The impoverishment of people in most African countries has resulted among other things intoincrease in number children going to schools. The need for basic services has been furtherworsened in urban areas by the migratory phenomenon and the rural exodus which haveattendant linkage with high population growth.

On the occasion of the Africities Summit 2003, a series of sessions were held on the subject of local governance. On 3 December, a cross cutting ses¬sion was held on Local Governance of Basic Services. This session focused on effective decen-tralization and transparent relations between key urban actors. Speakers from across the continent shared their experiences and lessons learned regarding these two important areas of governan¬ce.

Production of waste is inherent to human activi¬ties, be they domestic, agricultural, commercial or industrial - in the broad sense. It becomes a major problem within the urban dimension.

This meeting brought together municipal inhabi-tants and elected officials from 15 African coun-tries The debate centred a-ound the African Partnership Charter, a document produced IN the Forum of the African Inhabitants held in Windhoek (May 2000) during Africities II.

Today the need for local investments, as a result of urbanization, by far, exceeds the financial capacities of the local governments, even that of the central governments. A quick assessment esti¬mated the annual investment needs, just the simple maintenance of existing property, at 15 and 20 USD per capita, which is equals to 30 to 40 million USD per annum (20 to 30 Billion Fcfa) for a city like Douala (2 million inhabitants) or 2 to 3 Billion Fcfa for a local government of 200 000 inhabitants.

Effective operation of the basic services in the African metropolises appears to be a determing factor for their development. As an essential ele¬ment of the daily life of the citizens, it is the dri¬ving force of the local activity through its econo¬mic strength and the quality of the infrastructure, the essential condition for drawing attention to the region and necessa-y for socio-economic development.

Taking cognisance of his Excellency President Joaquim CHISSANO's observa¬tion that "Many efforts [have been] undertaken by Africans towards a common approach to the challenges hampering the development of cities" and taking into account the message of his Excellency Mr. KOFI ANNAN, the General Secretary of United Nations given by Mrs. Anna TIBA.I.JUKA, Executive Director of UN Habitat.

This edition of the Africities Summit has been devoted to the access of the people to basic services. It was observed by everyone that 1 Local governments are the most capable to design, carry out and manage services with the people - services which are adapted to the diversity of situations, needs and resources;

Effective and sustained responses to the multiple challenges of HIV/AIDS require strong political commitment and leadership a all levds of government and civil society coupled with the ability to translate plans into practices and ser-vices that are reflective of and are responsive to local needs and realities. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 40 countries haw now developed national HIV/AIDS plans and strategies. National AIDS plans, however, cannot be ful t implemented from the centre.

Decentralization in Cameroon is a colonial herita-ge reaffirmed and reorganized in post independen¬ce legal and institutional frameworks. In law as in practice, this decentralization is represented by the creation of decentralized communities. Urban and rural communes, regions, SENAT etc... constitute an unquestionable progress in the local adminis-tration even though some of these institutions are yet to be established.