The strategies for the fight against poverty and inequalities are, currently, top priorities in the development policies of the States and internatio¬nal organizations. In the development and imple¬mentation of these strategies, local councillors have legitimacy to represent general interest and, as leaders of a territory, have the obligation to rea¬son in terms of public policies.

This special session deliberated on•    The relations and partnership to be built bet-ween local governments and local associations, particularly cities, in the implementation of local development;•    Creating the necessary platform for dialogue, consultations and joint actions with the struc-tures on the field strongly supporting local development;•    Involve the populations, particularly the youth in the management of their city.

On December 4, 2003, we the participants in the special Session on Pa rt i c i p a t o ry Budgeting, within the framework of Africities 2003; Citizens, local councillors, urban technicians, leaders of community organizations, representatives of urban development international progr a m m e s , having listened to the experiments of participatory budgeting in Latin America, in the cities of Caxias do Sul (Brazil) and Montev i d e o (Uruguay), and the experience of Saint-Denis (France), and that of Nguediana (Senegal);

It is a well-known fact that clean water is essen¬tial for human health and survival; Access to clean water and adequate sanitation is also critical to other facets of sustainable development. Water and sanitation are therefore a catalytic entry point for efforts to help developing countries fight poverty and hunger, safeguard human health, reduce child mortality, promote gender equality, and both manage and protect their natural resources.

In Africa, decentralization is a broad initiative, which is mobilizing many stakeholders. In Windhoek, the African Interdisciplinary Network of Inhabitants (Association for the emergence of citizen militancy among the Inhabitants in Africa) described joint production as a pledge for partici-patory democracy and an essential lever for good decentralization, the joint production involving three actors: elected officials, professionals and citizens. The Africities 2000 delegates retained and supported this need as a premise for the local governance.

Throughout the presentations and subsequent dis - cussions, the participants in the session highligh¬ted the crucial importance of health as a key eco¬nomic and social development sector and the need for central and local authorities to give it the greatest attention. Participants also agreed that the health situation is degraded in several African countries and especially with the eruption of diseases such as the HIV/AIDS, which has been added to traditional pandemics such as malaria,

Issues of access to basic services by the people and resource protection are central to sustainable development strategies and, naturally, to poverty alleviation policies. These issues are at the centre of discussions and commitments made over the past years by the international community and particularly, within the framework of declarations of the Millennium Summit, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg and the Global Social Forum in Porto Allegro.

In the African societies, culture is always given little consideration and that is why it is always rele¬gated to the background in the national budget. Cultural issues are often associated with entertain¬ment, outside the general scope of activities. At best, they dismissed as the exotic local folklore or the inherited values.

THE CITY'S ENERGY MANAGEMENT HAS FIVE MAIN ASPECTS: 1 Energy consuming City. The City consumes energy in order to provide services to citizens. On this account, it can adopt energy saving measures, which it directly benefits from...

An analysis of the presentations by various spea¬kers throughout the seminar confirms the obser¬vation that education remains one of the key sec¬tors of economic and social development. Participants also agreed on the fact that the school situation tends to be degrading in several African countries, a situation which is reflected by the dif-ficulty even impossibility for a class of urban and rural population to have access to education.