Inaugural Presidential Address by Peter Oborn

Inaugural Presidential Address by Peter Oborn

Delivered at the 22nd CAA General Assembly, Trinidad and Tobago

Date: 08 August 2022

Inaugural Presidential Address

Peter Oborn RIBA HonMRAIC HonMRTPI HonFIStructE

The following Presidential address was delivered by incoming CAA President, Mr Peter Oborn, following his inauguration at the 22nd CAA General Assembly which took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 08 August 2022.

“Thank you, Kalim, allow me to echo your thanks to Maira and the outgoing Council for their commitment over the course of the last term and a big thanks to you for navigating a smooth passage over the course of the past two difficult years. I’d also like to congratulate all of the prize winners and add my sincere thanks to President Martin Joab and all at the Trinidad & Tobago Institute of Architects for this week’s arrangements.

Holding the Presidency of the CAA is, as you rightly say Kalim a tremendous privilege, and, as I take up the role, I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind ourselves what exactly the Commonwealth is, why it’s so important and what differentiates the CAA.

So, first of all, the Commonwealth is a voluntary, mutually supportive, group of 56 independent countries, 36 of which are republics and 5 of which are independent monarchies. It grew from 54 to 56 nations at CHOGM in Kigali last month with the addition of Gabon and Togo, both formerly French colonies. Rwanda, the current Chair in Office, which joined as recently as 2009 is a former German colony and a Belgian protectorate. It is a very cosmopolitan group.

Today’s Commonwealth has a population of over 2.5bn, 60% of whom are under the age of 30. 32 members of the Commonwealth are small states with a population of less than 1.5m and 24 are small island developing states.

And it’s a group which is bound together by the Commonwealth Charter and by a set of shared values and principles, including a belief in Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law. It’s a values-based organisation included among which is a belief in sustainable development the principles of which naturally resonate with the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals are, as you know, interdependent and indivisible, apply equally to all nations and aim to leave no-one and no place behind. SDG11, to make cities inclusive safe resilient and sustainable is central to all of the Goals and is said to be the only Goal which links with all the others.

And this is particularly important for us here in the Commonwealth because there are a further 2.5bn new urban dwellers projected between now and 2050, nearly 50% of whom will be in Commonwealth countries, with 95% of that growth taking placed in Africa and Asia. That’s 1bn more urban dwellers in the Commonwealth in the next 30 years and represents a doubling of the present urban population.

So, what does that mean for us as built environment professionals? It means harnessing the benefits of urbanisation to help increase economic prosperity, it means helping to reduce risk and vulnerability, it means helping to promote health and well-being and it means helping to reduce inequality.

It also means delivering climate responsive design, such as the remarkable Aga Khan Award winning Arcadia Education Project in Bengal by one of our jurors, Saif Ul Haque Sthapati, designed to float in the seasonal flood waters, or the equally extraordinary Ilima Primary School , designed by one of our contributors tomorrow, Mass Design, also made from locally sourced material, or the Beaufort West Clinic in the Western Cape by Grabiel Fagan Architects which used rammed earth construction to maximise labour in construction helping to address local unemployment

It's worth also briefly reminding ourselves that the aim of the CAA is ‘the advancement of architecture in the Commonwealth’ while ‘maximising the contribution by architects to the well-being of society’ by ‘doing all such things as shall further these aims’

So, what differentiates the CAA? Compared with many of the institutions with which I’m involved, it’s relatively agile. It doesn’t suffer from institutional inertia and can respond and change direction quickly to react to changed circumstances. It’s like a little speedboat.

It’s small and, maybe because of our shared values, it doesn’t suffer from internal politics to the same extent as others. Though when I say ‘No politics’ I probably out to be honest and say ‘Low Politics!

We are part of an extraordinary network in which there are over 80 accredited Commonwealth Associations providing access to a wide range of local expertise, so we have the ability to replicate best practice and work at scale to increase impact. And we’re attractive to others for the same reason.

We’re a lean organisation and don’t have a lot of resources, so we’re relatively focused on what we’re doing, and we try not to spread ourselves too thinly.

We’re highly collaborative and work closely not only with fellow built environment professionals, engineers, planners, and surveyors, but also with colleagues in other sectors such as academia and local government.

We’re increasingly engaged with Commonwealth Youth as a way of supporting the leaders of tomorrow, and recently established with the support of ComSec and others a multidisciplinary youth network for young professionals between the ages of 18-35, who are interested in sustainable urbanisation. The group was launched last month at CHOGM and has already attracted interest from over 400 potential members.

We are increasingly focused on using evidence to guide our actions, a great example of which has been the Survey of the Built Environment Professions which

Kalim mentioned earlier, the findings of which have undoubtedly contributed to my final example which is our increasing influence among policymakers.

Our role as an accredited Commonwealth association gives us unparalleled access to the Commonwealth Secretariat, to High Commissioners, to Ministers and, on occasions, to Heads of State. Over the past few years, we have also developed a very close working relationship with a number of UN agencies, including UN Habitat and UN Environment and are currently only the second international architectural organisation (alongside the UIA) to be accredited to the UN system.

All of these different qualities came together in the Call to Action on Sustainable Urbanisation across the Commonwealth, which was developed jointly by the ACU, the CAA, CAP and the CLGF with support from the Government of Rwanda and The Prince’s Foundation and published to Commonwealth Heads of Government last year.

The aims of the Call to Action were to encourage HoG to bring a greater focus to bear on SU in the Commonwealth, to mobilise the power of the Commonwealth to work in a more integrated manner and to develop a programme of practical action to deliver SU in the Commonwealth.

With the support of the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure, the partners took the Call to Action to the CHOGM in Kigali last month and were delighted to see SU (and the CTA) referenced in the Communique and that Heads of Government adopted the Declaration on SU which recognises the need for integrated urban planning and better knowledge sharing amongst other things. The Declaration will now help influence Commonwealth priorities over the coming period.

It will also help to shape the CAA’s priorities over the course of the next 2 years. This will include (see slide)

So, I hope that that I’ve been able to demonstrate why the Commonwealth remains an important forum for multilateral collaboration and how the CAA is addressing some of the many challenges we face. We may not always be able to do everything we would like to be able to do and we are certainly not as effective as some, but I hope you’ll agree that we are making a contribution and punching above our weight.

Before concluding, there are of course two other vital components which underpin any membership organisation such as the CAA, the first of which are of course its members and it supporters, and the second of which is its Council, so thank you once again to TTIA for hosting this year’s General Assembly and thanks to all of you for joining us here today.

My final task is to invite you to join me in welcoming our new Council members and I would like to introduce them each to you briefly:

• Mr Kalim Siddiqui

Immediate Past President (Pakistan)

• Mr Vincent Cassar Honorary Secretary & Treasurer (Malta)

• Mr Steven Oundo Senior Vice President (Kenya)

• Mr Wilson Mugambi Vice President Africa (Kenya)

• Mr Ian Marfleet Vice President America’s (Trinidad & Tobago)

• Mr Umar Saeed Vice President Asia (Pakistan)

• Mr Christos Panayiotides Vice President Europe (Cyprus)

• Mr Justin Hill Vice President Oceania (Australia)

• Mr Alex Ndibwami Chair of Education (Rwanda)

• Ms Mina Hasman Chair of Professional Practice (UK)

• Mr Andrew Amara Chair of Communications (Uganda)

• Ms Philippa Tumubweinee Chair of Validation (South Africa)

• Ms Maira Khan Executive Director (Pakistan)

I look forward to working with them and we look forward to working with you over the course of the coming term. Thank you.”

Delivered in Trinidad and Tobago, 08 August 2022