Kisumu, Kenya, one of nine Millennium Cities
The Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), an urban counterpart to the Millennium Villages Project, is assisting selected mid-sized cities across sub-Saharan Africa in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Initiative is focused on the capitals of the regions where the Millennium Villages Project is enabling farmers to transition from sub-subsistence farming to commercial agricultural and non-agricultural activities, with the help of an integrated package of interventions in agriculture, health, education and enterprise development. The MCI was established to complement this work by strengthening the farm-to-market linkages between the countryside and these secondary cities. By concentrating on policy analysis impacting foreign direct investment (FDI), the MCI aims to engender a climate in which foreign investment can thrive, thereby creating employment, stimulating domestic enterprise development and fostering economic growth. In addition, the MCI is helping the Millennium Cities to carry out needs assessments in a wide array of social sectors, the data from which will enable the Millennium Cities to generate integrated City Development Strategies that are explicitly predicated on achieving the MDGs.
Overall, the Initiative will demonstrate, through its research and policy analysis, that more FDI can be attracted to regional urban centers in sub-Saharan Africa, with the resulting beneficial employment and economic growth effects. The urban development strategies produced by and for the Millennium Cities themselves will apprise national governments and their donors of each city’s priorities and chart a path toward their realization. These City Development Strategies, as well as a MCI Handbook chronicling the project’s processes and best practices, will serve as templates for the replication and scaling of the Initiative to other similarly underserved urban settings across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
The MCI is currently operating in nine locations in seven countries.
RECENT NEWS & EVENTS
KPMG relesase new investment report on Blantyre, Malawi, November 2009
MCI Releases Health Needs Assessment for Mekelle City, Ethiopia, October 2009
MCI Releases Situation Analysis on Gender for Mekelle, Ethiopia, October 2009
MCI Partnerships Flourish with a Variety of Exciting Projects, October 2009
MCI Releases Education Needs Assessment for Mekelle, Ethiopia, September 2009
MCI Team Conducts Visit to Ethiopia, August 2009
MCI Releases Social Sector and Investment Progress Reports, July 2009
MCI Facilitates and Organizes Training Workshops in Three Millennium Cities, June 2009
Kaduna City, Nigeria on Track to Achieve MDGs on Education by 2015
Physicians for Peace Completes Surgical Mission to Millennium Cities and Villages in Mali, May 2009
MCI Releases Working Papers on FDI Opportunities and Infrastructure Constraints in Blantyre, Malawi, April 2009
MCI leads School-to-School Mission to Kumasi, Ghana, with students and teachers from Washington, DC, March 2009
MCI Releases Working Paper on Environmental Issues Affecting Kisumu and Winam Gulf, March 2009
MCI Partners with AmeriCares
MCI holds Investment Day, London, December 9 -10, 2008
MCI Releases First Social Sector Working Paper to Measure Progress Toward Achieving the MDGs
MCI Receives Landmark $1.9 Million Challenge Gift
MCI Partnership with Government of Israel Benefits Millennium Cities
Announcing new article by MCI Co-Director Susan Blaustein in Global Urban Development Magazine
MCI and VCC release fourth and fifth working papers
MCI Update: October 2008
MCI Short-listed for the 2008 African Investor Investment Awards
MCI and VCC release third working paper on bamboo bikes
Kumasi declared "open for business" at Kumasi Investment Day North America
MCI and VCC release working paper on assessing infrastructure constraints to business activity in Kumas
MCI and VCC launch Working Papers Series on Investment in the Millennium Cities
MCI to hold Kumasi Investment Day, Columbia University, New York, September 29, 2008
MCI holds Kisumu Investment Day, July 8-10
MCI holds Shea Butter Investment Forum in Bamako, Mali, June 28
MCI participates in Millennium Villages Retreat, Bamako, Mali, June 23-28
KPMG releases new Investment Report on Kisumu, Kenya, May 2008
MCI Progress Report, June 2008
MCI expands partnership with Israel
Mekelle becomes eighth Millennium City
Invest in Ghana: Focus Kumasi (April 2008):
Invest in Kenya: Focus Kisumu (July 2007):
