About AMALI GovHub
A platform to facilitate city-to-city learning, knowledge and resource sharing, and to break down information and data barriers and bottlenecks for a better African urban future. Explore our mission, approach, team and partners.
Why is data important for African cities?
Africa has experienced a dramatic population increase over the last century and continues to grow at an estimated annual rate of 3.44%. By 2050, it is projected that the population of many African countries will have more than doubled from current levels, while the region will remain the world’s youngest, with an average age of under 25 years old.
Most of the growth and development is expected to occur in cities, where populations are forecasted to increase by 900 million people over the next 30 years.This figure exceeds the current urban population of Europe and North America combined. The future trajectory of African cities and their youthful inhabitants will have a significant impact on the world.
Africa’s rapid and youthful urban growth presents a unique blend of challenges and opportunities. The challenges lie in the fact that this significant increase in urban population is occurring while African cities are struggling with various urban issues, including unemployment, slow economic growth, and inadequate infrastructure.Potential opportunities can include harnessing and leveraging the demographic benefits of the growing young and economically active population. However, addressing the challenges and achieving these benefits requires swift and proactive action from urban leaders to create conditions conducive for sustainable development. For such actions to be truly effective and have a transformative impact, they should be guided by evidence.
Against this backdrop, we believe there is no better time than now to establish a research platform for African urban governance. This calls for the establishment of AMALI GovHub, a robust urban governance and city leadership research platform for African cities that features a comprehensive and diverse urban governance catalogue. This platform is essential to advance progressive urban leadership in Africa, facilitate city-to-city learning as well as knowledge and resource sharing, and break down information and data barriers and bottlenecks for a better African urban future.