African officials adopt Draft Common African Position on upcoming UN housing and urban development conference

In an effort to speed up the adoption of the Draft Common African Position (CAP) on Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development recently gathered a group of experts and government representatives to discuss the draft.

The meeting took place Feb. 24-26 in Abuja, Nigeria. At the meeting were experts from the African Ministers on Housing and Urban Development's Subcommittee on Human Settlement and Urban Development to meet with members of the Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission's African Union Specialized Technical Sub-Committee no. 8 on Public Service, Local Government, Urban Development and Decentralization (AU-STC no. 8). Habitat II is set for Oct. 17-20 and will take place in Quito, Ecuador.

UN officials said the goal of Habitat III is "to reinvigorate the global commitment to sustainable urbanization, to focus on the implementation of a New Urban Agenda."

At the meeting in Nigeria the CAP was reviewed before adoption by officials including Aisha L. Abdullahi, commissioner for political affairs of the African Union Commission, who said heads of state across Africa should come together to support the African Urban Agenda.

African housing and urban development leaders from the African nations of Chad, Senegal, Zambia, South Sudan, Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, Lesotho, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mauritius Island and Nigeria also attended.

The CAP will now be forwarded to African heads of state for approval and adoption this summer at a summit in Kigali, Rwanda.