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	  News in 2016
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	African Land Professionals working to ensure good land governance
		 16-18 November 2016, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
		Report on FIG-Arica Regional Network workshop and FGF conference
		
		
		
Participants at the FIG Africa Regional Network Workshop
		Vice President Diane Dumashie attended the 2016 Annual Africa 
		Regional Network Capacity Development workshop 16-18th November 2016 and 
		the Fédération des Géomètres Francophones (FGF) conference held in 
		parallel, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, organised by the Africa Reginal 
		Network in partnership with FGF and De L’Ordre des Geometres-Experts de 
		Cote d’Ivore (OGECI). 
		From 17th to 18th November Vice President Diane Dumashie chaired the 
		Africa FIG Regional Network (ARN) 2016 meeting and facilitated the 
		training workshop assisted by Stephen Djaba (Geotech Ghana) and Ndwiga 
		Robinson (GEBCO Kenya) and Yacoba Hamed Dagnoko (OGECI) who was 
		indispensably on logistics.  Importantly ARN collaborated with the 
		Young Surveyors from West Africa, led on this occasion by Yusuf 
		Aro-Lambo, Adama Sarr and Chuck  Onwuzuligbo. Notably, following 
		this workshop the Nigerian African young surveyors held a conference in 
		Lagos, Nigeria  between 23rd and 25th of November, 2016 (see 
		following article link). 
		
			
				|  
 President Adjoumany Koko Emile (De L’Ordre des Geometres-Experts 
				de Cote d’Ivore), Vice President Dr Diane Dumashie (FIG), 
				President François Mazuyer (FGF) |  |  
 Dr Odami Larbi (FAO), Vice President Dr Diane Dumashie (FIG), 
				President François Mazuyer (FGF), Ibrahim Mwathane (AU/LPI)   | 
		
		Attended by 35 land professionals over the two day ARN workshop, 
		participants were drawn from across the spectrum of land survey, 
		valuation, quantity surveying and planning, and who travelled from 
		across the Africa continent.  The theme, “Ensuring Good Land 
		Governance Practices in the Land Profession and What you can do about 
		it” appealed to those wishing to have an understanding of the 
		international land governance initiatives, specifically the Voluntary 
		Guidelines on Good Governance (VGGT’s), and we were very pleased to be 
		joined over the two days by Dr W. Odame Larbi, currently seconded to the 
		Africa FAO team, and a brief visit from Ibrahim Mwathane (on behalf of 
		the Africa Union Land Policy Initiative). 
		Our workshop focus was to: 
		
			- Build future 
		resilience into land professional practices to improve governance of 
		tenure, 
- By understanding the 
		implementation opportunities referenced in the VGGTs and, 
- That will ensure that 
		people benefit from secure and equitable tenure rights.
The workshop was implemented with the now trademark, highly 
		participatory design and fast pace that enabled the participants to: 
		overview, discover principles and practices, design, develop and 
		communicate key good governance messages by capturing their outputs on 
		video clips (see them here @ www) 
		Full details of this workshop will be reported on the ARN website in the 
		2017 New Year at
		
		www.fig.net/organisation/networks/capacity_development/africa/events/2016_abidjan/index.asp
		Designed to run in parallel with the FGF conference with their theme 
		title “Land management and sustainable development, which solutions for 
		developing countries” the FGF conference was attended by Land 
		professionals and exhibitors from across Francophone speaking Africa, 
		and held in the Distribution Pension fund (WAEMU), Abidjan Ivory Coast
		https://www.goafricaonline.com/ci/97372-crrae-umoa-epargne-abidjan-cote-ivoire
		Vice President Diane Dumashie delivered a welcoming address and was also 
		asked to chair the FGF day 3 opening session, and rapporteur the 
		presentations from Dr W. Odame Larbi (pdf of his presentation at ARN 
		www)  and Madame Clair Galpin (delivering Fit For Purpose on behalf of 
		GLTN).
		Because of the linguistic diverse networks, ARN (predominantly 
		Anglophone) and FGF (Francophone) we ensured that we were able to come 
		together at various stages and thereby expose each other to a greater 
		number of people – making the three days, informative, productive and 
		above all mixed with some fun as we will conclude with the opportunity 
		of a joint field trip navigating through the complex waterways of 
		Abidjan.
		
			
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 Picture of Young surveyor’s with Hamed Yacoba Dagnoko (Geometre expert, 
		OGECI) |  
 Chair of FIG Africa Capacity Building Network, Diane Dumashie | 
			
				|  
 From the waterways tour |  
 The view from the waterways tour | 
		
		
		
		  Details of the ARN workshop will be reported on the ARN website in 
		2017 and to the General Assembly May 2017:
		
		www.fig.net/organisation/networks/capacity_development/africa/events/2016_abidjan/index.asp
		
		Dr Diane Dumashie FRICS, Vice President FIG
		22 December 2016