The 2nd FIG Regional Conference in Marrakech, Morocco
December 2-5, 2003
First FIG Regional Conference in the Arabic countries puts
high standards for the future conferences
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President Holger Magel, FIG making his keynote address. |
The 2nd FIG Regional Conference was arranged in
Marrakech, Morocco December 2-5, 2003 under the high patronage of His
Majesty the King Mohammed VI. It was organised by the
International Federation of Surveyors, FIG and the Ordre National des
Ingénieurs Géomètres-Topographes ONIGT, which is the FIG member
association of Morocco. Like the 1st FIG Regional Conference, which was
held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2001 this 2nd conference was 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). Further
co-sponsors included the Arab Union of Surveyors (AUS), which also had
its Executive Committee meeting during the conference, as well as the
Arab Urban Development Institute. |
The total number of participants exceeded 420 representing more than 40
countries. Even though the focus of the conference was in the Arabic
countries and Francophone Africa the participation covered the whole world.
Totally 14 countries from the region were present at the conference even
though sometimes it is easier to travel via Europe. FIG Council and
Commission officers meetings and annual meeting of Commission 3 (Spatial
Information Management) and open meetings of Commission 5 (Measurement and
Positioning) attracted national delegates from Europe, Asia, America and
Australia.
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The Conference started with a plenary session, opened by Congress
Director Boukri and with keynote speakers Don Okpala from
UN-HABITAT and David Palmer from FAO.
UNEP supported some participants to the conference. Here Svein
Tveitdal together with Dode Johnson from Togo. |
The conference was organised under the theme of
“Urban-rural interrelationship for sustainable environment”, which is
one of the hot topics in the international discussion at the moment.
Therefore it was encouraging that the UN agencies that are mostly
involved in this topic participated. The contributions at the plenary
sessions were given by Don Okpala from UN-Habitat, David
Palmer from FAO and Svein Tveitdal from UNEP, who is also the
new UNEP focal point for FIG. During the conference future co-operation
between UNEP and FIG was discussed. It was agreed that the joint
activities will include projects on environmental risk and disaster
management and capacity building on environmental issues. FIG has
further established a new joint commission working group on “risk
management – preventing environmental catastrophes by spatial planning
and land management. It can be mentioned that UNEP also supported
attendance of some African delegates.
As a result from the conference the Marrakech Declaration on the
Urban-Rural Interrelationship for Sustainable Environment will be
prepared. The Declaration is prepared:
- to enhance awareness within the professions and decision makers
about the growing urban - rural divide
- to provide adequate tools to improve urban – rural linkages
- to develop pragmatic solutions for today's complex problems
- to promote the role of surveyors in these fields as enablers,
mediators and advisors
- to focus on better education conditions especially in sub-Saharan
Africa
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The drafting group includes representatives from all main partners. The
aim is to get the declaration published before the 2nd World Urban Forum to
be held in Barcelona in September 2003.
Three ministers from the Government of Morocco attended the opening
ceremony, which indicates the importance of land management, surveying and
geoinformation in Morocco and further the respect that ONIGT enjoys from the
national government. The conference also got broad coverage in the media,
more than 30 journalists attended the conference and it was reviewed also on
the national television. It was further selected to the event of the week in
Morocco.
The sub-themes of the conference included: urban-rural relationship in
land management; spatial planning in promoting good urban and rural
environment; cadastre and land management in Arab countries and in Western
Africa; security of tenure and access to land; geographic information for
environment; geographic information – organisations challenges; risk
management; coastal management; e-governance in surveying services;
professional organizations and capacity building; education and curricula
for surveyors; regional horizontal and vertical reference frame; positioning
and measurement technologies and practices; engineering surveys for
construction works and industry; and housing financing.
During the conference a special round table was organized on the
surveying and geomatics education in Africa. Chaired by Prof. Holger
Magel, President of FIG and with introduction and background paper from
Prof. Heinz Rüther from South Africa this round table attracted
almost 40 participants from Africa, Arab states and overseas. Contributions
to the discussion included remarks from Prof. Charles Merry, representative
of the International Association of Geodesy and Mr. Robert Wayumba, a
student from University of Nairobi, in addition to national reports and
comments. It was agreed to prepare a specific declaration on the education
issues to international organizations and national governments in Africa.
In addition to the opening ceremony and three plenary sessions the
technical programme included 24 technical sessions in which almost 90 papers
were presented. The conference proceedings are available at
www.fig.net/figtree/pub/morocco. They include totally almost 130 papers
from 37 countries and the representatives of the United Nations. All
technical sessions were very well attended maximum attendance to parallel
sessions exceeded 120. Each day was concluded with a round table discussion
on the topics of the day.
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Prof. Holger Magel, President of FIG. |
At the closing ceremony President Magel summarised the
results of the conference to more than 300 participants as follows: “The
political challenge for the policymakers and professionals is to move
from pro- or contra-urban view to well balanced politics for both urban
and rural development and urban-rural cooperation. We have to cope with
political challenges as they are formulated in the UN Millennium
Declaration and global campaigns encouraged actions on crucial
challenges of mankind: good governance; poverty alleviation in urban and
rural areas, access to land, secure tenure in urban and rural areas; and
sustainable development in urban and rural areas. The social and
technical responsibility of professionals including FIG as a global NGO
is to address and contribute to these challenges. FIG is ready to
respond in an excellent way with a broad range of competences and
contributions.” |
He further continued that “we can not talk only about data, procedures
and technical issues like many surveyors do prefer, but it is about making
good policies and decisions. It is our duty to inform, motivate and
influence (policy) decision makers and the public. It is more about
interdisciplinary and cross-sector cooperation which demands knowledge
sharing between professional disciplines and about awareness and building
capacity in the professions, government agencies and educational
institutions.” As a conclusion President Magel pointed out that “the
challenges of a changing world call for increased international cooperation.
