Cameroon hosts Africities 3

2003-12-02 13:35

Yaounde - The third Africities summit opens in the Cameroon capital Yaounde on Tuesday, with the question of unchecked urbanisation on a continent where most people live without access to basic services such as water and electricity topping the agenda.

The summit, which will run until Friday, has as its theme, "Ensuring access to basic services in African local governments."

The conference aims to offer the "perspective of improving the living conditions of inhabitants and the participation of citizens," said the Municipal Development Partnership (MDP), which is organising Africities 3.

Talks will focus on issues such as access to water, energy, transport, health and education services, as well as local policies on accessibility, funding, partnership and participation.

In 1950, less than 15% of Africans lived in conurbations against 42% today, or 300 million Africans, according to MDP coordinator Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi.

But the figures vary widely between countries: only six% of Rwanda's population live in the city, while 86% of Libyans are town dwellers, reports say.

Complete breakdown

"Basic services in Africa are in complete breakdown," Elong Mbassi told reporters.

"One African in two has no access to drinking water, the level of literacy is stagnating, even deteriorating, in several countries, and public transport has practically disappeared," Elong Mbassi said.

With the United Nations warning of a 50% urbanisation rate up to 2020, the situation could deteriorate further, he said.

More than 1 300 people from about 30 countries will take part in the summit, including mayors, local authority officials, ministers and academics, as well as bilateral and multilateral cooperation institutions including the World Bank, the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and the European Union.

Organisers touted the initiative as the "most important democratic event at the continental level".

Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique and current head of the African Union, will attend the summit, along with UN-Habitat executive director Anna Tibaijuka.

A tripartite meeting between ministers, mayors and development partners at the Yaounde summit should propose a draft new agenda on cooperation with Africa in the area of basic services and decentralisation, organiser said.

The two previous Africities summits were held in Abidjan in 1998 and Windhoek in 2000.

- AFP