The Truth About Migration

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“Can Development Co-operation Provide Solutions” Between the 4th and 5th of February the European Commission hosted the 6th edition of the forum “Cities and Regions for Development Co-operation.” Cities and Regions from across the globe are at the heart of sustainable development and there are many lessons and practices that can be shared with peers to address some of the critical issues ranging from poverty and food security to gender equality and climate change. What is Development Co-operation? Often described as development assistance offered by one region to another, usually a developed one to a developing one, and is a broad description for international action between two cities or regions that can be about

-Financial Support – traditionally what we recognise as “Aid”

-Capacity Support– human or organisational capacity building, technical support and sharing policy experience.

-Policy Change – of which decentralisation is a major component.

The Forum addressed sustainable urban development through twinning, pairing and matchmaking of Local and Regional Authorities from EU and Partner countries which included Cities and Regions from Africa. The 2-Day event not only initiated discussion and debate on cooperation and development it also highlighted successful partnership initiatives including the Platforma Awards which aims to reward the best town-to-town and region-to-region development projects, promoting decentralised cooperation. The towns of Roeselare (Belgium) and Dogbo (Benin) received the first prize for their joint birth registration programme and after six years, Dogbo has become a reference in the field of civil registration in Benin, a country where more than 40% of births are not registered.

The Mayor of Dogbo, Vincent Codjo Akakpo spoke of the benefits of development co-operation and Cities and Regions across Africa are encouraged to explore the possibilities of such partnerships to drive sustainable development.

Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi Secretary General of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa lead a delegation from Africa to participate in a number of discussions on topics of interest including that of Migration.

As one of the hot topics between the EU and Africa UCLG Africa hosted a side event “Co-operate Around Migration” to provide a platform to interact and generate insights and recommendations directed to the European institutions on this important issue. Migration today is discussed as if it were a new phenomenon but this has been going on since the dawn of time from the “incredible human journey” when humans first ventured out of Africa some 60,000 years ago, and here we are talking about it in 2019 as if it were something new.

Read more …

Read the report of the Side Event.

UCLG Africa Annual Retreat (18 -21 February 2019)

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Initiated in 2017, the third edition of UCLG Africa’s annual retreat will be held from 18 to 21 February 2019 in Ifrane, at the Conference Center of the University of Al Akhawayne (Morocco).

This retreat provides a space for dialogue to reflect on how best the organization can help its members grow and how to strengthen their organizational capacities and abilities.

The meeting will be attended by all UCLG Africa staff (headquarters , regional offices: West Africa region, East Africa Region,  Southern Africa region and ALGA Ouagadougou) and some partners.

The retreat has four main objectives:

– Develop a deeper understanding of the continental context;

– Refine the collective understanding of the purpose of UCLG Africa;

– Collectively assess the current state of the organization with a view to ongoing   improvement;

– Clarify the roles, functions, skills and capacities that UCLG Africa will need to thrive.

The program includes workshop work, round tables and plenary sessions.

Watch the video of Day 1 ! 

 

Africities 8 Summit : Summary of sessions and recommendations

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The general theme for the Summit is “The transition to sustainable cities and territories, the role of African local and regional authorities”. This theme reconciles the need to provide concrete responses to the demands of the populations for the improvement of their conditions and living environment, with the need to adapt to an environment marked by climate change and the growing divorce between expansive growth models and the impossibility of continuing to borrow from natural resources at the rate that such models do impose, under threat of jeopardizing the lives of future generations. Africa will become the world’s largest home to humans in just less than two generations. The continent can and must take the path of sustainable development now, especially in its cities and territories, because it is the region of the world that is the least entrenched in the globalized economy, and therefore most likely to branch off to a more sober economy in terms of borrowing and discharges into the natural environment, an economy that is fairer and more socially inclusive.

Read more here. 

Africities 2018: Find out the climate day program !

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Cities and territories members of UCLG Africa committed to the fight againstt Climate Change

Cities and territories of Africa represent a significant share of the continent’s GHG emissions (about 70 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa) and they host millions of people in areas that are sometimes very vulnerable to the effects of climate change. They also concentrate the bulk of economic activity in Africa and the bulk of investment (infrastructure, business buildings, equipment, etc.). These realities reinforce the importance of the cities and territories of Africa in the implementation of the policies of fight against climate change.

UCLG Africa intends to make of the 8th edition of the Africities Summit a strong political moment in the service of the achievement of a common goal of the cities and local governments in response to the major challenges of climate change and of the transition towards sustainable development.

This general objectives aims specifically to strengthen the actions of the cities and territories in support of states for the implementation of their Nationally Determined Planned Contributions (NDPCs) or their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

This moment should lead to the adoption of a joint Declaration on the commitment to a broader partnership between national governments and local and regional governments in Africa for the implementation of the NDCs.

