Highlights of this year's Annual Meetings include the launch of an initiative to upgrade the Chamanculo C informal settlement in Maputo – the first activity of the Cities Alliance Country Programme in Mozambique – and a Public Advisory Forum on Financing Africa's Cities.
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| An initiative to upgrade the Chamanculo C informal settlement in Maputo (above) is the first activity in the Cities Alliance Country Programme in Mozambique. Photo: Andrea Merrick/Cities Alliance |
[1 November 2011] -- The Cities Alliance is preparing for its Annual Meetings, to be hosted by the City of Maputo, Mozambique from 6-10 November 2011.
The location of the meetings in Maputo will highlight the emerging Cities Alliance Country Programme in Mozambique, including the 9 November launch of a project to support the upgrading of the Chamanculo C neighbourhood, an informal settlement in the Maputo metropolitan area.
The Chamanculo C initiative will provide the Municipality of Maputo with valuable input as it formulates a citywide slum upgrading strategy and contributes to the eventual development of a nationwide programme for Mozambican cities in cooperation with the National Association of Municipalities of Mozambique (ANAM).
The initiative is being undertaken within the framework of the Italian-Brazilian Triangular Cooperation Programme, which is based on an agreement between Italy and Brazil to carry out cooperation activities with third countries. It is funded by Italy, Brazil and the Cities Alliance, and will be implemented by the Municipality of Maputo.
Through this pioneering example of South-South cooperation, Maputo will be able to benefit from over ten years of experience with integrated and participatory slum upgrading developed in Bahia, Brazil with the support of the Italian Government and the Cities Alliance.
The Cities Alliance Policy Advisory Forum (PAF) will also take place in Maputo on 7 November under the chairmanship of Clare Short, former Member of Parliament and Secretary for International Development (DFID/UK). For the first time, the Forum will be co-hosted by the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), a sister global programme based at the World Bank.
The theme of this year’s PAF is Financing African Cities, with a focus on two important elements:
- Improving the enabling environment to help cities better mobilise private and public partners and investments for economic and social development; and
- Lessons, programmes and instruments available to support African cities.
The event also marks the launch of Financing Africa’s Cities, a new publication by Dr. Thierry Paulais, a senior urban finance specialist at Agence Française de Développement (AfD) who was an integral part of the Cities Alliance Secretariat until September 2011. The publication is the culmination of a four-year period of research and analysis to address issues of financing Africa’s urban growth, jointly financed by AfD and the Cities Alliance. Financing Africa’s Cities will be released in January 2012.
At the Annual Meetings in Maputo, the Cities Alliance Consultative Group is also expected to approve a new Business Plan, which operationalises the Cities Alliance Charter approved in 2010 and provides direction to the partnership over the next three years.
