Africa Urban Forum (AUF) 2024

September 10, 2024

The Africa Urban Forum (AUF) was held in Addis Ababa from September 4-6, 2024, to address the rapid urbanisation happening across Africa. Urbanisation, or the growth of cities, was described as an “irreversible trend,” meaning it’s something that cannot be stopped and must be managed carefully. The forum brought together many different people, including government officials, city planners, and experts, to discuss how to create cities that are environmentally friendly, socially fair, and economically strong.

Importance of Urban Planning

As more people move to cities, it’s important to plan how the city will grow. Without good planning, cities could face problems like a lack of housing, poor infrastructure, and social inequality. Infrastructure includes basic services like roads, water supply, and electricity. Good urban planning ensures that cities can support their growing populations and provide everyone with equal access to services.

Investment Needs for Growing Cities

For cities to grow properly, large investments are required. It’s estimated that Africa needs around $130 billion every year just for building infrastructure. However, this spending can pay off, with each dollar invested bringing back up to $4 in economic benefits.

Governments can’t always fund these projects by themselves, so they need to look for new ways to raise money. Some of these options include:

Public-private partnerships: When the government works with private companies to share the costs and benefits of development.

Development finance: Loans and funding from international organisations that focus on helping countries grow.

Green bonds: Special loans meant for environmentally friendly projects.

Impact investing: Investments made by people or companies that want both financial returns and positive social impact.

Crowdfunding: Raising small amounts of money from a large number of people.

These financing methods are important to gather enough resources to fund the urban growth of Africa.

Mobilising Resources for City Growth

A strong, coordinated effort is needed to raise the necessary resources for city development. Governments must create systems that clearly show how public money is being used, and make sure that investments match the needs of local governments. This is called following the subsidiarity principle, which means that decisions should be made as close as possible to the people they affect.

Housing Policies and Climate Resilience

Development banks and financial institutions are being encouraged to create housing policies that help low-income families. At the same time, there is a focus on making cities climate-resilient. This means cities need to be prepared for climate change by both mitigating (reducing the causes of climate change) and adapting (adjusting to its effects).

As cities grow quickly in Africa, they also become more vulnerable to climate change. Cities are called climate hotspots because they face higher risks from extreme weather events like floods, heatwaves, and storms. These risks can affect people’s jobs, homes, and access to basic services like water and electricity.

The Africa Urban Forum was created to address both the challenges and opportunities of urbanisation. It aims to develop ways for governments to work together, across the continent, to make the most of urban growth. By doing so, African countries can diversify their economies and build sustainable, resilient cities.

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