REFELA Participation of REFELA’s President in several high-level meetings in Madrid, Spain The World Forum on Urban Violence, April 19-21, 2017
The President of the REFELA network, Mrs. Célestine Kecha Epse Courtés, participated in Madrid in the first World Forum on Urban Violence and Education for Coexistence and Peace, which took place from April 19 to April 21, 2017. This Forum is intended to define the tasks to be carried out by Local Governments and the citizens for the construction of coexistence and peace. The opening ceremony was attended by King Felipe of Spain. According to the Mayor of Madrid, cities are a concentration of population and of various forms of violence. A pair that makes of municipal officials key players in the search for solutions, and in the discovery of new paths that can bring them together. This was the goal of the creation of the Madrid Forum. This is a forum which,
according to Manuela Carmena, aims to “initiate a process or to unite us to other processes that have already started but which we have not yet accepted”, she says. A process which, without neglecting any formula, puts clearly the emphasis on education for coexistence and peace. One of the goals of the Forum is to know, to perceive, to share these experiences which are often unknown because of their weak territorial influence, but which have proved their effectiveness when dealing with some facets of urban violence. It is within this framework that Mrs Courtès took part in a very important round table alongside Mrs Virginia Raggi, Mayor of Rome, Johan Galtung, researcher on peace and social conflicts, the Mayor of Santa Fé, and the Representatives of UNDP and UN-Habitat, for the exchange of experience on the prevention and management of urban violence. This Forum brought together representatives the City Councils of Madrid, Paris and Barcelona, but also representatives of the network of Mayors for Peace ; The International Association of Educating Cities; UN-HABITAT; The World Health Organization (WHO) ; The Metropolis network of cities ; The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) ; The Union of Ibero-American Capital Cities (UCCI) ; The World Network of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) ; The Spanish Association for Peace Research (aiPAZ) ; The ONGD Madrid Network and the Regional Federation of the Associations of Inhhabitants of Madrid (FRAVM), as well as the Network of Local Elected Women of Africa (REFELA). Meeting of UCLG’s Executive Board In the margins of this Forum, REFELA’s president participated in the UCLG Executive Board meeting. The meeting of the UCLG Board had two objectives: the preparation of the next GOLD report and the preparation of the next Africa / European Union summit. The latter will focus on the localization of global agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals, Climate, Migration, financing, etc. The aim will be to work on a regional synthesis of the contribution of local authorities to the implementation of these global agendas. Meeting on the localization of SDGs RFEFELA’s President, who is also Mayor of Bangangté, took the floor in another important roundtable on the localization of SDGs held at the premises of the FEMP Federation. This training and brainstorming workshop on the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals, which is based on the experience in progress in several regions of the world. In Africa, Durban’s experience was particularly highlighted for the city has begun to integrate SDGs into its annual planning.
For countries where local communities are already stakeholders, UCLG Africa is requested to prepare a short report on the action of Local Governments in each country for their contribution to local implementation of SDGs. UCLG Africa has committed itself to mobilizing the 7 African countries concerned and to make an assessment of the situation in mid-May.