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African
Mayors at UN World Urban Forum look to Tourism as a Job
Generator
by Jerry W. Bird,
Editor
 What
a memorable week. After 30 years UN Habitat returns to its
launching pad - the seaport city of Vancouver,
British Columbia Canada. The crowd is estimated at 10,000
plus and it certainly seems so, judging by the heavy
attendance at many sessions. At the time of writing, we have
had the pleasure of taking two groups of mayors representing
different African countries on tours of Vancouver and the
University of British Columbia. It's one way for us to repay
the wonderful hospitality we have enjoyed in eleven years
with the Africa Travel Association as its media voice in
North America and Worldwide.
With some
10.000 participants from over 100 countries, the Third
Session of the World Urban Forum paved the way for a new
drive forward on the international urban agenda in a world
of rapidly growing cities. Just as the Habitat I Conference
in Vancouver in 1976 placed local community concerns on the
international agenda and highlighted the critical importance
of inclusiveness, the Forum in Vancouver, 30 years later,
lived up to its promise of moving ideas to action. It
symbolized inclusiveness, with balanced participation from
public, private and civil society sector"
The twin goals of Habitat
are "Adequate shelter for all" and "sustainable human
settlements development in an urbanizing world. "The
“Global Village” is well represented, this week -
with Africa making a particularly strong showing. As
publishers of Africa Travel Magazine and related travel
business media features, we were extremely pleased and
honored to be able to to network with so many of our African
colleagues. We will introduce key African delegates and
speakers to you via radio interviews and photos as this
important feature unfolds. Our editors encountered another
big surprise on arrival at the Expo Media Center, where many
African print and broadcast media were present, giving us
ample opportunity to exchange views and share ideas. Many
delegates requested complimentary copies of Africa Travel
magazine. These issues from our archives cover a wide range
of African destinations and topics.
 The
impact of Urban Development on African Tourism goes without
saying - and this event, along with Globe
2006 World's
Largest Enviro-Business Expo, also in Vancouver, open up a
broad avenue for our editorial group. The week started off
with a keynote address by Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime
Minister of Canada (left), followed by Vancouver Mayor Sam
Sullivan, and BC Premier Gordon Campbell.
Africans have made a
strong showing at this world class event, as they have at
the 2006 World Cup in Germany. On day four we attended the
Mayors Roundtable at Simon Fraser University's downtown
campus, and later at the World Mayors Reception we had a
brief dialogue with host Mayor Sam Sullivan, who has a high
profile worldwide and will host the Winter Olympics in 2010.
We finished off an outstanding day at a special evening
event hosted by Kenya, networking with dignitaries from
cities and the federal scene.
Above
right: Mayors touring Vancouver's Chinatown and other sites
with editors of Africa Travel Magazine.
Opposite (left) :Mr. Bird with host Mayor, Sam Sullivan of
Vancouver.
AFRICANS ON VIDEO:
Comments from the African delegates are available in Video
Clips thanks to Sustainability Corner, which operated from a
broadcast stage at the entrance to the Expo. Not only did
our editor get an opportunity to introduce Africa Travel
Magazine to the world, we were provided with interviews from
a wide cross section of Africans from Cabinet Ministers to
professionals of all stripes. www.sustainabilitycorner.com
 ACTION
ON SLUM IMPROVEMENT
Rose Molokoane: South African Homeless People's
Federation anchored a panel on this vital topic, which
attracted many members of the world press, most especially
Africa Travel Magazine. A leading world figure on Rose's
panel was Mr. Jockin Arputham is President of the National
Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) of India. This organization
is one of the largest urban poor organizations and social
movements in the world. He is also President of Slum/Shack
Dwellers International (SDI), an umbrella group formed by
urban poor and homeless federations from many different
nations - as they support each other and learn from each
other. Having worked for more than 40 years in slums and
shanty towns, building representative organizations and
demonstrating what slum-dwellers' own organizations are
capable of, he has shown what powerful partners slum
dwellers can be for governments and international agencies.
