Yolande Kelly

HE Mbwentchou Jean Claude, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Born on 9 March 1956 in Douala, Cameroon, Jean Claude Mbwentchou engineer specialised on Civil engineering is a graduate from the National Advanced School of Engineering in Yaounde since 1981 and holder of master's degree in urban development. He walked his way in the Cameroonian public administration up to the ring of the ministry of housing and urban development, of which he masters all the ins and outs where he spent most of his career. From 2005 to 2011, he was the National Coordinator of the Urban Governance Programme (PGU), a structure in charge of slum upgrading and promotion of inclusive and sustainable cities. Thus, he was one of the pillars of various workshops of the National Gouvernance Programme revision and validation of the interim strategy of the Cameroon Urban sub-sector. Furthermore he was the focal point of UN-Habitat (HPM) and National Team Leader of the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP). As such, through his work and his sense of lobbying, he contributed to the implementations of slum upgrading projects in about six Cameroonian Cities. During this period, he participated in all the international meetings relating to issues on Human Settlements: the UN-Habitat Boards of Directors in Nairobi, Kenya from 1995 to 2015; World Urban Forums from Vancouver in Canada in July 2006 to the Habitatg Summit II in June 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey. Since he took office as Minister of Housing and Urban Development on December 9 2011, Jean Claude Mbwentchou has been continuing on the same track. In September 2012, he participated in the sixth World Urban Forum (WUF) in Naples, Italy and WUF VII in Medelin, Clombia, in April 2014. Vice president of the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD) from 2012 to 2014, he is a signatory to the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction Common Declaration during COP21, on December 3, 2015 in Paris-Le Bourget. He also actively participated in the session of the United Nations General Assembly that adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDO) in September 2015 in New York. Married and father of four children, this son of traditional chief of the Bagnoun Village, Nde Division, West Region of Cameroon, who part takes in sports and dancing is a fervent militant of the Cameroon People Democratic Movement (RDPC), the Ruling Party. As regards his honorary distinctions, he is Officer and Knight of the National Order of Value in Cameroon.