Cameroon to host conference on Chinese, African sustainable urbanisation
Cameroon will host the second International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Urbanization (ICCASU-II) in December this year, it was announced Tuesday May 9, 2017.
At a press conference held on the sidelines of the ongoing 26th Governing Council of UN-Habitat, ICCASU co-president Alioune Badiane said this would be the second such meeting, building up on the first one held from 23-25 October 2015 in Ottawa, Canada.
According to Badiane the organization of the second International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Urbanization would allow in-depth scrutiny of ways and means for sustainable urban development advantageous for the African continent.
He revealed that ahead of the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed which aimed to establish the rules that shall govern cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Cameroon, the University of Ottawa, Canada, and UN-Habitat in organizing the second International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Urbanization in Yaoundé on 12-14 December 2017.
“The purpose and scope of this agreement is to establish the legally and financial binding obligations of all three Parties. The specific terms of cooperation for each activity under this Memorandum of Understanding have been discussed and agreed upon and are now the subject of this contractual agreement, in conformity with the policies, bylaws and processes in place at all Parties,” he disclosed.
Under the MoU, the Government of Cameroon shall undertake to provide the University of Ottawa and UN-Habitat with logistics and the financial resources required for the successful organization of the Conference. University of Ottawa, shall among others, facilitate sharing of knowledge, technologies, practices and of capacity building for urban development, with the assistance of international public and private academic partners and in collaboration with UN-Habitat, and subject to the availability of UN-Habitat resources, assist the Government of Cameroon in crafting a national urban policy with an implementation plan.
On the other hand, subject to the availability of resources, the specific in-kind responsibilities of UN-Habitat shall facilitate the organizing of the Conference through technical assistance and advisory services.
In his address, Cameroon’s Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Jean Claude Mbwentchou, expressed to UN-Habitat the gratitude of Cameroon for its support in organizing ICCASU-II and invited all the international partners present to take part in this important forum.
The Minister recalled that ICCASU-II will take place one year after the adoption of the New Urban Agenda (HABITAT III, 2016) and represents an opportunity to dwell on issues related to the urban challenges faced in most African cities. He pointed out that ICCASU-II will among others enable Africa to open an International Center for Urban Studies under the aegis of UN-Habitat.
