Kigali, 3rd February, 2017 -The Ministry of Infrastructure  has  conducted urban audit initiatives with the aim of helping local authorities analyze the strengths and weaknesses in their city's current mobility plan and policy.

In the course of the audit process, areas of improvement and associated actions were identified.

These actions can be used as a basis for the development of a new or updated Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for better implementation of master plans in the country to fast track sustainable urban development.

The urban plan audit not only seeks to improve the quality of the Sustainable urban Mobility plan (SUMP) document, but aims to also analyze, systemize and improve the whole process of plan development.

It analyses the strengths and weaknesses in the current sustainable mobility planning of a city and gives clear indications for improvement.

A number of land use and urban planning tools were developed and adopted. The most well-known among residents is the Master plan for the City of Kigali, adopted in 2013 as a kick off of the exercise that will be implemented in all growing cities in Rwanda.

The audits not only verify how urban Master plans are being implemented, but also how the loss of natural and agricultural resources outside of Master plan areas can be prevented. Future local planning processes will be led by capacitated districts, which will strongly involve citizens and concerned land holders to reflect local realities.

The audits are meant to be carried out periodically in all districts of the country. So far, the auditing exercise has been conducted in Gasabo, Kicukiro, Nyarugenge, Musanze, Huye, Muhanga, Bugesera and Rusizi districts.

Engineers, architects, urban planners and district One Stop Center officers were trained on how to conduct audit exercise and become Auditors, who will hopefully conduct more audits in the future.

The Ministry of infrastructure and other stakeholders begun Urban Planning and Building Auditing with the intention to identify the progress in the implementation of urban planning documents, verify the compliance of the existing plans with recent policies, laws and regulations and the audit the compliance of building permitting procedures undertaken by Districts.

The exercise will enhance efficient use of land, mixed use compact settlement, type of planning which is inclusive and implementable. District One Stop Center are endowed to identify how better service delivery can be achieved in urban and human settlement planning, building permitting and investment planning in their respective cities