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The Mayor of the Freetown City Council, Yvonne Aki Sawyer has disclosed her participation at the United Nations International Migration Review Forum (“IMRF”) ,where she discussed with and presented to colleague Mayors and representatives of national Governments and international organizations in several fora.
She also mentioned of her participation in the Mayors Migration Council (“MMC”) Leadership Board meeting alongside fellow board members Mayor Giuseppe Sala of Milan, Mayor Valerie Plante of Montreal and Mayor Atiqul Islam of Dhaka North
Yvonne Aki Sawyer tells of her participation in roundtable discussions with colleague MMC and UCLG Mayors and Madame Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General and separately with HE Abdulla Shahid, President of the UN General Assembly
She co-chaired with the Mayor of Milan the inaugural meeting of the Africa-Europe Mayors’ Dialogue that was attended by Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda of Kanifing, Mayor Elizabeth Sackey of Accra and Mayor Erias Lukwago of Kampala among others.
According to her she represented the voice of Mayors at the IMRF Policy Debate chaired by the IOM Director-General at which national Government representatives and UN agencies presented the outcomes of the reviews of implementation of the Global Compact on Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees
The FCC Mayor revealed of how she spoke at the African Climate Mobility Initiative (“ACMI”) – climate driven migration trends for Freetown have been researched and modeled by the ACMI and it was fascinating to see the results of this work.
She said her presentations in all of those engagements included two key messages, firstly, for cities to effectively address the challenges they face as a result of rural-urban migration or international migration, whether as cities of origin, of destination of transit, that we need effective decentralization and access to finance at the local authority level.
Based on her view, “Local Action Equals National Success” stressing that to address the needs of residents, to leave no one behind, there must be space for all levels of Government to operate effectively and within a spirit of collaboration.
“I am pleased that my previous participation in this fora along with MDU Team Lead Manja Kargbo, resulted in the Freetown Central Business District Regeneration Project with the City of Zurich (scheduled to start this year), the creation of the Global Cities Fund that has provided 40 waste management tricycles and livelihoods for 240 youth (including rural urban migrants) in Freetown and the Freetown-Milan Fashion Industry collaboration which is linking Freetown fashion designers to the Milan fashion market, thus building skills and creating jobs,” she stated with pride.
She said whilst away, she is coordinating with her FCC teams in Freetown on a daily basis and she is pleased that extensive sanitation mopping-up work is ongoing in the East End after the recent heavy rains.
