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”

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

The African region of IFLA came into being as the African Working Group in 2005. In January 2008, the Working Group organised the IFLA Africa Forum which was helin Dubai, UAE. The purpose of the forum chaired by Professor James Taylor was to bring together like-minded people with a focus on developing an action plan towards a fully-fledged IFLA Africa Region.

The dream materialised and bloomed, culminating in the 2nd IFLA Africa Symposium held on African soil for the first time, in Nairobi, Kenya from 5-7 October 2011. The symposium theme “Landscape Architecture in Africa: Status of education, practice and future challenges” reflected an ongoing pre-occupation with increasing the number or qualified landscape architects on the continent, through the development of adequate educational opportunities.

It was at this meeting that the IFLA Africa Forum members and other African landscape architects united 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 IFLA Africa Region executive members. The three nations were considered as growth poles to enhance the development of the 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 was later admitted as a member of IFLA at the 2014 World Congress in Argentina.

IFLA Africa is currently supporting organisations and individuals in several African countries to enable them to submit membership applications to IFLA in the coming year.

The 3rd, 4th and 5th IFLA Africa Symposia were held respectively in Abuja, Nigeria in 2013 under the theme « People and Landscapes », in Nairobi Kenya in 2015 under the theme « Resilience: The Role of Landscape Architecture in Urban Areas of Emerging Economies » and most recently in July 2017 in Rabat, Morocco under the theme « Learning the Landscape // Landscapes of Learning.» IFLA Africa was very honoured to have held the Moroccan Symposium under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King of Morocco, King Mohamed VI.

IFLA Africa’s current action plan includes a focus on landscape architectural education and building an awareness of the profession and its role in tackling climate change on the continent.

IFLA Africa

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