African Ministers to share best practice in land management and sustainable urbanisation

Ministers from all over Africa will have the opportunity to share best practice in the areas of land management and sustainable urbanisation and will look to make solid commitments to improve housing across the continent when they meet at the Third African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD) in Bamako, Mali from 22 to 24 November 2010.

Delegates attending from 53 African countries will include more than 30 Ministers responsible for various aspects of land, urban development and human settlements. Other senior government officials will also attend the Conference.

The theme, Land in the context of sustainable urbanisation, reflects the political will in Africa to take the opportunity land has to offer to support housing and urban development in African countries. 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.

During the debates which will take place over three days in the Mali capital, it is hoped that decisions will be made on a set of concrete actions to make effective use of land to support housing and urban development in Africa, as well as a set of resolutions that will strengthen AMCHUD’s institutional arrangements.

The Conference is being convened as a statutory meeting of the standing Ministerial conference within the framework of the Durban Declaration adopted by the same African Ministers in April 2005 The meeting in Mali is a follow up to the Second Ordinary AMCHUD conference held in Abuja Nigeria in July 2008.

It will be hosted by the Ministry of Housing, Land and Urban Planning of the Government of Mali which for the past number of years has been actively involved in fostering a closer linkage in the processes of land management, urban planning and housing development in the country. The conference will enable Ministers and high officials to share experience and forge common positions on a number of upcoming global consultations. A forward action plan on concrete collaborating actions is also expected to be adopted.

The meeting is convened by the Chair of AMCHUD, the Minister of Housing of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and hosted by the Government of Mali with the support of UN-HABITAT.

For more information visit http://www.mlafu.gov.ml/