Cities of Dakar (Senegal), Kinshasa (DRC) and Brazzaville (Congo) have signed a twinning agreement on Wednesday 27 May 2015 in Kinshasa. Delegations from the three cities attended the signing of the agreement, which aims at strengthening the cooperation relations between the three signatories.

The Governor of the City of Kinshasa, André Kimbuta Yango, who has received his two counterparts in the City Hall, made it clear that this tripartite twinning agreement will allow the consolidation and the promotion of the good relations and multi-sector development between the three capital cities. Moreover, it will allow experts from all the parties to affectively manage conflicts.

In anticipation of this twinning ceremony, the Mayor of Dakar, President of UCLG Africa, took part in the 17^thgeneral assembly of the Special Commission of Cooperation (COSPECO) between Kinshasa and Brazzaville, the proceedings of which, took place on the 25 and 26 May in Brazzaville. At this occasion, André Kimbuta decorated his colleagues Mayor of Brazzaville and Mayor of Dakar with the City of Kinshasa badges making them citizens of honor.

The tripartite twinning of Kinshasa is inscribed in the framework of an extraordinary general assembly of the COSPECO. The upcoming ordinary assembly will take place in August. This time, the Mayor of Brazzaville will succeed to the Governor of Kinshasa in charge of commission for a rotary two-year mandate.

UCLG Africa Secretary General attended the African Charter on Values and Principles of Decentralization, Local Governance and Local Development workshop in Addis Ababa, on 12 and 13 May 2015. The workshop was financially supported by the UCLG Africa.

 

The meeting was attended by representatives of AU-STC 8 subcommittee experts on decentralization, the African Governance Institute (AGI), Transparency International (TI), UNDP, UN Habitat, and Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission (DPA). The meeting was facilitated by Mr. Patrick Karanja, AU-STC 8 expert from Kenya.

In his opening remarks, Mr. John Ikabuje Gibodi from the Department of Political Affairs at the African Union informed that only 2 countries have signed the Charter adopted in June 2014 (Mauritania and Guinea Bissau) and no single ratification was registered so far.

Ms. Chantal Uwimana, from Transparency International reported on the way TI managed the advocacy process for the ratification of African Union convention on the fight against corruption. Firstly, TI participated fully in the drafting and negotiation of the convention, which gave it a strong legitimacy for its involvement in the ratification process.

Being an interested party to the process, TI mobilized mainly its own network to popularize the convention across the continent. Different chapters of TI were designated in the different regions to be the champions for the advocacy for the ratification process. Compelling messages were crafted to show the benefits for the countries to ratify the convention. TI also managed to conclude partnerships  with the African Union, the African Development Bank, and the Pan African Parliament.

The process of ratification was also explained through a series of regional and national workshops. A booklet was written by a renowned lawyer, Mr. Akere Muna, who had the needed credibility across the  continent, to serve as a dissemination and advocacy tool for the convention. Then specific letters were written to specific line Ministers included in the process of ratification and depositing of the legal instruments. Each time a country ratified the convention congratulations letters were sent with a reminder for the instruments to be deposit.

A strong media campaign was also launched to keep the convention alive in the media. The strategy followed was to systematically mention the convention in all TI communications and events. A guide was also produced to help civil society and parliamentarians to advocate for the ratification of the convention and implementation of its provisions. The guide highlighted the added value of the convention. TI felt important to build partnerships with Youth Organizations as well as Women Organizations. TI also endeavored to scrutinize the link between already existing ratified instruments and the ratification process of the convention.

 

TI also established a link with African Ambassadors to keep them abreast about the ratification process and send letters of congratulations to those who ratified. Thanks to the implementation of the action plan, the convention against corruption entered into force within 3 years being adopted in 2003 and ratified in 2006.

 

Sandra Machara from UNDP presented considerations for an affective advocacy strategy. She pointed that 2015 is a critical year for the international community being the year for the definition of the International Development Agendas for the coming 20 years, which are being defined during UN conferences on: the Finance for Development (July 2015, Addis Ababa); the post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (September 2015, New York); the Conference of the Parties meeting (December 2015, Paris).

