Echoes of WCCE's 14th General Assembly

WCCE’s 14^th General Assembly of the World Council of Civil Engineers was held in Lisbon, Portugal from 23 to 26 september 2019, organized by the Ordem dos Engenheiros de Portugal - CICB, in parallel with Lisbon's Civil Engineering Summit. The Assembly was welcome by OEPT's President Carlos Mineiro. Attendance at WCCE activities by WCCE delegates was enriched by the attendance of WFEO President, Marlene Kanga, UPADI President,  Mª Teresa Pino and FEANI President, Jose Vieira.

Regarding our General Assembly, various issues were addressed being the major achievements of the meeting as follows:

• Outreach
  • Kenya's Institution of Engineers has joined WCCE as National member
  • Nigeria's Institution of Civil Engineers has reactivated WCCE's national membership
  • Universidad de Granada and Asociación de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos y de la Ingeniería Civil have joined WCCE as Associate members.
• New initiatives
  • Civil Engineering Olympiad for secondary schools to be replicated in several countries
  • Development of a Big Data Civil Engineering primer to be nurtured from membero organizations stats.
  • Presentation of the 2020 edition of WCCE's Jose Medem Civil Engineering Excellence Award.
• Several initiatives have been developed jointly jointly with UNESCO during the last months under the aegis of the UNESCO – WCCE partnership agreement being among them:
• Contributions to UNESCO's SAGA report relative to assess the current situation of Women Civil Engineers and how to enhance their participation in the profession.
• Contributions to UNESCO's II Engineering Report titled 'Engineering UN's Standing Development Goals - SDGs' together with some other partners on the following topics:
  • Gender Equality
  • Engineering and SDGs: Latin America
  • The Future of Engineering 
• Also in the field of partnerships with other organizations they presented the following activities.
• Partnership agreements with UPADI, Unión Panamericana de Asociaciones de Ingeniería was ratified during the General Assembly
• A Memorandum of Understanding with FAEO, Federation of African Engineering Organizations' was signed during the General Assembly.
• Participation in 10^th CICPC's meeting in held in Rio giving birth to Rio's declaration In defense of the future.
• Participation in EAMC's , Engineering Association for Mediterranean Countries General Assembly held in the same week in Lisbon.

The next General Assembly in September 2020 will be held in Kigali, Rwanda.