FIG – but not only FIG, but also our Moroccan host association ONIGT – is
prepared for it.”
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President Magel signed agreement on the 3rd FIG Regional Conference to
be held in Jakarta, Indonesia October 3-7, 2004 with Sobar Sutisna
from the Ikatan Surveyor Indonesia and Rudolf Matindas, Chair
of BAKOSURTANAL. |
During the conference the FIG Council and the Commission
officers (ACCO) had their official meetings. In the Council meeting the
long list of topics was discussed including the preparations for the
next Working Week and General Assembly in Athens, May 22-27, 2004. The
issues to be presented to the General Assembly include the revised
definition of surveyors and the FIG information policy document. The
General Assembly will also decide on two new Vice Presidents for years
2005-2008 and elect Commission chairs for 2006-2010. Time for nomination
of the Commission chairs was extended to 20 January 2004. To increase
discussion during the General Assembly a new concept to introduce the
Commission reports will be introduced. Other issues included continuous
co-operation with the United Nations and sister organizations and
preparations for next FIG events. An agreement on the 3rd FIG Regional
Conference to be organized in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 3-7, 2004 was
signed between FIG, Ikatan Surveyor Indonesia and BAKOSURTANAL. |
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Saudi Arabia joined FIG as affiliate member during the conference.
Here together with President Magel Engr. Muhamad Alrajhi,
Director General of Surveying and Mr. Abdulla M. Shedayed. |
The Council approved Saudi Arabia (Ministry
of Municipal and Rural Affairs) as an affiliate member of FIG and also
adopted membership applications from Algeria (Ordre des
Géomètres-Experts Fonciers) and Tunisia (Association Nationale des
Ingenieurs Géomètres-Experts Tunisiens ANIGET) to become member
associations. These decisions will be confirmed by the General Assembly
in Athens. Further the Council has approved two new corporate members to
the Federation, these are Geo:connexion from UK and Dimen Associates
(Pvt.) Ltd, Pakistan. The Council had also discussion about membership
in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Libya.
In the ACCO meeting most of the time was used for discussing the
concept of the FIG Surveying Reference Database. This database or good
practice report as it has also been called will be a database including
qualified papers from FIG conferences (first entries to be picked up
from Marrakech and SEASC conference that was held in Hong Kong, China in
November 2003). In addition papers can be offered directly to be
included in this database. First version of the database will be
launched in Athens in May 2004. |
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President Aziz Hilali, ONIGT. |
The success of the conference was relying on substantial support
from the local surveyors and companies. This included the enthusiastic
work of President Aziz Hilali and his colleagues in the ONIGT and
especially the contributions of the local organizing committee chaired
by Mr. Ahmed Boukri, Congress Director and assisted by five
sub-committees (Scientific Committee chaired by Mohammed Hmam,
Hospitality Committee chaired by El-Mekki Abouelala,
Communication Committee chaired by Khalid Yousfi, Registration
Committee chaired by El Mostafa El Battane and Finance Committee
chaired by Said Sif) and their members. Without the local
sponsors to the conference and exhibition this event could never had
taken place. The professional exhibition was not as large as one could
expect but gave a good overview about the professional activities in
Morocco. International sponsors included Hansa Luftbild, Intergraph and
BlomInfo. |
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President Holger Magel visiting the exhibitors in the exhibition hall. |
Congress Director Ahmed Boukri and Stig Enemark,
rapporteur of the last day. |
More than 30 representatives of the press and other media participated
the press conference. |
Participants to the Moroccan evening were welcomed by President Hilali,
President Magel, Congress Director Boukri and El-Mekki Abouelala. |
The Moroccan hospitality was best shown
during the social events which included the welcome reception at the
Sheraton Marrakech, the conference venue introducing Arabic and African
music. For international visitors the highlight of the conference was
the Moroccan evening in a local restaurant, Palais Gharnata, in the
medina of Marrakech. Moroccan food together with traditional music and
dance that welcomed the participants already on the streets outside the
restaurant introduced the audience to the wonders of thousand and one
nights. More than 160 guests were taken to the gala dinner by horse
carriages followed with a show out side the L'Anbar Restaurant.
Entertainment during the dinner included both Moroccan and international
music. |
The last day of the conference was reserved for a joint technical tour
during which the participants visited Guemmassa Mining Centre and the
beautiful Ourika Valley with wonderful view to the Atlas mountains.
The 3rd FIG Regional Conference, once again sponsored by the United
Nations and its agencies and FIG sister organizations, will be this time
organized for the Asia and the Pacific in Jakarta, Indonesia October 3-7,
2004. All FIG members will be invited especially when several commissions
will have their annual or public meetings during the conference. But already
in May 2004 all FIG members will gather to Athens for the Working Week under
the Olympic spirit.
Markku Villikka
More information:
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