 

The ratification process of the African Charter on values and principles of decentralization and local governance should be defined in this particular context. There is need for a strong and compelling message on decentralization to remove the fears some of the countries might have to ratify the Charter. Best Practices could be used to unlock the resistances observed. The African Decentralization Day on 10 August could also be used as a rallying point for the ratification process. Finally an action plan and timeline should be defined in order that progress is monitored on the implementation of the ratification process.

 

John Ikubaje said the AU has 49 instruments, only few has a universal ratification. The UA instruments need a minimum of 15 ratifications to enter into force. 23 countries have ratified the charter on democracy and Governance. 9 ratifications have been registered so far for the Charter on public service; 35 Countries has ratified the convention against corruption which is now an AU legal instrument. He noticed also that although not having ratified some instruments, some Countries are neverthelesd implementing their provisions. There seems to be little awareness on the instruments; many question are still raised on the added values of the AU instruments. In many Countries ratification processes are cumbersome. Also these processes differ from country to country. Most of the time due consultation with line Ministers is not done.

 

The political economy of the ratification should also be done. For example there are more African countries who signed the UN convention against corruption than the ones who signed the African one. After the adoption of an instrument, normally the PRC members should communicate the adopted documents to member states. A note verbal was written and sent on July 2014 to the ministers of foreign affairs  to encourage them to start the ratification process. The African Union of the Legal Council also call on members for the ratification process. In principle, there will be a meeting. Not all African members are State parties to ratification, so only State parties can report according to the follow up mechanism to see the level of implementation. Only when an instrument is ratified can the AUC report on the implementation of the instrument.

 

Challenges: translation in African languages, critical role of civil society,  foreign affairs, line ministers, and parliamentarians should be party to the ratification process. Dr. Dia said that in the last 5 years, there is a retraction in African Union budgets. 2.5 million dollars were allocated got popularizing the charter on democracy adopted in 2007, signed 2/3 later. We need at least 20 years and some 15 ratifications within 1 year. We need to popularize the charter across the continent. Rose ask why Guinea Bissau and Mauritania, no extra effort from AU for this signing. The big difficulty in AU is the PRC. The scrutiny of PRC is nearly paralysing the African Union. Rose asked also how much the advocacy effort cost? IT received 150.000 USD for meetings.

 

On the political economy there is need to build on African Pride. The Gender is my Agenda Campaign can set an example. The workshop pursued its proceedings on 13 May within two parallels groups:

 

Group 1: Strategy and Stakeholder Mapping jpem Sandra Chantal john Patrick Group 2: Finance Mobilization. Rose, Maurice, Strategic Group 1. Identifying 15 countries 2. Advocacy strategy: internet, media, meetings 3. Implementation plan and timeline.

 

The group proposed a list of 19 countries categorized as follows:

Category 1: the 2 countries that signed already Guinea Bissau, Mauritania Category 2: Bureau members of AMCOD subcommittee: Benin, Mozambique, Cameroon, Burundi, Algeria Category 3: Senegal, Kenya, Angola, South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, Namibia, Burkina, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda

 

 

The approach is to follow up on the formal communication (note verbal) sent by DPA through Ministries of Foreign Affairs to have a focal point for STC 8;  and the letter sent by the subcommittee from former AMCOD to the directors of local governments that have been working on the charter to organize the follow up. The subcommittee to present the list of directors of local governments to be focal points for the UCLG-A to provide the names and contacts of the President and Permanent Secretary of the national association.

 

“Coalition of the willing” Target 15 countries. The approach is to get a buy-in of local Authorities and their national associations putting pressure in national governments and parliament to get the charter ratified. It is also necessary to have a mass communication sensitization campaign before and after the ratification. It is proposed to organize popularization Platforms, ask focal points to work with local Authorities to seek support to have the charter ratified; it is also important to engage with line ministers, and the diaspora.

 

Timeline for the implementation plan 1. Information needs and focal points (by end of May through Rachel) 2. Knowledge on the national ratification process (by end of May through Rachel and Patrick) 3. Regional Workshops (Parrick East Africa; West Africa Maurice; Central, Abraham Okoko, Southern Africa Kitswell; North Africa Abdi Horma) Chantal to prepare PPT presentation for the Charter and ratification process 4. CLGF meeting on 16-18 June in Gaborone. Invitation to the Commissioner for Political Affairs 5.

