Our objective
As part of its mission for the advancement of architecture across the Commonwealth, the CAA is committed to promoting the value of design and supporting leaders to make better evidence informed decisions on built environment issues by:
- Helping to strengthen the links between academia, practitioners and policymakers for greater impact
- Helping to stimulate demand by showcasing and celebrating good practice
- Building an evidence base to help identify barriers and enablers to sustainable urbanisation
It does this by working with its member organisations, partners and collaborators to engage with academia, practitioners and policymakers with the aim of developing replicable solutions that can have impact at scale.
Collaborating with Commonwealth partners
Recognising that the nature and scale of the challenges presented by rapid urbanisation and climate change require a multi-level, multi-sector, multi-discipline response, the CAA became one of the founding members of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI), the membership of which includes:
- The Association of Commonwealth Universities
- The Commonwealth Association of Architects
- The Commonwealth Association of Planners
- The Commonwealth Engineers Council
- The Commonwealth Local Government Forum
Supported by the Government of Rwanda and The King’s Foundation, the group launched a Call to Action on Sustainable Urbanisation across the Commonwealth in 2020 and continues to work closely with one another to advance sustainable urbanisation on the Commonwealth agenda.
Supporting member states
As an accredited Commonwealth Association, the CAA enjoys access to a number of important Commonwealth forums such as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Such events provides an opportunity to engage in an important policy making forum and, in 2022, the CAA was delighted when Heads adopted the Commonwealth Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation.
The CAA is now working with its CSCI partners and member states to help operationalise the declaration. Working in collaboration with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the CSCI hosted a high-level dialogue at Wilton Park in March 2025, bringing together 11 member states with a range of development finance institutions, multilaterals and subject matter experts to explore the ways in which we might work together to leverage the Commonwealth advantage by building a multi-level, multi-sector, multi-discipline knowledge sharing partnership.
Working with UN-Habitat
UN-Habitat is the United Nations Agency with responsibility for the delivery of SDG 11, to ‘make cities inclusive , safe, resilient and sustainable’. The CAA enjoys Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which enables us to participate in the affairs of the United Nations on behalf of member organisations, and it enjoys a particularly close relationship with UN-Habitat.
Through its membership of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI), the CAA has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN-Habitat Capacity Building and Training Unit, to help address the findings of the Survey of Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth. Together with CAP and the CLA, the CAA has also signed a collaboration agreement with the UN-Habitat Legislation and Governance Section, with which it has helped to develop a legal checklist for cities. The CAA is also regularly represented at COP.
Our partners
Follow this link for a list of some of our other key partners.