Standing together as a continent will ensure a stronger position at the United Nations’ (UN’s) upcoming third Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III).

Discussing the common position and shared vision to be adopted by Africa, Department of Human Settlements (DHS) international relations director Monika Glinzler on Wednesday told delegates at a two-day urbanisation and human settlements development consultative workshop, in Boksburg, that South Africa aimed to negotiate as a group with the rest of Africa when it attended the conference in Quito, Ecuador, in October.

The conference, to be held from October 17 to 20, is expected to deliver the New Urban Agenda – a global commitment to tackling housing and urbanisation challenges across the world.

South Africa plans to to have its own national agenda, with proposals aimed at fast-tracking solutions to its emerging and existing urbanisation challenges, recognised in the process.

Fifty-four African States, negotiating as one, provide a stronger position, which will enable the continent to align the New Urban Agenda with its own Agenda 2063, commented Glinzler.

African Ministers and technical experts developed and adopted a common Africa position following the Habitat III African regional meeting in Nigeria in February.

“The common African position will guide the Africa Group in the international consultations towards the conclusion and adoption of the New Urban Agenda,” a concept note published by the DHS explained.

“South Africa has endorsed the notion that urbanisation will support the structural – economic and social – transformation of Africa as envisaged in the African Union Agenda 2063, if properly harnessed,” added Human Settlements Deputy Minister Zou Kota-Fredericks.

There needs to be a link to structural transformation, not only for South Africa, but for the continent as a whole.

“Africa needs to become a driver of the Habitat III agenda to be adopted in Equador,” she stressed.

Further, there is a need to ensure the New Urban Agenda is closely aligned to the Agenda 2063, feeds into national policies and recognises and strengthens current policies and agendas, Glinzler noted.

The African common position on Habitat III reiterated the urgent need to “harness the transformative potential of urbanisation” to reduce poverty and ensure inclusive growth.

Despite the progress made across the continent, many new issues have emerged and existing challenges remain, which “calls for collective efforts” to effectively mitigate.

The African position is based on eight pillars as the continent pursues an “ambitious new and transformative urban and human settlements agenda”.

The pillars include the enhancement of the potential of urbanisation for accelerating structural economic transformation and inclusive growth; the linking of resilient sustainable urban human settlement development; and the strengthening of institutions and systems to promote transformative change in human settlements.

Further, human settlement development needs to be people-centred and contribute to the continental integration process, while boosting Africa’s global competitiveness.

Finally, human settlement development needs to be environmentally sustainable, with an effective response to climate change, as well as initiate a global partnership for sustainable urban management to facilitate implementation of the new global urban and human settlements agenda in Africa.