Use the decentralization day on 10 August with as theme the ratification of the charter. Rachel to present the theme of the Subcommittee and Patrick to inform about the venue for the celebration of the Decentralization day.

 

6. Local Authorities Forum on the New Africa Urban Agenda (3 days beginning of September) 7. Africities: open session on ratification of the charter; open session on new urban agenda. 8. Media: Chantal to provide a database on media mobilization. A mapping shows that the following media could be targeted: Africa 24 (cost: € 30,000) SABC APO (cost: around € 20,000) Group 2 on Resource Mobilization Potential Partners AUC Special member states : Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Algeria…to support the work on decentralization and local Governance, including human resources for the AUC/DPA secretariat.

UCLG-A private sector: water, telecom, engineering, banking, power, housing, finance, …

Philantropic foundations (Dangote, Mo Ibrahim, Tony Elumelu) -CSOs

Bilateral partners : DFID, GIZ, SIDA

International Foundations: Gate, Rockefeller, Ford

Multilateral partners: UNDP, UN Habitat, EU, China, RECs, World Bank, BRICS, …

Outsreach roundtable meetings high level panel side events

Costing Following the implementation plan

Resource Mobilization implementation

Need for initial seed money from AU-DPA (USD 31,000)AU; UCLG Africa (?)

Need for a lobbying pack (1 pager note with a compelling narrative on decentralization and related resource mobilization with a powerpoint presentation) Support modalities flexible mechanisms for channeling the money: DPA, UCLG-A, UNDP, UN Habitat all forms of contribution AUC-DPA oversight, coordination between STC 8 subcommittee, quality assurance and periodic reporting.

 

After the reception of the Group meetings reports, a roadmap was defined which final version will be disseminated to the participants within a week time.

The cities of Accra in Ghana, Kinondoni in Tanzania and Praia in Cape Verde won the inaugural José Eduardo dos Santos African Mayor Awards. During the evening of 30 April 2015, UCLG Africa announced the winners of the very first African Mayor Awards in Luanda, Angola.

Angola’s Minister of State and Chief of Civil House in the office of the President, Hon Edeltrudes Maurício Fernandes Gaspar da Costa, hosted the formal presentation ceremony and a Gala dinner and more than 350 guests attended the event. These guests that comprised government officials, city leaders, African mayors, investors and business leaders had also the opportunity to gather during the 2^nd Africa Urban Infrastructure Investment Forum held from 29-30 April 2015 in Angola’s capital city, Luanda.

UCLG Africa Secretary General, Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, said in the ceremony that “The José Eduardo dos Santos African Mayor Awards aim to raise the profile of Africa’s Mayors by honoring those who have made an outstanding contribution to their communities and developed a vision for urban living, working and travelling across Africa”. He also added, “Each year, outstanding African Mayors and municipal professionals from a large metropolis, an intermediate city and a small city have the opportunity to win the prestigious Awards.”

This year, the winning cities will receive prize money totaling $350,000 for specific initiatives. US$50,000 will go to the city of Praia in Cape Verde (small city), $100,000 will go to Kinondoni in Tanzania (medium city) and Accra in Ghana (large city) will receive $200,000.

UCLG Africa Secretary General hoped that these awards “will encourage other Mayors to think long and hard about what sort of cities they want, to engage with their communities and to contribute to developing sustainable urban cities in Africa”.

This year’s African Mayor Awards are supported by the Government of Angola, the UN-Habitat, IC Publications Group as well as United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa).

 

For more information, you can read the press release here.

You can also see all the photos from the Forum and the Awards ceremony here.

The Euro-African Foundation (FO.R.C.E in its French acronym) held, on Saturday 18 April 2015, the 20^th edition of Fez Cultural Forum, in the Moroccan city of Fez, under the theme “The Cultural Identity of Africa: Unity in Diversity”.

