Under the banner of the African Urban Forum (AUF), ministers, mayors and other key stakeholders from across the continent gathered for this inaugural three-day event dedicated to addressing the massive opportunities and challenges bound to Africa’s rapid urbanisation.
Convened under the theme “Sustainable Urbanization for Africa’s Transformation – Agenda 2063” by the Africa Union, the Government of Ethiopia, and UN-Habitat, among others, the AUF crucially marks a new era of African leaders gathering to tackle the challenges of a future in which their urban populations are estimated to triple by 2050.
“We need to learn from each other and leverage the advantage of being latecomers,” urged Addis Ababa’s Mayor Adanech Abebe, speaking of her own city’s recent urban revitalization—the impressive results of which were abundantly evident to participants as they travelled to the Forum’s venue at the new Victory Adwa Museum venue, a grand node in the city’s “Corridor Development Project”, with its newly broadened streets and abundant green spaces.
Such transformation doesn’t just happen, however, and speaks to a prescient and long-standing sustainable urban development vision. Despite having an urbanization rate of only 22%, Ethiopia had already launched a national urban policy in 2008—one of the first African states to do so—as well as more recently adopting policies ensuring financial autonomy to subnational government, observed Edgar Pieterse of the African Centre for Cities in the panel “Financing urbanisation for socio-economic transformation”.
One of the AUF’s two main sub-themes, the question of financing Africa’s urban future looms large. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” cautioned Stefan Atchia, Urban Development Lead at the African Development Bank, of the work involved and the need to play the long-game when it comes to financing Africa’s urban development.
Presenting the State of African Cities: background report for UN-Habitat in an earlier session, urban finance expert Gulelat Kebede highlighted the US$146 billion annual infrastructure financing gap. Indeed, the “megatrend” of the continent’s urbanisation presents a particular challenge. Requiring massive investments in infrastructure, services and social amenities to accommodate a rapidly urbanising population, the scale and complexity of Africa’s urban development is further complicated by the growing proportion of people who live and work in the so-called informal sector.
“At the core of the paradigm that we need to craft as Africans to transform what could be a juggernaut of underdevelopment into something that could clearly liberate the continent—which is sustainable urbanisation connected to structural transformation and a low-carbon growth path for Africa—we have to first fix the basics,” asserted ACC’s Pieterse, who added, “That is, how to do more with not less, but with what we already have”.
At the core of the paradigm that we need to craft as Africans to transform what could be a juggernaut of underdevelopment into something that could clearly liberate the continent…we have to first fix the basics. – Edgar Pieterse, ACC Director
Here, Stephen Karingi, Executive Secretary of UNECA, pointed to the need for “more decentralization, and more fiscal and administrative autonomy for local governments”, a point that the AfDB’s Atchia echoed when he spoke of local urban governments needing to have greater fiscal responsibility—something that national government could support through policies that empower local governments to raise their own finance.
Going back to the basics, Atchia pointed to the need for standardised financial reporting and “getting revenue systems right”—which means putting cadastres in place so that municipal taxation systems can function.
UN-Habitat’s Executive Director Anacláudia Rossbach here emphasised the critical importance of land: “Why? Because land is the most expensive input, especially when you talk about housing and the transformation of informal settlements,” she said. Citing examples from Latin America—Colombia, Argentina and Brazil—Rossbach went on to explain how with flexibility and innovative thinking, planners can use land—creating special zones and employing Land Value Capture instruments and property taxes—to build financial resilience for urban development in the global South, especially when it comes to informal settlements.
It is important to recognise that [informal settlements] are suffering the major impact of the disasters that are happening in Africa but also in other parts of the world. – Anacláudia Rossbach, UN-Habitat Executive Director
And addressing these challenges are key, particularly as Africa’s urban populations generally, and informal settlement dwellers in particular, will disproportionately bear the brunt of the natural disasters that are increasing globally due to climate change. Indeed, the AUF’s second sub-theme—Sustainable and resilient urban development—was on everyone’s lips, not least due to the official launch of the Africa Urban Resilience Programme (AURP) on day one of the Forum.
With the explicit aim of enhancing the resilience of African cities to climate change, disasters, and conflicts, the AURP is a call to action to prioritise urban resilience in Africa.
“We just did not respect the nature…It is important to recognise that [informal settlements] are suffering the major impact of the disasters that are happening in Africa but also in other parts of the world, ” Rossbach said.
UNDP’s Resilience Hub for Africa Director Zeynu Ummer called the AURP a “project of hope” that is “not just timely but essential”, and will demand the collective coordinated action at all levels.
The spirit of collaboration—not just pan-African, but across the global South and internationally—and the necessity of new and diverse partnerships were also invoked across all sessions, irrespective of topic. And while the “three Ps” (public-private-partnerships) were taken as a given, Anthony Okoth from Habitat for Humanity proposed “the four Ps”—critically including “the people”.
Indeed, at the end of the day, the vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa must also be driven by its citizens, and for this, listening to and investing in Africa’s people will be essential. Going back to getting the basics of finance right, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Tandi Mahambehlala, pointed to the fact that all too often, local governments end up having to return national funds that were underspent due to lack of capacity. If one message came clearly out of day one of the Africa Urban Forum, it was that now is the time to make the most of all of Africa’s incredible human capital.
