As part of preparations for the 2020 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that was due to be held in Kigali, Rwanda this month, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Commonwealth Association of Architects, the Commonwealth Association of Planners, and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, with support from The Prince’s Foundation, the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure, the Rwandan Ministry of Local Government, the Commonwealth Engineers Council and others, have been working together to promote sustainable urbanisation in the Commonwealth.
With nearly 50% of the projected increase in the world’s urban population to 2050 forecast to be in the Commonwealth, there has never been a more important time for members of the Commonwealth to come together to tackle the challenges of climate change and rapid urbanisation; challenges which have now been compounded by the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.
A Programme of online sessions has been created, all of which focus on engaging with the theme of sustainable urbanisation in the Commonwealth. The programme will be officially launched in this webinar by HRH The Prince of Wales.
The webinars that are to follow this session are as follows:
· 1st July: Feedback from the Frontline of COVID-19
· 8th July: Planning for Rapid Urbanisation in a Post-COVID-19 World
· 13 July: Building Political Leadership and Strengthening Decentralisation in Urban Areas
· 22nd July: Upskilling Professional Capacity for Climate Change and the Recovery
· 29th July: Sustainable Urbanisation & Local Economic Development in the Context of COVID19
· 5th August: Building Infrastructure-led Community Resilience
· 12th August: Achieving Safe and Affordable Housing for All
· 19th August: Climate Responsive Design
· 24th August: Sustainable Urbanisation and Small Island Developing States
· 2nd September: Towards a Call to Action and Next Steps & Close of the Programme
* this session will run twice to ensure participation from all SIDS, dates to be confirmed
To ensure we hear from a wide range of voices from across the Commonwealth and from different sectors it may not be possible to guarantee you a space in the above webinars. However, we anticipate streaming the majority of them live to YouTube so if you find all places have been allocated, the YouTube details will be publicised on our social media.
We are also holding a series of 7 lectures for built environment professionals in parallel with the main programme:
· Thursday 02 July: Introduction to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
· Thursday 09 July: Planning for Rapid Urbanisation
· Thursday 16 July: Planned City Extensions
· Thursday 23 July: Resilient Infrastructure
· Thursday 30 July: Climate Responsive Design
· Thursday 06 August: Heritage-Led Regeneration
· Thursday 13 August: Sustainable Outcomes Guide
To keep up to date with future events in the series, see: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/commonwealth-sustainable-cities-30474156240