Goals and objectives of the Africities Climate Day

The Africities Climate Day is held five years earlier to the deadline of 2023 for elevating the ambitions of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This Climate Day Aims to bring together all the stakeholders mobilized for the fighr against global warming and the effects of Climate change. For its first edition, the Africities Climate Day will focus its reflections on the creation of the NDCs of the African countries concerning the seven key components of the Paris Agreement, namely :

  1. Adaptation ;
  2. Mitigation ;
  3. South-South cooperation ;
  4. Territorialization of the NDCs ;
  5. Financing ;
  6. Capacity building ;
  7. The transparency framework

The Africities “Climate Day” sets five strategic & operational goals :

  1. Identifying best practices ;
  2. Setting the priorities and goals to be achieved by 2023, starting date of the binding period of the Paris Agreement ;
  3. Developing the 2030 Agenda of the cities and territories of Africa for Climate ;
  4. Evaluating the Declaration the Africities “Climate Day” to be presented at COP 24 in Poland in December.

This Desclaration aims to have UNFC recognize the centrality of cities and territories of African in the resilience to Climate Change and the need for these cities and territories, to receive more attention and involvement in implementation of the NDCs, on the one hand, and to be represented in the international climate proceedings, on the other hand.

The program is available here 

Africities Summit 2018: 20 years of Pan-Africanism of Cities and Regions Celebrated in Morocco

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“For an  Africa of all Transitions, for Cities and Regions as Drivers of Changes  Strategies”

Press Release 

Rabat, on 24 October 2018,

The flagship pan-African event of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA Africa) will celebrate its 20th anniversary. It will bring together the 5,000 expected participants for creating a shared vision of the «Africa We Want».

By hosting the Summit for the second time in 10 years, the Kingdom of Morocco and all the Moroccan stakeholders, mobilized under the aegis of the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Communal Councils (AMPCC), support this event which amplifies «the Voice of Territorial Africa».

Press Notice 

Under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Morocco hosts the Africities Summit for the second time, addressing the theme: «The Transition to Sustainable Cities and Territories: the Role of Territorial Communities of Africa.»

Indeed, it is a decisive role, as more than 60% of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations fall within the competence of territorial communities, as recognized by decentralization laws. The actual achievement of these objectives depends thus on the strong involvement of elected representatives, local public administrations, and territorial actors (communities, businesses, artists, women, young people, banking institutions, etc.).

The future of Africa and its evolution are increasingly played out at the level of the Continent’s cities and territories. Globalization and rapid urbanization are the two powerful trends that mark this evolution. These two trends have a significant impact on the development of African societies. They raise questions about the effectiveness of the current growth and development models pursued in the African context, and even prompt one to consider a paradigm shift in the way people think about the Continent’s sustainable development.

In choosing the theme of «the Transition to Sustainable Cities and Territories» for the Africities 2018 Summit, the territorial authorities of  Africa have opted for a break proposal that justifies the urgency for a farreaching change in the growth and development patterns, and a paradigm shift in the Continent’s development in order to achieve the structural transformation sought by the African Union Agenda 2063. The Summit will discuss the various dimensions of transition, without disregarding the interactions they maintain among themselves: demographic, ecological, democratic and political, economic and social, geopolitical, as well as culture and communication.

It is further recognized that it is rather in cities and territories that the fight against climate change and poverty would be won or lost. This is why cities and territories of Africa are now key actors in the process of implementing the international agendas adopted by the United Nations in 2015 and 2016, and more particularly the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG), the Paris Agreement that builds on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the implementation of the said Agreement, and the New Urban Agenda adopted in Quito, Ecuador. It is for the sake of raising awareness of the new responsibilities incumbent upon them and exploring the ways and means for fully assuming these responsibilities that the leaders of territorial communities of Africa invite all relevant stakeholders to explore with them at the Africities Summit, to be held from 20 to 24 November 2018 in Marrakech, the strategies to be defined and the paths to move along in order to start now the transition towards sustainable cities and territories in Africa.

This eighth edition is therefore a not-to-be-missed event for the territorial communities of Africa, and a significant anniversary date, as it marks the 20 years of existence and organization of the Africities Summits !

Read more… 

Re-defining AU-EU Partnership Perspectives of CSOs, Private Sector and Local Authorities

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  1. Preamble

From the 8th to 10th of October 2018, Gaborone, Botswana played host to the Africa Regional Meeting of the Policy Forum on Development (PFD). The Policy Forum on Development (PFD) is a multi-stakeholder platform that brings together Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Organized Private Sector and Local Authorities (LA) from around Africa to dialogue on critical development issues. The PFD recognises the European Commission’s 2012 communication on the “The roots of democracy and sustainable development” which clarifies the definition of CSOs in all their diversity and specificities. The PFD is supported by the European Commission and provides a platform where identified stakeholders’ together with EU Members States meet to debate on development matters. The regional PFD is organized on a rotational basis in addition to an annual global meeting.

