The Cities Alliance will participate in the fifth African summit for local governments, which is taking place in Marrakech, Morocco 16-20 December.
The theme of this year’s summit is “African Regional and Local Governments’ Response to the Global Crisis: Promoting Sustainable Local Development and Employment.”
This theme was selected amidst a growing awareness that the global financial crisis has expanded beyond finance to include other dimensions that affect local governments—economic, social, geopolitical, ecological and moral. The goal of the summit is to present proposals from regional and local African governments for dealing with the impact of the crisis.
Some 5,000 participants representing local authorities, central governments, the donor community, the private sector, academia, the media, and civil society are expected to attend the global event.
Opening ceremonies will be held on 16 December, followed by thematic, special and political sessions. Adoption of resolutions and the official closing ceremony will take place on 20 December.
The Cities Alliance is participating in range of Africities 5 events. The Alliance is co-hosting a booth, #A21, with its member, the World Bank, where visitors can learn more about the Alliance’s activities and how to access grant funding. Recent publications and publications produced especially for the summit will be available as well.
Together with ISTED, the Cities Alliance will also host a joint strategic urban planning session titled “Guiding Urbanisation in Africa for Economic Development and Poverty Reduction.” The session will explore strategic urban planning in African cities and assess the key challenges they face. At the session, Urban Specialist, Jean-Christophe Adrian will present a paper on strategic urban planning in Africa.
In addition, Cities Alliance Senior Urban Finance Specialist, Thierry Paulais will present a paper titled “Local Governments and the Financial Crisis: An Analysis” at both a plenary session and a thematic session on renewing local governance and management sponsored by Agence Française de Développement (AFD). M. Paulais will also moderate a panel discussion at a workshop on financial self-evaluation for local authorities.
Participants are encouraged to visit Cities Alliance booth A21 and contact Ms. Chii Akporji, the Alliance’s Communications Officer to get more details of these and other Alliance activities.
About Africities
The Africities summits are held every three years in different regions of Africa. They serve as a forum for discussing the needs of local authorities and strengthening the decentralisation process throughout Africa. Previous summits were held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006; Yaoundé, Cameroon in 2003; Windhoek, Namibia in 2000; and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 1998.
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