African housing, urban ministers to explore emerging finance options
To address the challenge of finance that many African countries had faced in delivering human settlements in the continent, African ministers under the aegis of African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD),will later this month at a meeting that will take place in N’Djamena, Chad explore new modalities for financing urban development in the continent.
The two-day conference, the fifth in the series, will examine emerging financing options including infrastructure bonds, variants of land value-capture, mortgage re-financing facilities and micro-lending for housing.
The event with the theme “Case studies in financing human settlements in Africa: appropriate legislative frameworks and innovations in implementation”, will also seek to develop an enhanced operational compendium for legislative framework and innovation practices for human settlements financing; define ‘Africa Urban Agenda 2063’ that will also serve as an input into the African Union’s Agenda 2063 as well as to the Post-2015 agenda and to Habitat 111; approve the foundation documents for the institutionalisation of AMCHUD and adopt a N djamena declaration.
A statement on the group website indicates that more countries have put in place instruments for accessing local and global capital markets and robust fiscal mechanisms being developed for mobilizing and deploying resources for urban development. These financial advances are taking place against the backdrop of an evolving financial landscape and there is also a new dynamism unfolding on the continent.
“The challenges still abound while the initiated efforts although positive have not matured to yield visible impact. As a result African Ministers responsible for housing and urban development at the Special Ministerial meeting that took place at the sides of the 24th Governing Council of UN-Habitat in April 2013 settled on the theme.
“This meeting is convened at a time when Africa is gearing to effectively participate and influence international agenda during the discourse towards the preparatory process for Habitat III, the post 2015 Development Agenda, World Urban Forum 7 and the Urban Agenda in the context of the Africa Union discussions on Africa Agenda 2063.
“The pronouncement by African Heads of State and Government on the need for a new vision for the Continent also builds on the achievements of the past five decades and captures the significance of the evolving situation. Consultations which have been launched by the African Union on giving content to Africa Agenda 2063 also underlines an acknowledgement that the Continent is entering a new phase, almost in every aspect.
“As the African Union embarks on defining ‘Africa Agenda 2063’ AMCHUD has to ensure that the urban dimension is included within the core of this process. Definitely, the process leading to that horizon needs to be steered and its requirements anticipated. African Ministers of Housing and Urban Development need to define urgently an ‘Africa Urban Agenda 2063’ that will feed into the ongoing consultation process of articulating a long term vision for the continent,” the statement stated.
The first African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD) was held in Durban, South Africa, from 31 January to 4 February 2005. The conference, whose theme was Urbanization, Shelter and Development: Towards an Enhanced Framework for Sustainable Cities and Towns in Africa, reflected the political will in Africa to address the challenge of urbanization and goal of sustainable human settlements at a continental level.
The second African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development-AMCHUD II- took place in Abuja, Nigeria, 28-30 July, 2008 with the theme “Towards Goal 7 Target 11: Overcoming the Finance and Resource Challenges for Sustainable Housing and Urban Development”.
The Third African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD III) took place in Bamako, Mali from 22 to 24 November 2010 with the theme, “Land in the context of sustainable urbanization”.In sub-Saharan Africa, 72 percent of urban dwellers (187 million people) live in slums. They constitute 20 percent of the global slum population. In signing up to the Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have committed themselves “to achieve significant improvement in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers” by the year 2020.
While the fourth African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD) 20 – 23 March 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya under the theme, Territorial planning, basic services for all and the impacts and the impacts of climate change in Africa.
