The African Urban Futures project was officially launched at a webinar entitled “Shifting systems: infrastructure innovation for sustainable African cities” during ICLEI’s third annual Rise Africa online event in May 2022. The project is a multi-year collaboration between the African Centre for Cities (University of Cape Town) and the Urban Futures Studio (Utrecht University), subsidised by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. It explores the use of sustainable infrastructure examples from Africa as an entry point for imagining more sustainable, equitable cities across the continent.
Edgar Pieterse (ACC) kicked off the session with a discussion of the ‘cascading urban challenges’ that many African cities face, and the potential for sustainable infrastructure to achieve social development in a manner that is less impactful on resources and the environment. Four additional speakers from across the continent shared stories of how to approach infrastructure in African cities, including:
- Sandile Mbatha (eThekwini Municipality, South Africa) proposed that we can make no progress without first knowing the state of the world, and that this knowledge is gained through data. Only then can we make informed decisions around infrastructure needs.
- Michael Uwemedimo (CMAP, Nigeria) challenged the story that we often hear of future African cities as informal, underdeveloped and poor and instead argues that if you can empower overlooked communities through participatory initiatives, then you can change the plot.
- Regina Opondo (Kounkuey Design Initiative, Kenya) discussed three key principles that are vital to build productive public spaces and infrastructure – participation, integration and network exchange. Participation allows you to build on local knowledge, increase social cohesion and the capacity of social workers to effect change. Integration is vital to create a truly multi-sectoral interventions, and network exchange is essential for greater impact.
- William Senyo (Impact Hub Accra, Ghana) closed off the session with his experience building infrastructure in Accra. He stressed that you cannot out-innovate the local community and instead need to make the city work for them. It is important to allow the community to take ownership of projects as we redefine urban spaces and urban economies.
The session also included two interactive exercises run by the UFS, aimed at informing the design of the African Urban Futures project. The first exercise used a live Menti word cloud to gather perspectives on what the audience thought their city would be like in two generations’ time, in order to assess how people perceive the future of cities. The second exercise used a Zoom poll to identify which infrastructure domains are most in need of sustainable innovation in Africa, and identified energy, waste management, water, buildings & housing and green & public space as top themes of interest to the audience.
The session concluded with observations from Edgar Pieterse (ACC) and Maarten Hajer (UFS). These discussions will continue at future Rise Africa events, the African Infrastructure Futures conference and at other gatherings focused on African cities.
Watch a recording of the RISE Africa 2022 webinar here
