United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) Secretary General received, on 21 January 2015 in UCLG Africa headquarters in Rabat, a delegation led by Mr. Fouad El Omari, President of “l’Association Marocaine des Présidents des Conseils Communaux” (AMPCC) and Mayor of Tangier (Morocco), with three of his close collaborators.

 

This visit, at the same time of courtesy and work, aimed at getting in touch with the UCLG Africa Secretary General to officially inform him about the creation of the new association (AMPCC) and to exchange with him on the areas of common interest in order to benefit from his expertise.

Several key issues were discussed by UCLG Africa Secretary General and AMPCC President as well. Notably the upcoming Africities Summit in Johannesburg on December 2015, the important role played by UCLG Africa during Rabat-2013 and the vital work the organization is doing now.

The AMPCC President exposed the three big projects his association will work on and the actions they intend to take in accordance with the vision of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

For more details, read the article available in French here.

Resolutions Africa Conference, organized under the high patronage of his Majesty the King of Morocco by Marrakesh City Council, the FMDV-Global Fund for Cities’ Development and UCLG Africa from 11 to 12 December 2014 in Marrakesh, was enclosed on Friday, December 12th by the signature of the Declaration of Marrakesh.

Participants from more than 40 countries and 60 cities across the African continent, lived two days of discussions and proposals around the issues of Africa’s financial systems and engineering, sharing experiences, exchanging best practices, and presenting innovative approaches to African financing for local development.

The 450 participants, who attended the activities of this important conference, were able to live strong moments ending in the signature of the Declaration of Marrakesh. This declaration was signed by Khalifa Ababacar Sall, Mayor of Dakar, Senegal, President of UCLG Africa and Vice-President of FMDV, Geoffrey Makhubo, Member of the Mayoral Committee of Johannesburg, and Vice-President of FMDV, and Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, Mayor of Marrakesh, who gave the final address. (See her speech here)

The Declaration of Marrakech was adopted as the new manifesto for development stakeholders in Africa. It also called for the creation and implementation of the African Cities Development Fund (ACDF).

Besides, and within the framework of the REsolutions to Fund Cities worldwide campaign, the conference of Marrakesh enriched the plea and the concrete proposals in favor of an inclusive and sustainable financing for the urban development. The declaration and the various mechanisms, dynamics and innovations raised during the debates will be discussed in several eminent events such as the Summit of Africities 2015 in Johannesburg, the Post 2015 New Development Agenda as well as the UN Habitat III in 2016.

For more information, visit REsolutions to Fund Cities website here

To read and download the Declaration of Marrakesh, Click here

Mayor of Marrakesh final address here

 

In the framework of the ‘Objectives 2015’ Conferences cycle, two meetings took place on the 5th and 6th December 2014, in the French National Assembly, in Palais Bourbon, in Paris.

«Cercle Humaniste d’Engagement et de Réflexion Pour l’Avenir de l’Afrique » (CHERPAA) has organized, with the support of UCLG Africa, the Bridge Tank and the « Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie », a colloquium on the theme of «  Decentralized Cooperation, voice of the Civil Society and Economic Diplomacy ».

These two conferences are the last of the “Objectives 2015 Cycle” that CHERPAA had launched in December 2013 in the fringes of the Africa-France Summit. This Summit constituted the first stage towards the elaboration of a white paper as a contribution to the efforts around the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. This colloquium allowed bringing together diverse African and European actors around the stakes in Africa of today.

In this perspective both conferences which took place on December 5th and 6th, 2014, gathered representatives of international institutions as the European Parliament, ILO (International Labor Organization), OECD, UCLG Africa, AUF, as well as Secretaries and ambassadors of African governments. Indeed, the Secretary General of UCLG Africa, Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, was among the prestigious guests called upon to this colloquium inside the French National Assembly.

FYI, the CHERPAA association is a young Think Thank established in Europe, which aims at committing a new generation of the African Diaspora.

Last Friday, 28 November 2014, the Guangzhou Awards were handed to the winning cities from five continents.

The award, launched in 2012 by UCLG, Metropolis and the City of Guangzhou, celebrates urban innovations from different parts of the world and takes place in China.

In this edition, urban innovative initiatives by Antioquia of Colombia, Bristol of the UK, Christchurch of New Zealand, Dakar of Senegal, and China’s Hangzhou have won this year’s Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award).

The City of Dakar, the only African city in the competition, impressed the award judges by its Municipal Finance Program. To finance this project, Dakar decided to access capital markets making it not only the first city to do so in sub-Saharan Africa (outside South Africa), but also one of the few cities in a developing country to do so without the benefit of full guarantees from central government.

The five winning cities were selected from 259 submissions by 177 cities from 57 countries and regions. The Technical Committee, an international panel comprising 11 urban practitioners and scholars, selected the 15 finalists and the winners of the Guangzhou Award.

For more information about the winners and the Guangzhou Awards of 2014, you can check out the award website here.