshop which targets developing cities in East and Southern Africa, the minister said mayors must promote co-existence to prevent conflicts and ensure peace.
He observed that strong cities are built on peace, which he described as an enabler for development.
Said Chimwendo-Banda: “It [the workshop] is targeting cities across the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) and most importantly here in Malawi.Through this, we are trying to ensure that our cities are able to prevent extremism, radicalisation and terrorism. There must be peaceful coexistence among our people, once that is done then we can be able to have strong economies across the region.”
Strong Cities Netwok head of the East and Southern Africa Regional Hub Getrude Rose Gameera said her body’s role is to advocate for governments to give cities space to play their roles in building economies of the region.
“Our commitment as Strong Cities rests in the direction of supporting the ministry to create space for local government mayors to be able to have a voice and have some priorities in terms of ensuring that their capacities are met,” she said.
Gameera, who is also the region’s Local Government Association secretary general, said it is only empowered mayors that are visible and capable of pushing through the national policy agenda which aims at building strong cities that drives countries economic growths.
The workshop brought together mayors from Malawi’s four cities, officials from the Ministry of Local Government, and international delegates from the Sadc region.
