Africities 4 Summit, the fourth Pan-African edition of Local
Government Days, will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 18 to
22 September 2006. The Theme of the Summit is: “Building
joint actions for the effective realization of the
Millennium Development Goals in African Local Governments.”
Africities 1, in Abidjan in 1998, witnessed the emergence of
the African municipal movement on the regional and
international scene. The ambition of this first edition of
the Africities Summit was to break the official linguistic
barriers inherited from the colonial rule and to promote an
African voice on the challenges of decentralization, local
development, regional integration and cooperation with
Africa.
Africities 2, in Windhoek in May 2000, marked the beginning
of the structuring of the African municipal movement and of
the Pan-African dialogue on decentralization and local
development. At their meeting on the strategic challenge of
funding local governments, the one thousand and two hundreds
participants – including six hundreds mayors and forty
ministers from fifty one countries, including thirty-six
African countries – agreed on the need to set up the All
Africa Ministerial Conference on Decentralization and Local
Development (AMCOD), the intergovernmental institution of
ministers in charge of the administrative, financial and
technical supervision of local governments, with a view to
including decentralization amongst the priorities on the
African political agenda; and the Council of Cities and
Regions (CCRA) with a view to building and representing the
unified voice of African local governments. The participants
also decided to institutionalize the Africities Summit as
the dialogue platform between the local elected
representatives and the central governments, between the
representatives of public authorities and the other
stakeholders, and between the African officials and the
technical and financial partners, for the definition as well
as for the implementation of decentralization policies in
Africa. It was also agreed to seek the recognition of the
African Union for the different institutions set up during
the Summit.
Africities 3, in Yaounde, in December 2003, was the
unification framework of the African municipal movement and
of its participation in the world municipal movement. This
third Summit placed decentralization and strengthening of
local governments within the perspective of improvement of
the living conditions of the people and of participation of
the citizenry. It defined CCRA governance, with the setting
up of an Interim Management Council, as well as of the
presidency and the secretariat. The Summit assigned to these
institutions the mission of preparing the participation of
Africa in the Founding Congress of the world organization of
United Cities and Local Governments in Paris in May 2004,
and of preparing the CCRA Founding Congress in May 2005.
They were also assigned the duty of following up the CCRA
recognition application submitted to the African Union. In
accordance with the decisions passed at the Africities 3
Summit in Yaounde, the CCRA Founding Congress was held in
Tshwane, South Africa, from 15 to 18 May 2005; the Congress
adopted the Constitution of the new organization of local
governments which is now called the United Cities and Local
Governments of Africa (UCLGA).
Africities 4 in Nairobi will be mainly a meeting of
stakeholders. The intention is to bring together all major
local government stakeholders so that they can discuss the
best way to work together at the local level with a view to
attaining the MDGs in the African local governments. Like in
all Africities Summits, an exhibition of African local
governments, the Citexpo, will be organized within the
framework of the Nairobi Africities Summit. The Summit will
provide the opportunity for the public and private
businesses, groups, local government suppliers to present
their products and/ or services as well as the latest
technological advances that might interest the delegates. It
will also provide the opportunity for each country to
present its know-how in the area of decentralization. This
exhibition also hosts cities and local governments,
associations, bilateral or multilateral institutional
partners, NGOs, universities and training/research
institutions.
Contacts : africites@pdm-net.org
the summit
