The Africa Urban Forum has kicked off seeking to find innovative solutions to making African cities habitable for the growing population. With an average annual urban growth rate of 3.5% in the last 20 years, Africa has seen the largest urbanization, a trend anticipated to continue until the year 2050. The percentage of Africans living in urban areas was around 36% in 2010 and is expected to rise to 50% and 60% by the years 2030 and 2050, respectively.

Urban population is projected to double by 2050 with cities expected to absorb an additional 600 million people, reaching a total of 1.2 billion, which, if managed properly, could make African cities epicentres of economic growth, innovation, and social transformation. However, currently the rapid urbanization seems to exacerbate existing inequalities, strain infrastructure and services, and poses significant environmental challenges. Against this backdrop, the African Union convened the inaugural Africa Urban Forum focused on “Sustainable Urbanization for Africa’s Transformation - Agenda 2063,” underscoring the critical importance of harnessing the potential of urbanization to drive inclusive and sustainable development across the continent. The three-day forum, 4-6 September 2024, was co-organized jointly with UN-Habitat and UNECA and hosted by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

The patterns of urbanization throughout African regions vary greatly. In some countries, urbanization has generally resulted in an increase in slum populations, poverty, and inequality. Inequality arising due to urbanization have been attributed to, among other factors;

• Education and skills. Due to lack of education and skills, informal sector is the main source of employment for most rural migrants, accounting for 85% of all employments. Most migrants mostly look for refuge or settle down as tenants of slum landlords due to low revenues from the informal sector. Estimates show that 240 million people live in slums.
• Weak institutions have aided in poor urban policing and planning, which has led to dysfunctional housing and land markets, which in turn has led to the growth of informal settlements.
• The pressure the urban population is putting on the environment and natural resources in Africa has resulted in the city growth coming at the expense of destroying forests and other natural ecosystems, increasing pollution, particularly air pollution, and diseases.
• Unchecked urban growth has led to poor public service delivery and a failure to ensure a minimal standard of living for all city dwellers. Urban governance and sufficient planning are becoming more critical.

However, even as these and other factors reflect a gloomy image for urbanization in Africa, stakeholders remain optimistic that with urgent interventions, the continent can harness the immense opportunities that come with urbanization. At Africa Urban Forum, experts from various fields, including governments, academia, urban planners, economists, architects, developers, community leaders, residents, civil society, the private sector, development agencies, and practitioners from across Africa and around the world will discuss and share knowledge and best practices related to urban development and planning in Africa. The engagements include a combination of plenary sessions, panel discussions, workshops, and exhibitions.

As the inaugural forum focuses on two sub-themes on Financing Urbanization for socio-economic transformation and Sustainable and resilient urban development in Africa, the participants will explore innovative avenues to move from commitment to action on several issues that broadly look at advancing Africa’s urbanization agenda. The co-creation of solutions is particularly timely as Africa faces numerous structural challenges, including the persistent funding gaps in infrastructure estimated at $130 billion annually, declining public resources, and increasing impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, the service sector accounting for 53% of GDP of most countries which is unable to meet employment demands, the rapid urbanization with lower GDP per capita averaging $1,430 than other regions, resulting in constraints like unemployment averaging 7.4%, social exclusion, and poverty affecting 41% of the population.

At the opening session of the Forum addressed by H.E Temesgen Tiruneh, Deputy Prime Minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; H.E Judith Nabakooba, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development of Uganda, Chair of African Union Specialised Technical Committee 8 Sub-Committee on Housing and Urban Development; H.E Chaltu Sani Ibrahim, Minister of Urban and Infrastructure of Ethiopia; Anaclaudia Rossbach, Executive Director of United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat); Dr. Stephen Karingi, Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division UNECA; Hon Mayor Adanech Abebie, Mayor of the city of Addis Ababa; Madame Fatimetou Abdel Malick, president, United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA); Stefan ATCHIA, Urban Development AfDB, the speakers emphasized the need for among other key issues, to;

1. Invest in effective multi-level governance by ensuring that national, subnational, and local levels of government work together to create thriving cities that meet the needs of their populations and countries.
2. Increase investment in cities commensurate with the demographic growth through enhanced economic diversification and industrialization to boost the competitiveness of African economies and strengthen the economic resilience.
3. Strengthen legislative and institutional capacities to allow cities access financing from their domestic financial markets and borrow internationally.
4. Implement macroeconomic policies and administrative reforms to enhance revenue collection and stabilize fiscal transfers.
5. Support cities' capacity to develop and implement transformational projects, including by improving their transparency and accountability systems and processes.
6. Develop financially robust city-centric infrastructure projects that include improved mobility, water and sanitation, energy, housing, social infrastructure and improved technology connectivity to support sustainable development. Governments must actively pursue town planning.
7. Address climate change and food security, recognizing that sustainable urban development must be resilient to environmental changes.
8. Leveraging urbanization to spur the development of new technologies, particularly green ones. The future of the green economy will ultimately be determined by environmentally friendly machinery, cars, and utilities.

As African cities expand, they require massive investments in infrastructure, housing, and essential services-investments that will not only support urban growth but also drive long-term development. Leveraging innovative financing mechanisms-such as public-private partnerships, development finance, green bonds, impact investing, crowd funding, infrastructure investment trusts, and municipal bonds-is vital. These mechanisms will help attract the capital needed to build cities that are not only functional but also vibrant, inclusive, and competitive on a global scale. Every dollar invested in sustainable urban infrastructure is expected to yield up to $4 in economic returns.

The African Union developed the Harmonized Regional Framework for Implementing the New Urban Agenda in an effort to meet the ambitious goals of Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030 - Sustainable Development Goals. The framework is an action-oriented document that assists member states realize the benefits of urbanization by leveraging cities and human settlements for inclusive growth, reduced poverty, and enhanced economic competitiveness. It functions as a comprehensive planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting tool and promotes coherent and harmonized fulfillment of human settlement commitments in line with African priorities, ensuring a coordinated and integrated approach to sustainable urban development.

Africa is home to 15 of the 20 fastest-growing cities in the world with economic literature forecasting that Kinshasa, Lagos, and Dar es Salaam will become megacities by 2030. Urbanization will propel the socio-economic and structural metamorphosis of the continent through innovation, cultural interchange, resilience building, the development of urban jobs, and the provision of sustainable infrastructure.

Replay the Opening Session here- https://www.youtube.com/live/-qs6teUgeN4

Access photos of the event here- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E-GF7hU_qkBUz8HPq9YSfC99SNEbYXK9

For more details about the Africa Urban Forum, visit https://au.int/en/newsevents/africa-urban-forum #AfricaUrbanization.

For further information, please contact:

Ms. Doreen Apollos | Directorate of Information and Communication; African Union Commission | E-mail: ApollosD@africa-union.org

Mr. Isssaka Garba Abdou | Head of Division | Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department | Email: GarbaAbdouI@africa-union.org