African Cities Driving the NEPAD Initiative
Description:... The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was conceived to address the current challenges facing the African continent. Issues such as the escalating poverty levels, underdevelopment and the continued marginalisation of Africa needed a new radical intervention, spearheaded by African leaders, to develop a new Vision that would guarantee Africa's Renewal. However, it has become self-evident that for NEPAD to succeed, it cannot afford to ignore the rapid rate of urbanization of Africa, and its impact on the quality of life of the urban poor. Over the recent years, UN-HABITAT has embarked on a lobbying campaign at all levels to promote this idea laying a particular emphasis on the role of African Mayors in this context. The NEPAD Cities Programme of UN-HABITAT is a major component of this campaign aiming to address the NEPAD objectives from a different perspective. It was formulated as a means of achieving a quick win for the NEPAD and ground its ideals to the community level through the municipalities and urban centres.
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