Background

This conference was organised by FIG (the International Federation of Surveyors) and co-sponsored by several United Nations’ agencies including FAO, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN ECA).

The sub-themes of the conference included: urban-rural relationship in land management; spatial planning in promoting good urban and rural environment; and security of tenure and access to land, amongst others.

As a result from the conference the Marrakech Declaration on the Urban-Rural Interrelationship for Sustainable Environment will be prepared. The Declaration aims to:

• Enhance awareness within the professions and decision makers about the growing urban - rural divide to provide adequate tools to improve urban – rural linkages
• Develop pragmatic solutions for today's complex problems
• Promote the role of surveyors in these fields as enablers, mediators and advisors
• focus on better education conditions especially in sub-Saharan Africa

The aim is to get the declaration published before the 2nd World Urban Forum to be held in Barcelona in September 2004.

				Conference Lessons
				Conference Overview Report HTML
				Conference Proceedings and links to conference papers and presentations HTML
				Key papers
				Promoting the Positive Rural-Urban Linkages Approach to Sustainable Development and Employment Creation: The Role of UN-HABITAT, Don C. I. OKPALA, UN-HABITAT PDF
				Land Policy, Urban-Rural Interaction and Land Administration Differentiation in Ethiopia Abebe Haile Solomon and Reinfried Mansberger PDF
				Urban-Rural Relationship in Land Management and Access to Land – Kenyan Experiences. Wafula Nabutola PDF