Mayors have the capacity to spearhead development projects in their countries- AMA Boss


About 60 mayors from around the world gathered at the Vatican last Tuesday to pledge their support to combat global warming and help the poor deal with its effects, at a conference swiftly organised by the Vatican barely a month after Pope Francis’ sweeping encyclical on the environment.
 
The two-day conference, which also focused on fighting forms of modern slavery, was not the first time that the Vatican had organised such a meeting on the issue. But it was the first time that it specifically invited local officials, hoping to mobilize grass-roots action and maintain pressure on world leaders for action ahead of a global summit meeting on climate change scheduled for December in Paris.
 
Last Tuesday’s declaration, the mayors pledged to urge world leaders to pass a “bold climate agreement that confines global warming to a limit safe for humanity, while protecting the poor and the vulnerable from ongoing climate change that gravely endangers their lives.”

The Metropolitan Chief Executive of Accra, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, says mayors have the capacity to spearhead development projects in their countries. He has therefore urged his colleagues in other countries to use that capacity boldly as they pursue the development agenda.

The AMA Boss, who was speaking at a two-day conference called by Pope Francis at the Vatican, said “It is clear that we as mayors, have the tools and the capacity to mobilise communities at the grass-roots level, including the poorest of the poor. Let's use them boldly to implement the call by His Holiness."

Recounting his experience on dealing with natural catastrophes, the AMA Boss called for strengthened measures to be put in place in order to mitigate the impact of similar emergencies in the future.

“City authorities must ensure that early warning systems are placed to alert people about expected rains, so that appropriately covered drainage systems are constructed; and lagoons and other water bodies with channels into the sea must always be dredged," he said.

He, therefore, urged the participating mayors to sign a declaration at the end of the first day which called on the international community to intensify efforts to fight global warming ahead of the Paris Climate Talks in December and put pressure on the United Nations to consider modern slavery and human trafficking as a crime against humanity.

Coming soon after the 4th World Summit of Mayors and Leaders from Africa and of African descent in Accra, the conference underscored the key role of cities in meeting the great challenges of sustainable human development, including action for fast-tracking cities to reach the targets to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr Djibril Diallo, said: "We are here to talk about cities and climate change; let me give you a perspective through the lens of the AIDS response."

"I am proud to tell you that we have just met our goal of 15 million on treatment by 2015, which is six months ahead of the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals," he added.


GBC