The 2018 edition of the Africa PFD focused on the recommendations which emanated from the November 2017 African Union (AU) – European Union (EU) Summit of Heads of States and Governments; the vision for the proposed post-Cotonou framework, and further examined the AU theme of the year on Combatting Corruption.

  1. Observations

The Africa PFD witnessed extensive deliberations across critical development and governance issues. Subsequently, at the end of the three days, the PFD observed the following:

  1. A mutual and balanced relationship between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) is essential for both to play a leading role in world governance, now and the future. However, this relationship ought to be to be further cultivated and effectively harnessed for mutual benefit and to foster meaningful outcomes.
  2. The PFD as a multi-stakeholder platform should be a model that seeks to contribute to facilitating dialogue across crosscutting development issues and sustain critical platforms that promote knowledge and information sharing between the two continents.
  • Climate change is a real challenge to both continents and is already disrupting livelihoods.
  1. Rising inequalities on both continents is an issue of political and social concern for sustainable peace and development.
  2. Africa has a youthful population that can be a demographic dividend or a bulge. This youthful population is often lacking requisite skills and competences to express their ingenuity and play their rightful role in the overall development of their societies and continent at large.
  3. Existence and implementation of institutional frameworks and mechanisms that support effective governance systems are either lacking and/or not fully enforced in many countries. These countries also demonstrate very little corresponding political will to introduce and implement such systems.
  • Development at the national level has not been inclusive and has not reached the farthest behind in the spirit of the leave no one behind principle.
  • Leadership has a fundamental role in determining the development trajectory of States. The challenges in quality leadership can be directly attributed to slow development.
  1. Corruption and illicit financial flows hurt everyone as necessary resources that are meant for the general good of huge populations are diverted for personal gain. The overall attainment of both the Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) face existential and attainment threats due to pervasive corruption.
  2. The evolving global context of migration greatly impacts on socio-cultural dynamics. The EU Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) and the upcoming UN Global Compact on Migration presents a great opportunity to reengage on these issues.
  3. The proposed European Investment Plan has the potential to contribute to Africa’s development. However, the involvement of the local private sector is so far limited.
  • The 20-year Cotonou Partnership Agreement comes to end in February 2020. The upcoming Post-Cotonou agreement negotiations provides a unique opportunity to re-define the AU-EU partnership.
  1. Recommendations

In the spirit of dialogue and partnership of the PFD, the following recommendations were thus put forward:

  1. Future AU-EU partnerships, including the bi-annual Summits of Head of States and Governments should embrace a multi-stakeholder approach that ensures the voice, contributions and priorities of all stakeholders are incorporated in all mechanisms. AU and EU should take steps to ensure that they are aligned in their future visions regarding the direction of the partnership, and the impact they will make.
  2. The AU and EU should deliberately initiate and sustain mutually beneficial development models which will directly translate into clear improvements in the political and socio-economic wellbeing of the respective populations. These models should include development frameworks that adhere to the SMART principle that demonstrate clear-cut linkages between the initiatives and their impact.
  • Multi-stakeholder and multi-level engagement that seek to promote wider ownership and deepen local stakeholder reach across all spheres of society should be initiated. Therefore, a PFD approach should also be implemented at the national level to ensure important voices and concerns that represent the critical mass of societies are adequately captured and taken on board.
  1. Given the persistent challenges of climate change, the partnership must adopt a sustainable approach to strengthen adaptation and mitigation interventions at all levels. The partnership should also support the implementation of the nationally determined contributions as prescribed by and agreed under the Paris Agreement.
  2. The AU-EU partnership should strive to deliberately target inclusion and justice at all levels as a priority agenda.
  3. The AU-EU partnership should give higher attention to making adequate investments in the continent’s youthful population, training them in requisite skills and competencies, providing opportunities and the enabling space which is essential to transform the continent to a digital age and a knowledge economy.
  • The AU-EU partnership should promote enabling environments that foster the contribution of all stakeholders to build effective institutional frameworks that are required for effective governance and development across the continent.
  • Strengthening local structures and fostering inclusive development initiatives should be at the heart of national efforts at implementing both the Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  1. The AU-EU partnership should promote the building of resilient institutions and capable leadership that is able to deliver on development outcomes.
  2. Anti-corruption efforts must go beyond lip-service. The AU-EU partnership should advance efforts to use existing mechanisms to curb corruption and illicit financial flows, and where necessary, push for the creation of new mechanisms.
  3. The AU-EU partnership should push towards a deeper understanding of migration issues and advance a common descriptive narrative that abolishes the innate contestation between the opposing views of migration being exclusively a security issue or it being a multi-dimensional human rights issue.
  • The implementation of the EIP should enhance an enabling business environment following a structured dialogue between all parties involved, including local private sector to ensure mutual benefits as well as inclusive economic development.
  • Negotiations for the Post-Cotonou Agreement should be undertaken in a timely manner and should take into adequate cognisance lessons learned from implementing the initial 20year Agreement, as well as changing dynamics and realities of the signing parties. African countries must anchor their negotiations within their commonly adopted visions and goals, especially Agenda 2063, Agenda 2030 and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and marshal the best strategy to realise these.
  1. Conclusion

