The Africities Summit hosted in the lakeside city of Kisumu ended Friday, May 21, 2022. Convened by the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa, the theme of the summit was the role of intermediary cities in the implementation of the UN’s Agenda 2030 and AU’s Agenda 2063.
In his opening address to the delegates, President Uhuru Kenyatta called for practical and sustainable solutions to urban challenges. He challenged the delegates to think about smart cities that can solve current and future urbanisation challenges such as housing, infrastructure, food security, health, and environmental conservation.
The President proposed a 12-point questioning framework to guide the deliberations of the delegates. The elements of the framework included; service delivery, planning, governance, water, sanitation, poverty reduction, education, human capital, climate change, technology, incentives for innovation, and economic growth.
At the end of the summit, there was unanimous agreement among the delegates to develop an African blueprint to guide growth in urban areas.
Honestly, I don’t understand what that means, especially for a continent of 1.2 billion people, with an estimated urban population of 630 million living in over 7,700 urban agglomerations, across 54 countries. I am sure the delegates debated the blueprint idea in detail.
But on the face of it, the proposition sounds hegemonic, top-down, and out of touch with the realities of the complex and diverse urban forms that have emerged in Africa since 1950 when Africa’s urban population was less than 27 million, about half of Kenya’s current total population.
The idea of a blueprint, in my view, is not even an oblique response to President Kenyatta’s call for practical and sustainable solutions.
Africa is still the least urbanised continent in the world. But Africa is now among the fastest urbanising regions. In Asia for example, urbanisation has triggered innovation and boosted productivity.
Hence, rapid urbanisation, especially the proliferation of intermediate cities, presents Africa with a great opportunity to catalyse economic growth and enhance prosperity. But urbanisation in Africa has not been rosy.
Our cities are struggling, choking with informality. Housing for the majority is squalid, lacking access to water and sanitation, recreation, and public transportation.
Slum or informal settlement neighbourhoods often lack access to health and education services. The so-called middle class and the affluent have created suburban enclaves of prosperity. In short, urbanisation in Africa has not lived up to the promise of growth and prosperity.
African governments, cities and municipal authorities must pay attention to the unique contexts, opportunities and challenges they face. Any formulaic blueprints are likely to be off the mark and out of context.
Urbanisation is about placemaking in context. Urban forms emerge out of complex, non-linear interactions among socioeconomic, cultural, environmental, political, legal and institutional factors.
To imagine that any group of experts can abstract from literature or “best-practice” anything that is generalisable would be dishonest.
It is time to harness the local research capacities of universities, and think tanks to understand the unique growth trajectories and urban forms in each region and country.
The views expressed are the writer’s
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