Mr. Arputham set up NSDF in India which developed to become
a mass movement with hundreds of thousands of slum dwellers
as members. Mr. Arpurtham is also an active Member of the UN
Advisory Group on Forced Evictions. In 2000, he received the
Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia's version of the Nobel
Prize.
AFRICA'S MAYORS
WERE FRONT AT CENTER AT WORLD URBAN FORUM
 Mayors,
such as
Patricia Applagyei (left)
of Kumasi, Ghana';s second largest city, are among our
favorite people, not just the friendly Africans we met at
the UN World Urban Forum, but as publishers we've had a
dialogue with mayors in our own province for decades by
covering the annual Union
of BC Municipalities
Expo. Former
mayor Russ Helburg of Port Hardy was of great help for years
and was featured in our first airport magazine in the early
90s. Not long ago I was
keynote speaker
at a Trans Canada Highway Association 59th Anniversary
Conference and mayors in my audience came from half of
Canada, some 2,000 km from Lake Manitoba to the :Pacific.
They were a very appreciative audience. Small wonder we love
dealing with mayors. Patricia was featured on a cover page
of the Vancouver Sun Newspaper following the forum. We
stayed in Kumasi earlier this year during our tour of Ghana
and were greatly impressed by its outstanding potential for
tourism development. Rose, who is an avid gardener and lover
of beauty, along with David, her colleague from Tema, near
Accra, joined Muguette and I for a tour of the University of
British Columbia campus, with stops at the Memorial Gardens
and the UBC Museum of Anthropology.
The Mayors' Roundtable
was co chaired by Smagaliso Mkhatshwa of South Africa.
Cities represented on the panel were Kampala, Dar es Salaam,
Casablanca, Tunis, Windhoek, Ouagadougou and communities in
Senegal, Madagascar, Namibia, Burkina Faso and Benin, among
others.
 Anna
Kajumulo Tibaijuka
of Tanzania (left),
Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN-HABITAT,
highest ranking African woman in the United Nations, gave an
outline of the program';s purpose. "As the international
community celebrates Vancouver + 30, it should also reflect
on the important lessons learned in urban development and
the need to reduce inequalities within cities. Cities
present an unparalleled opportunity for the simultaneous
attainment of most, if not all, of the internationally
agreed development goals. Interventions in, for example,
poor water and sanitation, have immediate positive knock-on
effects in terms of improved health, nutrition, disease
prevention and the environment. However, unless such
concerted action is taken to redress urban inequalities,
cities may well become the predominant sites of deprivation,
social exclusion and instability worldwide."
KOFI
ANNAN COMMENTS ON WUF3
Secretary
General of the United Nations
 The
Holding of this Third Session of the World Urban Forum in
Vancouver has historic resonance for the United Nations. It
was in this great city that the Agency we now know as
UN-Habitat was born. It was here, 30 years ago, that the
idea of creating a body to deal with where we live and how
we live was first brought into the international limelight.
Over the past three decades, our world has become more
urbanized, congested and polluted, and less equitable.
Satellite images reveal the huge and growing "footprints" of
cities: their sprawl into plains, forest and wetlands; their
fooling of rivers, lakes and coastlines with waste; their
filling the air with smoke and smog. Cities which are now
home to half of humankind, are among the greatest users of
natural resources and major emitters of greenhouse
gases.
Another
picture of cities, less visible from space but no less real,
is that of poverty and deprivation. More than half the urban
population of the developing world lives in slums. with
little or no access to decent housing, clean water, basic
sanitation, regular jobs or steady income. The despair is
such that families are forced to choose between sending
their children to school or using them to fetch water, and
between feeding their children or saving their meager funds
to buy much-needed medicines.
In our
interdependent world, opportunity and deprivation are inter
linked. The consequences of over-consumption and pollution,
hunger and deprivation, crime and insecurity know no
borders. If not handled well, they can generate intolerance,
migration, and even instability and extremism. On the other
hand, cities are also leading incubators of knowledge,
birthplaces of technological innovation, and repositories of
cultural riches. Their density can make them efficient
places for living, consuming and producing.
