Shaping the future of Africa with the people
“Shaping the future of Africa with the people: Africa’s local Government contribution to the Africa 2063 Vision” was the theme of the 7th session of Africities held in the city of Johannesburg from 29th November to 3rd December.
The summit was a unique occasion to gather all the cities from the African continent and discuss the ongoing process of the urban agenda of African Cities.
Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Mpho Parks Tau opened the Summit by saying: “African local governments has an immense contribution to make in the realization of this Vision as espoused in the African Charter on the values and principles of decentralization, local governance and local development as adopted by the African Union. The Charter enjoys us to realize its ten main objectives, two of which bear direct relevance to this summit”. He finally finished by saying that “African local Governments are able to collaborate, engage and actively seek ‘African Solutions to African problems”.
As part of the South African sessions, Metropolis, UCLG and UCLGA organized a session on the 30th November whose main theme was: “Re-invigorating the African metropolitan cities network: towards the Habitat III Agenda”.
The session chaired by Mpho Parks Tau, Executive Mayor of Johannesburg and co-president of Metropolis was moderated by Rahmatouca Sow, Regional Secretary Africa for Metropolis brought to the panel opinions and testimonies of Mayors from Harare, Rabat, Victoria, Libreville, the councilor member of the finance committee of the City of Johannesburg, Geoffrey Makhubo; the session was wrapped up by the Project office Director of UN Habitat, Alioune Badiane and the Secretary General of UCLG, Josep Roig.
The key objectives of the session was to debate on the challenges and propositions for African metropolitan areas in order to identify key messages for Habitat III and for the African Agenda 2063, but also to strengthen the African metropolitan cities network and their cooperation within Africa as well as on the international level. Read the full program of the session here.
Africities gathered over 5000 participants and organized more than 90 sessions to deepen the theme of shaping the future of Africa with the peoples and the contribution of the African local authorities to the African Union 2063 Agenda.
The Summit closed on Day 5 with the Political Dialogue between Ministers, Mayors, Partners and Institutions in which Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma, the chairperson of the African Union Commission closed the dialogue by assuring that “women and youth will be key in the implementation process of the Agenda 2063”.
Find here the complete program of the 7th session of the Africities Summit