{{Africa will have 760 million urban residents in 2030 and the figure is expected to multiply to 1.2 billion by 2050.}}<\/p>\n
If this population explosion is not matched with growth of megacities across the continent, urbanization is certainly set to suffocate infrastructure, as well as usher in challenges like inadequacy of clean water, sanitation, electricity, public transport and healthcare.<\/p>\n
During the recently concluded Annual Meetings of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) in Kigali, Rwanda, experts on urbanization shared ideas and solutions to the persistent problems facing Africa\u2019s emerging cities.<\/p>\n
During a session titled \u201cAfrica\u2019s Cities of the Future\u201d, the Director of Development Research at AfDB, Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, said that African governments must put urbanization and its challenges squarely on their development agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlanned urbanization can improve living conditions for the majority, help in the expansion of the middle class, and create conditions for economic transformation. <\/p>\n
However, many African cities have developed haphazardly, resulting in the decline of public services, in slum proliferation, and increases in poverty,\u201d said Kayizzi-Mugerwa, who co-authored the book \u201cUrbanization and Socio-Economic Development in Africa \u2013 Challenges and Opportunities\u201d, which was launched during the session.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith careful policies and planning, the situation can be changed. If the recent natural resource-led economic boom that we have seen in many African countries is used for structural reforms and urban renewal, African cities could become centres of economic opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Paul Collier, the Director of African Economies at the University of Oxford, UK, added that in spite of reform attempts across Africa, many governments have failed to create enabling environments, with adequate infrastructure and institutions to sustain markets that support economic growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrbanization challenges provide an overview of what has been done so far by governments and their development partners. The work done so far is simply not enough. <\/p>\n
It is sad that many African cities still thrive on activities characterized on low productivity from the informal sector \u2013 thus, many urban dwellers are poorer than countryside dwellers,\u201d said Collier, who has published several books, including the development classic, \u201cThe Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are failing and what can be done about it\u201d, and \u201cWars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places\u201d.<\/p>\n
Much as urbanization is important, Ivan Turok from Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) warned that development must always take into account environmental concerns that sustain the future of development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge now is for African policymakers to ensure that urban development is orderly and that the process is inclusive and emphasizes \u2018green growth\u2019 through the protection of the environment,\u201d Turok said.<\/p>\n
Urban growth rates in Africa are among the highest in the world, averaging about 7% annually, while some cities have growth rates exceeding 10%.<\/p>\n
Associated to urbanization in Africa has been an influx in urban unemployment which exceeds 10% of the labour force in cities \u2013 and largely consists of the youth.<\/p>\n
The high population growth rates in Africa are largely due to rural-urban migration, which accounts for over half of the growth of most cities on the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Africa will have 760 million urban residents in 2030 and the figure is expected to multiply to 1.2 billion by 2050.}} If this population explosion is not matched with growth of megacities across the continent, urbanization is certainly set to suffocate infrastructure, as well as usher in challenges like inadequacy of clean water, sanitation, electricity, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000052384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-14642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000052384,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14642.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14642.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14642.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14642.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14642.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14642.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000052384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14642"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=14642"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=14642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}