Side Event 9
Advancing the Commonwealth Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation; an inclusive multilateral, multi-sector, crossdiscipline Commonwealth-led initiative to help deliver sustainable cities and human settlements.
Monday 05 JUNE 2023, 18:15
Conference Room 8
SUMMARY
The objective of the event will be to showcase the way in which Commonwealth partners have come together to create an inclusive multilateral, multi-sector, cross-discipline Commonwealth-led initiative to help deliver sustainable cities and human settlements. The event will include contributions from central and local government, architects and planners, developers and donors to illustrate the ways in which it is possible to develop solutions which are both scalable and replicable around the Commonwealth and beyond. The following are among the topics which will be addressed:
1. Background to the challenge of sustainable urbanisation across the Commonwealth and the fact that nearly 50% of the growth in the worlds urban population to 2050 is forecast to be taking place in Commonwealth countries, many of which are suffering from a critical lack of capacity to respond to the twin challenges of climate change and rapid urbanisation.
2. Background to the Call to Action on Sustainable Urbanisation across the Commonwealth, developed by a range of Commonwealth partners, together with the Government of Rwanda, and the Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation that was adopted by Heads of Government at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in June 2022.
3. Overview of several transformative initiatives being undertaken, by way of example of the kind of scalable and replicable initiatives which illustrate the way in which the partners are working, including:
3.1. The Lusaka Mapping Pilot: An innovative pilot project to deliver a digital base map of the city of Lusaka, 60% of whose 3 million residents live in informal settlements. The base map was produced in record time with the aid of artificial intelligence and now provides a resource to support policy makers and city managers alike.
3.2. Green City Kigali: An innovative low-carbon, mixed use development, which aims to provide a transformative medium density affordable housing community and serve as a catalyst for change in Rwanda and beyond.
https://unhabitat.org/governance/un-habitatassembly/second-session-2023
3.3.
The event will illustrate the practical benefits of multi-stakeholder engagement and encourage others to consider the sort of transformative changes required to accelerate progress towards delivery of the Global Goals
Organizer(s)
Ministry of Infrastructure, Government of Rwanda
Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative
Moderator
Ms Kelley Moore, Commonwealth Association of Planners, Canada
Speaker(s)
Hon Dr Ernest Nsabimana, Minister of Infrastructure, MININFRA, Rwanda
Hon Mr Gary Nkombo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Zambia
Mr Basil Karimba, Chief Executive Officer, Green City Kigali Company, Rwanda
Mr Dennis Quansah, Program Lead, EDGE Green Buildings Market Transformation Program, IFC, Kenya
Mr Peter Oborn, President, Commonwealth Association of Architects, United Kingdom
https://unhabitat.org/governance/un-habitatassembly/second-session-2023
Building capacity by leveraging the Commonwealth network: Members of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative will demonstrate the way in which they are working to help build capacity at scale.