This
forum is well placed to address the challenges facing cities
and to advance the cause of sustainable urban development.
We have ideas and best practices to guide us, including
participatory planning, "green" architecture, cooperative
housing finance and successful instances of inner city
revival. Together, we must scale up our efforts, and make
our urban planet more just, equitable and sustainable for
all its inhabitants. In that hopeful spirit, please accept
my best wishes for the success of your important
deliberations.
WHO TOOK PART IN
WUF3?
ATTENDANCE
STATISTICS
Governments
(all levels) - 1,497
Parliamentarians - 63
Local Authorities - 1,534
Professionals and Research - 1,442
Non Gov't Organizations - 2,289
Private Sector- 1,187
Foundations - 95
Media- 346
Inter- Governmental - 31
United Nations - 379
Other Participants - 753
Canada Secretariat- 73
Total participants - 9,689
FACES AND VOICES OF
AFRICA AT THIS EVENT
The conference speaker list included many high profile
Africans. Here are just some of the people who shared their
expertise and experience with participants at
WUF3:
SPEAKERS
FROM AFRICA
Contact numbers and some
biographies available.
Ali Mohamed Shein:
Vice President, Government of Tanzania
Harriette Amissah
Arthur, Director, KITE, Ghana
Mary Balikungeri:
Rwanda Women's Network, Rwanda
Tasneem Essop:
Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development,
Government of the Western Cape, South Africa
Eric Falt:
Director of the Division of Communications & Public
Information, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP),
Kenya
Bhekokwakhe
Hamilton Cele: Transport Safety and Community Liaison
Officer, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Lamine Mbassa:
Director of Economic and Financial Affairs,
Communauté Urbaine de Douala (CUD),
Cameroon
Jean-Pierre Mbassi:
Secretary General, United Cities & Local Governments
Africa
Smangaliso
Mkhatshwa : Councillor of Tshwane, South
Africa
Abbès
Mohsen: Mayor of Tunis, Tunisia; President of the
Féderation Nationale des Villes Tunisiennes,
Tunisia
Rose Molokoane:
South African Homeless People's Federation, South
Africa
Maria Mutagamba:
Minister of State for Urban Employment & Poverty
Alleviation, Government of Uganda, Uganda
John Pombe Magufuli
: Minister of Housing, Lands and Human Settlements,
Government of Tanzania, Co-Chair WUF 3
Lindiwe Sisulu:
Minister of Housing, Government of South
Africa
Examples
of urban sustainability were just outside the doors of WUF3.
Delegates saw how a waste water treatment plant works or
cycle around the University of British Columbia campus. Free
guided tours took them off the tourist track to see why
Vancouver is one of the most sustainable cities on the
planet.
RELATED
LINKS
WORLD
MAYOR AWARDS- AFRICA;
Finalistgs 2006: Mayor of Antananarivo, Madagascar;
Johannesburg, South Africa; Maputo, Mozambique; Tunis,
Tunisia
AFRICA
MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT
PARTNERSHIP
Under the current local government reforms in Africa, Mayors
and Councillors are key actors in establishing strong and
sustainable local governments. They have a dual role of
democratising local government and fostering local
development. They represent the citizens and are supposed to
provide both political and economic leadership; have an
appreciable level of civic knowledge with the ability to
manage public affairs; and create an environment for
maintenance of peace and security in their jurisdiction.
However, until the late 1980s, it was never conceived that
representation of ordinary people requires a mayor or a
councillor to have extraordinary skills. This was possibly
due to the fact that their engagement was on a part time
basis and for a fixed term of one or two years. Many elected
officials come to local authorities without prior management
skills or knowledge of local government systems, or
knowledge of national priorities and goals. MORE-
MAYOR'S
OUVERHAUL OF ADDIS ABABA:
Executive Mayor Arkebe Oqubay
AFRICA
CITY MAYORS SOCIETY- PROJECTIONS TO 2030
US
AND AFRICAN MAYORS MEET
UN
WUF3 Newsletter
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