CREATION OF IFLA AFRICA

Our profession in Africa is young and lacking in national government recognition in most cases. All our work is done on a voluntary basis, and so any offers of help and participation are warmly welcomed from individuals, professions or associations in related fields.

CREATION OF IFLA AFRICA

The seed of the African region of IFLA was first sown as the African Working Group in 2005. After being properly watered and nurtured, it gave rise to the IFLA Africa Forum that was held in Dubai, UAE, on 22 January 2008. The purpose of the forum chaired by Professor James Taylor was to bring together people of like minds with a focus on developing an action plan towards a fully-fledged IFLA Africa Region.

The dream materialized and bloomed culminating in the 2ndIFLA Africa Symposium held on African soil in Nairobi, Kenya from 5-7 October 2011. The symposium theme “Landscape Architecture in Africa: Status of education, practice and future challenges” gathered landscape architects from the continent and IFLA Africa Forum members, to lay the foundation for the IFLA Africa region.  On 7 October 2011, Professor P.G. Ngunjiri (Kenya), Mr Herman de Lange (South Africa) and Niyi Kehinde (Nigeria) were elected as the first set of IFLA Africa Region executive members. The three nations were considered as growth poles to enhance the development of landscape architecture profession in Africa. The fourth nation, Morocco joined a year later to form the hub of North Africa’s landscape developmental activities.  Tunisia has recently submitted an application to join the ranks of IFLA, and we hope soon to have their application ratified at the forthcoming IFLA 2014 World Congress in 2014.

IFLA Africa is happy to have the guidance and assistance of the IFLA President as well as an Oversight Committee composed of James Taylor and Hitesh Mehta who are invaluable in their guidance and mentoring of this youngest regional chapter of IFLA.