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Accra has been chosen to host the fourth edition of the World Summit of Mayors scheduled to take place from June 1 to 3, 2015.

The summit, which would be made up of mayors from Africa and African descent in the diaspora, is expected to attract about 10,000 participants.

Global Alliance of Mayors

It will be have the theme, “Economic Empowerment between Africa and the Diaspora.”

A delegation from the Global Alliance of Mayors made this known when they paid a courtesy call on the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, at the Flagstaff House Friday.

The leader of the delegation, Dr Djibril Diallo, who is the Senior Adviser to the Executive Director of UNAIDS, said the choice of Accra for the summit primarily was the result of President John Mahama’s good leadership qualities during his tenure as Chairman of ECOWAS.

He added that the United Nations had also followed with keen interest the dynamic leadership of the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, and described Accra as an appropriate historic capital for the summit.

Mr Vanderpuije was elected the President of the Global Alliance of Mayors and Leaders from Africa and of African descent last September making him the first president of such an organisation.

The gavel of the presidency was handed to him during the second meeting of the Global Alliance held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Participants in summit

Dr Diallo indicated that the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Newspaper Publishers Association were the two major associations expected at the summit together with participants from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and people of African descent in Europe.

Mr Vanderpuije, who accompanied the delegation to the seat of government, said “the summit would create a development equilibrium between the capital cities and other deprived cities”.

On the Accra Marathon which is scheduled to be held in September this year, the AMA boss said the regional launch of the event was to begin in the northern regional capital, Tamale.   

Vice-President

Receiving the delegation, Mr Amissah-Arthur expressed delight in the choice of Accra for the summit, remarking that it would provide a good platform for the city authorities to draw lessons from their counterparts coming from other cities to help improve the management of the city.

To stem the tide of the phenomenon of rural-urban migration, the Vice-President stated that the practice the world over was to provide infrastructure and improve the lives of those in rural communities to discourage people from migrating to the big cities.

He said it was against that backdrop that the government was opening up opportunities for the youth across the country.