RESOURCE PRODUCED BY CSIR BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY & CSIR ROADS AND TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY
RESOURCE PRODUCED BY CSIR BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY & CSIR ROADS AND TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY |
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CSIR contributes to UNDP South Africa Human Development Report 2003 CSIR assists the Construction Industry Development Board in preparing the Construction Industry Status ReportRural community celebrates handover of road Exploring new school designs for Limpopo province Second edition of structural steel design guide now available Update on CSIR's Forensic Fire Investigation Programme International conference set to boost development of sustainable built environment in Africa E N Q U I R I E S |
Background
There is no doubt that large-scale development in the built environment and its physical infrastructure is needed in the so-called "developing countries" and in Africa in particular. The NEPAD Programme of Action, the Millennium Development Goals and the WSSD Johannesburg Plan of Implementation have identified health, infrastructure provision and poverty alleviation as priority development areas. However, these development initiatives need to proceed in a way that is socially and ecologically responsible. Due to the rapid rate of urbanisation and the increasing pressures on what are often limited resources, there is great urgency to make sustainable interventions now, while these built environments are being created, rather than try and change things after the fact. The kind of buildings and infrastructure provided and how these are constructed will play a critical role in the programmes envisioned for the sustainable development of Africa There is, however, little guidance and coordination on what exactly is required to advance the sustainability agenda in this area and how best to proceed. As this is a problem common to developing countries, the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) initiated a programme for the advancement of sustainable building and construction in developing countries. The first part of this programme resulted in the Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries. For the second part, the CIB and UNEP joined forces with the International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE) and the international conference series on Sustainable Building, to hold a series of regional sustainable building conferences in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, South East Asia, China, and Central / Eastern Europe, in preparation for the next International Sustainable Building Conference in Tokyo, September 2005. Sustainable Building '04 - Africa - a working conference The African regional conference will be held in Stellenbosch, South Africa from 13 - 18 September 2004. Hosted by the CSIR, in association with the iiSBE and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Sustainable Building '04 - Africa (SB'04 - Africa) will provide the opportunity for African experts to share locally developed knowledge and expertise with each other and the broader international community. An international conference aimed at bringing together major stakeholders to map out a common agenda for the development of a sustainable built environment in Africa in support of NEPAD and other regional development initiatives, the event will also assist in establishing a network of African experts on sustainable building and built environments for future cooperation on research and development initiatives on the continent. The conference programme consists of a series of discussion sessions about topics ranging from the pathways to sustainable settlements and the creation of an enabling industry, to the practical aspects of alternative construction materials and sustainable building design. These discussion sessions will be followed by a joint workshop aimed at the formulation of an African Plan for Action for Sustainable Building and Construction. To register and obtain more detailed information on the preliminary conference programme, venue, etc. visit www.sustainablesettlement.co.za Sustainable Building Best Practice Awards One of the objectives of the SB'04 conference is to establish a database of sustainable building that come from and are appropriate to developing countries. To encourage this, a number of awards will be made at the conference to projects that showcase a commitment to sustainable building. These Sustainable Building Best Practice Awards are also seen as a mechanism for raising awareness about sustainable building amongst practitioners in these countries. The main category winners will also qualify for support to present their project at the SB05 Tokyo conference. Practitioners from the African region are invited to submit projects in the following categories for an international best practice database:
Awards will be given to projects in these categories which best illustrate sustainable building, and entries will be captured in an electronic database made available on the Internet. The adjudication of the awards will be coordinated by the South African Institute of Architects, assisted by the CSIR. Read more about this initiative. Developing an African Plan for Action The main conference outcome will be an Action Plan for achieving sustainable building and construction in Africa. 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, happens according to the principles of sustainable development. This Action Plan will be presented at the international conference in Tokyo, the various development agencies operating in Africa, and the governments of all participating countries. Read more about it here. To stimulate thinking before the conference, the CSIR and the DBSA have prepared a joint position paper drawing on the organisations' experience, entitled: An African plan for action for sustainable building & construction - The first priority. Download the document in pdf format [File size 469KB]. If you are unable to attend the conference, but would like to participate in the formulation of the African Plan for Action, you can do so in two ways:
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