Publications /
Policy Brief

Back
Download PDF
A Conversation with Policymakers, Mayors, and Urban Specialists: An African Perspective on Sustainable Urban Development and the G20
Authors
Arkebe Oqubay
January 20, 2025
Related topics: 
Economy

This paper, included in the report "Urban Sustainable Development: Governance, Finance and Politics.", was originally published on:https://cebri.org/en/doc/356/cebri-and-rio-g20-committee-publish-urban-sustainable-development-governance-finance-and-politics

 © Vormittag, Pedro, Marianna Albuquerque & Eugénie Birch (Eds.). 2024. Urban Sustainable Development: Governance, Finance and Politics. Rio de Janeiro: CEBRI.

 

Sustainable urban development is vital for Africa, offering opportunities for a better future that requires political commitment and a collective response to global challenges. A shared perspective and productive debate on Africa’s challenges and future are essential to enhance economic transformation, urban sustainability, and the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. This commentary presents a compelling conversation among African policymakers, leaders, practitioners, and specialists on this pressing theme conducted in September 2024.

The conversation was based on a semi-structured qualitative survey featuring a qualitative format, targeted at a spectrum of African mayors, national policymakers, leaders of continental organizations, and development practitioners—urban specialists. The respondents play a critical role in shaping public policy and practice and include Prime Ministers and the African Union Commission Chairperson, offering a snapshot of their perspectives and concerns. Of the fifty invited participants, nearly 50% completed the survey, including eight ministers, seven officials of continental organizations, five development and urban experts, and the mayors of Rabat, Freetown, Windhoek, and Cape Town.

Cities are vital in attaining the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the net-zero goals endorsed in 2015 under the Paris Agreement. The questionnaire comprised questions underpinned by cities’ contributions as innovation and economic growth engines, as well as Africa’s commitment to the common aspiration of the global community. African countries made a significant stride by unanimously adopting Agenda 2063, a 50-year road map with a theme of “Africa We Want,” which places sustainable urban development at its core. Most recently, in September 2024, the African Union Commission successfully organized an African Urban Forum in Addis Ababa. This pivotal forum delved into African urbanization and the challenges of financing to achieve sustainable and resilient urban development.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Brazil must hold to structural reforms while undergoing slow economic recovery
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    August 8, 2019
    Brazil's economic recovery after the deep 2015-16 recession has been the slowest on record, with GDP per capita last year remaining more than 9% below its pre-crisis peak (Chart 1, right side). The IMF's annual report on the country's economy, released two weeks ago, estimated current GDP to be nearly 4% below its potential level, which suggests insufficiency of aggregate demand (Chart 1, left side). On the other hand, as the slow recovery reflects structural factors, it is necessar ...
  • Download PDF
    2009-2018 : Les dix derniers Prix Nobel d’économie « dix-neuf lauréats »
    Authors
    Henri-Louis Vedie
    August 8, 2019
    Contrairement aux autres Prix Nobel /physique, médecine, etc…/ le Prix Nobel d’Economie n’est pas attaché au testament d’Alfred Nobel, mais à un don de la Banque de Suède. C’est désormais, un Prix Nobel comme les autres, même si les premiers lauréats datent de 1969 / Ragnar Frisch et Jan Tinbergen/. Depuis, 49 autres prix ont été décernés. Au total, en 50 ans, ce sont 81 lauréat(e)s qui ont été ainsi distingués. On trouvera en annexe 1 la liste chronologique des lauréat(e)s et en an ...
  • Pour une meilleure complicité entre décideurs publics et startups africaines
    Authors
    Richard Seshie
    July 26, 2019
    Richard Seshie est un Alumni du programme des Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders 2017. Cet article a été précédemment publié ici.  Il prévaut fortement cette idée que nos pouvoirs publics ne sauraient jouer un rôle important pour les startups en Afrique. Dans plusieurs pays, leur nonchalance ou implication maladroite passée laisse dubitatif. Toutefois, c'est la nature historiquement extravertie de nos économies et ses implications qui devrait susciter plus qu'ailleurs un activism ...
  • The End of the Human Race ?
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    July 24, 2019
    Poker is a game for real men, cowboys, for example, ocean divers, stunt men, gambling away their meager pay. Poker is America, as oversized as trucks, egos and steaks. A gambler’s paradise. 24/24. Drinks on the house, a discount for the bridal suite. Poker made its way from quaint southern New Orleans to the rough west, where gold diggers gambled away fortunes, and settlers risked their wagons and horses for a game of cards. Decades ago, I met a descendent of this wild bunch in Las ...
  • Download PDF
    Vers une stratégie économique basée sur l’amélioration de la productivité
    Authors
    Elhadj EZZAHID
    July 19, 2019
    Les recherches sur les sources de croissance de long terme des économies montrent qu’elle dépend plus de la croissance de la productivité que de la croissance des volumes des inputs accumulés. Au Maroc, les résultats disponibles fournissent des évidences sur le rythme très lent de la croissance de la productivité mesurée par la PTF ou le rapport production-travail. Des simulations montrent que seule une augmentation de la PTF permettra d’atteindre une croissance suffisamment élevée. ...
  • Download PDF
    Middle Income Countries and Multilateral Development Banks Traps on the Way to Graduation
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    Matheus Cavallari
    Tiago Ribeiro dos Santos
    July 19, 2019
    Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have two financing windows, with different terms, dedicated to low- and middle-income countries. Countries are presumed to cross those windows as their income per capita rises, with middle-income countries (MICs) eventually “graduating” to a non-client status once they reach some criteria. However, due to what may be called “middle-income traps”, such progression toward graduation has been limited to a small number of countries. ...
  • Download PDF
    The Entrepreneurial South African State: An analysis of current government action to stimulate innovation and recommendations for future policy and initiatives
    Authors
    Sandiso Sibisi
    July 17, 2019
    Despite considerable effort from the South African government to drive innovation, the investments to date have not reaped the fruits expected by both government and the private sector. I believe that if we are to realise ‘the new dawn’ in economic growth and transformation the state needs to reorganise itself to be an ‘entrepreneurial state’. This paper will proceed firstly by outlining current government action to support innovation, followed by a summary of the overarching recomm ...
  • AI for Good: Battling Bias Before it Becomes Irreversible
    Authors
    John Stackhouse
    July 16, 2019
    This article was originally published on RBC Royal Bank's innovation & perspective section. Kevin Vuong, Executive Lead, International & Lecturer, University of Toronto, Canada and Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leader Alum 2018 contributed to this piece. From the route you take home to where you choose to go for lunch, we have our own inherent preferences that predispose us to a particular decision. And while we assume that our choices are rational, we know that isn’t always ...