• 21^st Session of UN-HABITAT Governing Council meetings in Nairobi, 16-20 April 2007
  Members of the UN-HABITAT Governing Council will meet in Nairobi, Kenya from 16 to 20 April 2007 at the UN-HABITAT headquarters. Discussions will focus on the theme: Sustainable Urbanisation: local action for urban poverty reduction with an emphasis on finance and planning. Members of the Cities Alliance secretariat will attend the event and participate in the Cities Alliance Steering Committee meeting, the Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) meeting and the Habitat Programme Managers meeting.
  http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=528

• World Bank Urban Research Symposium, Washington, DC, 14-16 May 2007
  The Fourth Urban Research Symposium, organized by the World Bank in conjunction with key partners, will focus on “Urban Land Use and Land Markets,” including implications for city spatial growth, efficiency and equity. The symposium will feature presentations of commissioned survey papers and other research papers.
  http://www.worldbank.org/urban/symposium2007/

• “Analysis of South Africa’s Housing Sector Performance” presentation at the Cities Alliance, 15 June 2007 (12:30 – 2:00 pm)
  Kecia Rust of FinMark Trust will discuss her report, “Analysis of South Africa’s Housing Sector Performance” at a lunchtime event at the Cities Alliance in Washington, DC. More information will be posted at http://www.citiesalliance.org.

• FLACMA Congress of Latin American Cities and Local Government, Florianópolis, Brazil, 25-27 July 2007
  http://www.flacmacongreso.com

• UCLG Congress in Jeju, Korea, 28-31 October 2007
  http://www.uclg2007jeju.org/eng/

World Watch Institute - State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future

State of the World 2007 explores the myriad ways urbanisation affects humans and the global environment—with a special focus on the ideas that can make cities environmentally sustainable and healthier places to live. For more information, please see http://www.worldwatch.org/.

World Bank, Cities Alliance, CIV, DFID, WBI - Exclusión Financiera y Desarrollo Comunitario

Exclusión Financiera y Desarrollo Comunitario (Financial Exclusion and Community Development) explores the options for low income communities in Latin America to finance development projects through the private market. (Currently available in Spanish only.)
http://www.citiesalliance.org/publications/other-resources/upgrading/financial-exclusion-communty-upgrading-home.html.

Commonwealth Local Government Forum - Obtaining a Municipal Credit Rating

Obtaining a Municipal Credit Rating provides an excellent introduction to the principle of municipal credit ratings and how they can benefit local authorities, with case studies of good practice.
http://www.clgf.org.uk/userfiles/CLGF/File/Municipalcreditrating.pdf.

South African Cities Network - State of the Cities 2006

State of the Cities 2006 outlines the vast development challenges facing South Africa’s largest urban centres.
http://www.sacities.net/2006/state_of_cities_2006.stm

Fond Farewells and Welcome

It is with best wishes and fond memories that the Cities Alliance announces the departure of three colleagues: Joerg (Jörg) Haas, CA Senior Urban Specialist who returned to GTZ headquarters; Arndt Husar, CA Research Analyst who joined the GTZ office in Egypt (Cairo); and Christiane (Tina) Einfeldt, CA Research Analyst now with the GTZ office in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa). The Cities Alliance would also like to welcome Anne Carlin, Communications Consultant, to the CA communications team and Andrea Haer, Programme Consultant, to the programmatic teams.