An African Plan for Action

In 2005 an international conference on sustainable building will be held in Tokyo . This conference will be the sixth in an ongoing series of conferences that have become the pre-eminent international conference on sustainable building. The theme of the SB’05- Tokyo conference is “Action for Sustainability”.

"Action for Sustainability" recognizes that now is the time to move into action towards the common goal of providing buildings and an urban context that support sustainable ways of living. Rather than being simply a one-way presentation of ideas between experts, SB’05- Tokyo will be a venue for constructive debates among the participants, including clients and users.

To ensure that this discussion represents the views of rich and poor nations, a series of five preparatory conferences will be held in 2004. Building on the Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries, each of these regional conferences has to prepare a strategic implementation document, or Plan for Action, for achieving sustainable building and construction in the region. The aim of this plan is to coordinate and make more efficient use of Africa’s intellectual resources, the innovation of its entrepreneurs and the commitment of its institutions to ensure that the development of Africa’s cities and settlements, as envisioned by NEPAD and the member states of the African Union, will result in cities and settlements that upholds the social, environmental and economic principles of sustainable development.

The SB’04 Africa conference represents the preparatory conference for the African region. To facilitate the development of an African Plan for Action, the CSIR and the Development Bank of Southern Africa are sponsoring a one and a half day workshop as part of the SB’04 Africa conference.

NB: This workshop is not seen as an event that is separate from the conference, but rather as a meaningful conclusion emulating from the discussion sessions in the first part of the conference.

Methodology

In order to make the formulation of the Plan for Action a representative and transparent process, the Plan will be formulated in a participative workshop using Open Space Technology. The workshop outcomes are then written up in a draft Plan for Action Report which will be circulated to the conference delegates, as well as other interested parties for further refinement. Upon completion, copies of the report will be distributed to all conference delegates, universities and research institutions in Africa, international development agencies, the various UN agencies, the major industry players and the NEPAD secretariat. The report will also be presented at the SB’05 conference in Tokyo and the UIA 2005 congress in Istanbul.

Preparation

Delegates are asked to prepare themselves for the conference by reading the following documents:

The Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries (available on this website)
The Earth Charter www.earthcharter.org

We will also be posting position papers on the web closer to the conference.

Non-conference participation

If you are unable to attend the conference, but would like to participate in the formulation of the Plan for Action, you can do so in two ways:

Prepare a short position paper which we will post on the website
Register your name to receive a copy of the draft and final reports.

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