Africities and meetings in popular neighbourhoods to make the inhabitants' voice heard

The IAI, together with local partners ENDA-TM, is hosting a Thematic Session on Associations of Inhabitants (9:00 AM, 5 December, Grand amphitheatre)  which will look at examples of residents interactions with local and national authorities across the continent in light of the growing occurrence of forced evictions and the housing crisis in african cities. They will also discuss democratisation, decentralisation and participation in an effort to find ways to establish residents associations and other collectives of inhabitants as primary actors in urban processes.

With delegates coming from a number of organisations such as RNHC (Cameroun), Abahlali baseMjondolo (South Africa), Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), National Taxpayers Association (Kenya), Amandla Centre of Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), Sos Expulsions (Algeria), UACDDDD, No-Vox (Mali), Collectif Associations Développement (RDC), the team is invited to participate in a number of other sessions at Africities, such as "The democratization movement in Africa: Local strategies for accessing to the rights to the City" (Senegal Civil Forum)  (2:30 PM, 4 December, room B 06); "Strategies for people participation and citizenship" (SDI) (2:30 PM, 4 December, room C 12); and the "Special session on Participatory Budgeting" (UCGLA) (2:30 PM, 5 December, room B 01).

Jules Dumas Nguebou from Cameroon will be presenting at the session on the "African forum of citizen participation" (9:00 AM, 6 December, room Teranga) where Prof Yves Cabannes, from the DPU, London, and IAI’s technical advisor, will be moderating. Two concrete tools will be presented there: the World Map of Urban Habitat and CITEGO.

Also we emphasise the session on the "Financing of Social Housing" (2:00 PM, 6 December, room Teranga), an emerging theme in all of Africa, where, in particular, will be presented the proposal of Popular Fund for Land and Housing, which is an innovative instrument, originally launched by the IAI in Latin America, to promote participatory housing policies, funded, in particular, by public resources freed from the payment of foreign debt.

Amnesty International's launch of "Know Your Obligations: A Guide to Preventing Forced Evictions" (1:00 PM, 6 December, Workshop Room) will deliver a new tool to inform citizens, and thus strengthen local struggles against evictions on the continent. Information is power and our citizens need more to access information like this.

Building convergences, towards the WAI 2013

The IAI will also meet with local residents in the neighbourhoods of Dakar, building upon relationships developed at the last World Assembly of Inhabitants (WAI, WSF, Dakar, February 2011) and encouraging participation in the next WAI which will take place in Tunis (WSF, 26-30 March 2013).

To this end, together with other resources, the IAI will be presenting and disseminating the "Memory of Inhabitants" on outcomes and proposals of the WAI 2011, including a DVD with dozens of interviews with urban social leaders from around the world.

Dakar is yet another stage in building the convergences towards the Urban and Community Way, a joint, global and supportive space for organizations and inhabitant networks to share their experiences, draw up strategies and platforms, manage tools, determine and implement commitments, in order to reinforce solidarity with g/local struggles to defend inhabitants and prepare for “another possible world”: to live on our planet properly. It follows the Urban Social Forum in Naples in September and October’s World Zero Eviction Days. In January the IAI will be at the African Social Forum in Kinshasa as we build towards the World Assembly of Inhabitants.

We encourage you to participate in our activities especially by preparing for the WAI now!

Download the full programme  at Africities