The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) president Dr Martin Van Veelenhas been elected as the new president of the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO). Dr Martin Van Veelen was nominated and elected for this role by the executive committee of FAEO.

FAEO is an international member of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO). The secretariat of FAEO is hosted by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).The main aim of FAEO is to develop the spirit of African unity by building direct relationships between its several member organisations on the basis of mutual understanding, to direct all their activities towards improving the lives of all people throughout Africa.

The executive committee of FAEOthrough a long process of debated, unanimously accepted and adopted the FAEO constitution. This came into effect on 8 May 2012. The accepted constitution formed the basis for conducting elections for representation in the Executive Committee in FAEO. The new constitution recognises five regional bodies to work under FAEO representing Africa at the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) and the African Union (AU) as well as any other appropriate organisation.

The five regional bodies are the Central African Federation of Engineering Organisations (CAFEO), the Eastern African Federation of Engineering Organisations (EAFEO), the North African Federation of Engineering Organisations (NAFEO), the Southern African Federation of Engineering Organisations (SAFEO) – formerly known as the African Engineers Forum (AEF) and the West African Federation of Engineering Organisations (WAFEO).

After the adoption of the constitution, elections were concluded for the Executive Committee of FAEO. Nominations were made for a President for SAFEO, a President Elect for WAFEO (Nigeria), five Vice Presidents of the five regional engineering bodiesand nine Vice Presidents who chair the standing committees of FAEO. They are:

• water for Tanzania
• energy for Ghana
• capacity building for South Africa
• anti-corruption for Zimbabwe
• infrastructure for Kenya
• information and communication technology for Senegal
• Women in Engineering for Nigeria
• Young Engineers Forum for BurkinaFaso
• engineering education for Uganda.

The new SAFEO embarked on an election process to determine who the new President of FAEO and SAFEO would be. The President of SAFEO would then also be one of the five vice presidents of FAEO.The election process culminated in the results which were released to all SAFEO states in July. Dr Van Veelen was elected as the new FAEO President, Engineer Martin Manuhwa from Zimbabwe as the SAFEO President and Dr Ignasio Ngoma from Malawi as SAFEO President Elect.

The Southern African Federation, SAFEO was established in 1995 as a network of multidisciplinary national engineering societies, which currently represent the majority of the Southern African Development Community countries, Ghana and some East African Development Community countries are part of this network as well. SAFEO strives:

• to ensure an appropriate level of efficient human resource capacity in the built environment professions, especially and in particular engineering
• to enable Africa to ultimately achieve sustainable development for all people in Africa,
• to contribute resources and expertise in partnership with key stakeholders to accomplish best practice principles of sustainable development to identified communities,
• for SAICE to provide the secretariat to SAFEO.

DrVan Veelen is the new face of FAEO. He is currently a director at Iliso Consulting in Centurion and an industry veteran with a total of 33 years experience in civil engineering, environmental management and project management, mainly in water-related projects. This includes extensive experience in water quality, especially water quality management, water quality monitoring and water quality assessment. He gained his extensive experience in numerous fields of engineering, including planning, design, construction and management, as well as in academia.

Holding the presidency for FAEO to southern Africa and SAICE, provides an opportunity to gain visibility and prominence asorganisations and tomake a significant contribution with regards to capacity building. This will enhance the the African continent to become self-sufficient by creating infrastructure and delivering services. This allows African countries to share the vast knowledge and experience that its engineers have, and contribute towards the improvement in civil engineering throughout the whole of Africa, which will have a positive effect oncommunities throughout Africa and ultimately improve the standard of living for all in Africa.