The Africa PFD was a rallying point for advancing the development and governance dialogue amongst critical stakeholders. The Forum, like other previous editions saw the active participation of Regional Institutions, Trade Unions, Foundations, Diaspora, Civil Society Organizations, Organized Private Sector amongst other actors.

The Forum afforded the relevant partners a platform to reinforce commitments that promote mutually agreeable and beneficial African Union (AU) – Europe Union (EU) relations. In this regard, the Forum noted that identified gaps that exist within the current working frameworks as constituted, remain subject to further engagement with the relevant stakeholders as the debate remains an ongoing one for enhancing future relations and promoting safer, just and equitable societies for all.

PDF 

UCLG Africa launches call for submission to 2018 Climate Initiative Awards at Africities Summit

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In the framework of the organization of Africities 8 Summit, which will be held under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, from 20 to 24 November 2018 in Marrakech, UCLG Africa and the “Initiatives Climat” Association organize the “Climate Initiatives Awards 2018 – African Local Government Authorities “. The theme of the Africities 2018 Summit is: “The transition to sustainable cities and territories: The role of Local and Sub- national governments of Africa.”

The Awards are for African Local and Sub- national governments which are carrying out initiatives to tackle the negative effects of climate change in Africa (adaptation and mitigation).

The competition is open to three categories of local government:

– Small Cities: less than 20,000 inhabitants,

-Intermediary Cities: From 20,000 to 100,000 inhabitants

-Big Cities: More than 100,000 inhabitants.

Local authorities wishing to compete in the Awards are required to submit a ‘Climate Initiative’ by completing the online form available here.

Only eligible projects that are included in the online database may take part in the Awards. It is the responsibility of participating local authorities to ensure that they receive an acknowledgement of submission after sending their application to the Coordinators via the website or via its email address (initiativesclimat@gmail.com). Each local authority may only compete in a single category.

The jury will select nine nominees, three nominees per each category. The nine selected initiatives will then be submitted to the delegates of the Africities 2018 Summit to vote the winner of each category. The nine nominees are supported (one person per municipality) to participate in the Africities summit from 20 to 24 November 2018. A trophy will be awarded to all winners at the Africities summit gala dinner on 24 November 2018.

Applications should be sent to the Coordinators no later than 29 October 2018, at midnight (GMT Time).

The names of the 9 nominees will be announced by the jury in the beginning of November 2018.

Read the rules of the Awards.

Read a template of one initiative already online.

UCLG Africa invited its members to participate actively by submitting initiatives led by their municipalities.

For further information: initiativesclimat@gmail.com ; gyomi@uclga.org

 

For all your requests about Africities 2018 Summit please contact africities@uclga.org

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In order to facilitate your participation at the next Africities 8 Summit, which will be held under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, from 20 to 24 November 2018 in Marrakech, UCLG Africa provides you with an email address for all your questions around the summit.

Via this email address africities@uclga.org, we are committed to processing your requests as soon as possible.

The theme of the Africities 2018 Summit is: “The transition to sustainable cities and territories: The role of Local and Sub- national governments of Africa.”

Visit the website of the summit www.africities.org

Read the concept note of the summit.

 

 

Complete our Survey on Local Public Services and the quality of Service Delivery in African Cities

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UCLG Africa, his African Local Government Academy (ALGA) and his Observatory of Human Resources of Local Governments in Africa, initiate the survey on local public services and the quality of service delivery in Africa Cities.  The objective of this survey is to assess quality in the delivery of services of Cities in Africa through the perception of citizens and users over the period from January to August 2018. The result will be incorporate in the 1st Report on the state of HRM at the level of African Local and Regional Governments, which will be presented at the Africities 8 Summit in Marrakech from 20 to 24 November 2018.

During the period from January to August 2018, you used your Municipality to request one or more services. We would like to know your opinion, your perception and your appreciation of the quality of the service (s) through your own assessment of the following topics:

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