International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Urbanization (ICCCASU)
The International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Urbanization (ICCCASU) is an international think-tank for promoting sustainable and inclusive urban development in a forum based on the diverse but complementary experiences of Canada, China, and African nations. Moving beyond the conventional practice of North-South or South-South cooperation, occurring every two years and rotating between the three regions, ICCCASU fosters a triangular dialogue that altogether accounts for more than 30 percent of the world’s urban population. Since its inception in 2015, ICCCASU has expanded from a collaboration between UN-Habitat and the University of Ottawa to a consortium of three Canadian universities (Carleton University, McGill University, and University of Ottawa) and several important Chinese and African universities. To date, ICCCASU has mounted three conferences and training opportunities. ICCCASU I was held in Ottawa in 2015. ICCCASU II, in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of Cameroon, was hosted in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 2017 (www.icccasu2017.org). In the summer of 2019, ICCCASU III took place in Chengdu, China in partnership with the National Development and Reform Commission of the Chinese government (www.icccasu2019.org). In addition, ICCCASU hosted an important roundtable on Canada’s participation to Habitat III in June 2016, where the Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development, the Honorable Jean-Yves Duclos was the keynote speaker. ICCCASU was also one of several organizations selected to mount workshops at the 10th World Urban Forum in February 2020 in Abu Dhabi. These lead to productive exchanges on the topic of culture and innovation in city building which benefited from different perspectives based on case studies from regions around the world (www.icccasu.org).
