20 March, “Green City and Sustainable Development” China-Africa Mayors Forum was held in Tongji University. Mayors from China and African cities agree that both China and Africa benefit from the key experiences shared through South-South Cooperation, and they will urge the African leaders to establish guidelines and a framework to integrate sustainability into decision making, redirect their public investment towards greener sectors, create green and descent job opportunities for the youth in the course towards Post-2015 Development Agenda.

This forum is a high-level segment for the Workshop on Planning for Greener Cities and South-South Cooperation in Africa. The forum aims to share experience and integrate resources on the dimensions of urban planning, ecological protection, infrastructure development, green investment and new energy utilization.

At the forum, Tongji University, City Council of Harare and Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe signed a Memorandum of Understanding on safe water supply. The three parties will start research and demonstrative project as well as technology training programmes on safe water supply. Through this collaboration, China’s technology will be tailored in Africa to enhance Harare’s capacity to cope with challenges from safe water supply and climate change, especially in the semiarid areas.

This workshop is hosted by UNEP, UN-Habitat and Tongji University, with the support from Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Collaborative Innovation Center for Clean Water organize the workshop. This workshop saw 25 representatives from 8 African cities attended this workshop.

Representatives from Yaoundé (Cameroon), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kiambu County (Kenya), Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), Niamey (Niger), Kampala (Uganda), Lusaka (Zambia), Harare (Zimbabwe), China’s Shanghai, Haimen City, Yixing City and Anji County, Nantong third Construction Company, Nanjing Yangzi State-owned Investment Group attended the forum.

About the Workshop on Planning for Greener Cities and South-South Cooperation in Africa: http://news.tongji.edu.cn/classid-9-newsid-46294-t-show.html