Urbanisation in Africa - The Future Lies in Cities

Register here. 

Webinar in English and German with simultaneous translation.

In the next 30 years, Africa's urban population is expected to double to an estimated 1.5 billion people. Around half of the global population growth between now and 2050 will take place in nine countries, four of which are on the African continent: Ethiopia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania.

Rapid urbanisation already poses enormous social, environmental, and economic challenges to national and local governments as well as to the population. Local and municipal governments often lag behind with their spatial planning and infrastructure construction due to the rapid influx into the cities and other structural hurdles.

The lack of access to basic services, social inequality, and insufficient empowerment of local actors are some of the pressing challenges, which the COVID-19 pandemic has further sharpened and increased the need to act. For this reason, urbanisation in Africa and the associated development potential is a relevant field of action for international cooperation and German development cooperation.

During the webinar, representatives of national and local governments will discuss with urban development experts and practitioners about long-term socially and ecologically just urban development, good governance, and national, local, and sectoral planning for sustainable infrastructure.

The panel will be composed by: 

• Christoph Matschie, Member of the German Bundestag and the Foreign Affairs Committee;
• Rene Peter Hohmann, Head of Programmes, Cities Alliance;
• Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone;
• Stefan Atchia, Manager Urban Development Division, African Development Bank Group.

Panel Moderator: Ute Lange, Journalist (Tagesspiegel, Washington Post, Deutsche Welle).