This edition is in line with the framework of the support of the national strategy lead by the leadership of His Majesty the King Mohamed VI and had objective to value the African culture through the implication of different communities from Africa settling in the city of Fez.

UCLG Africa Secretary General, Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, represented by Mr. Lionel NZAMBA- NZAMBA, was invited to the forum among other personalities, namely Mr. Hassan SKOURI, Chief of staff within the Land Management Ministry, Mr. Driss Faceh, President of the Regional Council of Tourism of Fez city, Mrs. Nouzha Bouchareb, President of Connectingroup International, Mr. Amadou Illo, President of the Tahoua region in Niger, Leila Hila, a university researcher and writer. Four big moments highlighted the forum: the opening, the speakers’ interventions & debates, the artistic exposition of African communities and finally the artistic and cultural soirée.

In the opening, the forum director, Mrs. Zhor Cherkani, thanked the different diplomatic delegations and guests for their presence. After a short presentation of the program and the speakers, the director recalled that the main ambition of the forum is to contribute to the cultural project of the city of Fez. In his welcoming allocution, the president of FO.R.C.E, Mr. Abdesselam Idrissi Erkik, expressed his joy to see Africa gathered in Fez to celebrate its diversity. He evoked the diversity and complementarity of the cultures of Africa at the origins of human progress and he stressed the role of education in the transmission of African values.

Mr. Hassan Skouri, congratulated the president of the foundation for opening Sup’ Management and the Foundation for African Environment. He also saluted the participation of UCLG Africa in the forum recalling the nice memories he kept from Rabat 2013, an event organized by UCLG and UCLG Africa.

The President of Connectingroup International invited all actors in Africa to think more about innovative solutions in order to implement and develop the cross-cultural dialogue for a sustainable development. She also called upon African women to play their role in the transmission of culture while strengthening their leadership. The signing of a partnership convention between FO.R.C.E and Connectingroup International closed this first part of the forum.

The second part of the program was dedicated to interventions around the theme of the forum “The Cultural Identity of Africa: Unity in Diversity”.

In his intervention, Mr. Driss Faceh, President of the Regional Council of Tourism, paid tribute to the organizers before presenting the big lines of the regional plan for Fez touristic development. He believes that this kind of events contribute in the repositioning of the city in order to make it a touristic destination rather than its actual perception as tourists stop.

Speaking on behalf of UCLG Africa Secretary General, Mr. Lionel Nzamba- Nzamba started his intervention by presenting the organization’s condolences to the families and the Moroccan Government after the tragic accident in the city of Tan-Tan, taking away the lives of 35 people. The important part of his speech then concerned the place that culture occupies in development policies and strategies within African cities. He insisted that the integration of the cultural factor as a fundamental element in sustainable development is relatively recent and this highlighted the validity of considering the cultural problematic in the perspective of the African cities sustainable development.

Recalling the principal disruptions that African cities witnessed, namely colonization, globalization and urbanization, he raised the necessity for the public local and national authorities to take into account the new urban cultures strongly influenced by the western culture. In the end, Mr. Lionel Nzamba- Nzamba announced to the audience that UCLG Africa is ready to take the initiative of promoting the choice, each two years, of an African Culture Capital, under the hospices of the UNESCO in order to reinforce the idea of culture as an element of cities development in Africa.

Mr. Amadou Illo, President of Tahoua Region, Niger, reminded that the cultural identity of Africa is not homogeneous but relies on typical African elements: an oral civilization, polygamy, circumcision, enthronization of chefs… and each of the cultural identities of Africa are principally formed from historical, linguistic and psychological factors.

Mrs. Leila Hila, academic researcher, writer and Secretary General of Connectingroup International, has focused in its intervention on the link between culture, sustainable development and gender issues. She explicitly shown the impossibility of disassociating the role of women, education and diffusion of culture within African societies.

The artistic exposition and the cultural soirée constituted the festive moments of the forum. In fact, the exhibitors demonstrated the extent of the African culture Diversity through exhibiting artistic products, culinary, clothing and artisanal of different African communities. The evening was a mix of fashion shows, dances, sketches of the 15 communities represented.

For more details about the event, you can read here the report in French.