The Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 Congress:

Africa transitioning: embracing urbanization, responding to change and harnessing opportunities

Where: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

When: 30 October – 1 November

Who: leaders and technical officials from local government and their associations across Africa, technical experts and researchers, national governments, development partners, business, industry, NGO’s.

Convened by: ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and Dar es Salaam City Council

Background:

Across Africa, urbanisation presents new and multiple development opportunities and challenges at the local level. Globally more than half of the world’s population resides in cities and urban areas, severely increasing pressure on essential services, infrastructure and natural systems which underpins economies and social well-being. Security and access issues pertaining to water, energy and food are projected to be exacerbated through climate change, most affecting the vulnerable within society.

These challenges calls for innovative solutions – A transition in Africa towards embracing urbanization, responding to change and harnessing opportunities.

The biennial Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 Congress series provides a unique and accessible platform for African local governments, their associations, national governments, scientists and experts, NGO’s,  development partners and business to engage on the complex issues and innovative solutions related to urbanisation in Africa through the context of climate resilience.

With its strategically cross-cutting and interlinked Congress themes, Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 will provide a key opportunity to strengthen the sharing of global good practice and locally appropriate solutions and technologies towards accelerated climate action on the ground. Congress themes will include a strong emphasis on local leadership, financing and accelerated integrated action at the local and sub-national level, underpinned by a special focus on integrated planning towards addressing climate resilience in Africa.

LOCS for Africa 2013 is a unique platform for advancing new partnerships and consolidated local climate action on the continent for the global common good. The Congress series brings together a wide range of global and regional partners and programmes. Networks and institutions interested to partner in Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 are invited to contact the ICLEI Congress team.

For more on the Congress Partners, please see here.

The Local Climate Solutions for Africa Series: LOCS 2011 Outcomes

The upcoming Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 Congress will build on the remarkable successes achieved at the inaugural LOCS event (http://locs4africa.iclei.org/), which saw the participation of over 50 African cities from 25 countries, as well as high level dignitaries from national government, research agencies, business and other organisations. A key outcome of the event, the African Mayors Climate Change Declaration, has fed into various international climate advocacy forums.

For a comprehensive list of the various outcomes and partners of the LOCS 2011 Congress, we welcome you to visit the Outcomes Page. The 2011 Congress has featured in various newspapers and publications, while a number of exciting events and interesting press releases are available. The official Congress Declaration can be downloaded from the Outcomes page. For more information, please contact us at locs4africa@iclei.org.

Please visit the LoCS Image Gallery to view selected photographs from the event.

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability– Africa

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, is the world’s leadingassociation of cities and local governments dedicated to sustainable development. ICLEI is a powerful movement of 12 mega-cities, 100 super-cities and urban regions, 450 large cities as well as 450 small and medium-sized cities and towns in 84 countries.

On the ground ICLEI offers a wide suite of training and capacity building tools and projects, local sustainability planning and project implementation, exchange programmes, sharing of good practice and building leadership and networks in an urban context – all towards more sustainable, resilient and efficient cities and towns across the globe.

ICLEI Africa, the regional office for ICLEI in Africa, is based in Cape Town, South Africa and collaborates closely with the global ICLEI network and other regional offices around the world, in sharing tools, materials and strategies and good practices specifically designed and implemented at the local level.

The Secretariat has seen continual growth over the past years, to its current total of 69 member local governments, in 18 different countries across Africa.

ICLEI Africa’s key environmental work streams within the Secretariat includes:

• Climate Resilience

• Low Emission Development

• Integrated Urban Water Management

• Urban Biodiversity and

• Integrated Urban Planning