Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi

General Secretary of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa)

Mr Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi has been the Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) since 2007. He was Chairman of the Cities Alliance Interim Management Board until April 2016. He is also Co-Chairman of the World Cities Scientific Development Alliance (WCSDA), and Deputy Secretary General of the China-Africa Forum of Local Authorities. Mr Elong Mbassi is the man behind the Africities Summits, the most important event of African cities, regions and local authorities, which he has overseen since the first edition in 1998. Mr. Elong Mbassi has nearly 40 years of experience in urban development and land use planning, urban services, local economic development, local community governance, housing and slum restructuring. From 1996 to 1999, he was the very first Secretary General of the World Association of Cities and Local Authorities Coordination (WACLAC), at the same time as he was Secretary General of the Municipal Development Partnership (MDP) from 1992 to 2006. Previously, from 1981 to 1991, Mr. Elong Mbassi was the director of the first urban project co-financed by the World Bank in Cameroon, which focused on the restructuring and development of an unhealthy housing area of 300,000 inhabitants in the city of Douala. Mr. Elong Mbassi began his professional career in Paris, France, where he was a researcher and then a project manager at the Cooperation and Development Agency from 1973 to 1980.