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

  • Gulf Food Security: Strategic Concerns, Nutrition and the Necessity for Trade
    Authors
    Eckart Woertz
    April 10, 2015
    1970s : Oil and wheat are strategic commodities, their prices are skyrocketing, Arab countries declare an oil boycott against the US and the US contemplates to retaliate with a grain embargo. Gulf countries are alarmed and look into a plan to develop Sudan as an Arab breadbasket.  This plan, however, unravels by the 1980s amidst political instability, misguided project designs and alleged corruption amongst the Sudanese (Nimeiri) regime. Instead, Saudi Arabia embarks on a ...
  • Download PDF
    The Securitization Technique: a Relevant Tool for Financing the Mining Sector?
    Authors
    Yves Jégourel
    March 25, 2015
    The strategy to vertically integrate mining producers requires the identification of the right conditions for its financing. Many approaches are possible and the technique of securitization, although widely stigmatized since the financial crisis of 2008, must be considered. Several conditions are however necessary. It is unlikely that the off-balance sheet securitization is currently positioned as an important means to finance this sector’s production capacity. Whatever the scope of ...
  • Successfully Transforming African Agribusiness through Private Equity Capital - Part I - Solving the Capital Formation Issue
    Authors
    Ezana Bocresion
    March 16, 2015
    Over the next couple of months, we want to explore the investing climate in Sub Saharan Africa (“SSA”) and try to understand where it is and what elements/variables are required to increase the continent’s attractiveness to institutional investors and thereby speed up the continent’s development. We will discuss the Private Equity industry in Africa and delve into the challenges faces. We will then work through how best to address them, and in particular, in the Agribusiness sector. ...
  • Download PDF
    Brazil after the 2014 Elections: A Bumpy Road Ahead
    Authors
    Sergio Fausto
    February 27, 2015
    Brazil’s future prospects, and ability to harness its advantages, will hinge on its own policy choices over the next few years. Yet the outlook for meaningful change is unclear. At present, Brazil is in a weaker position than four years ago, from both an economic and a foreign policy standpoint. Even in a scenario where Brazil’s economy gradually returns to the course it was on until 2008, no major strategic changes are likely to happen in Rousseff’s four-year term. ...
  • Download PDF
    L’intégration financière internationale : Théories, évidences, et leçons des expériences récentes
    Authors
    Pierre-Richard Agénor
    February 18, 2015
    Cet article propose, dans un premier temps, une revue de la littérature analytique et empirique récente sur les gains et coûts potentiels associés à l’intégration financière internationale, ainsi que les enjeux de politique économique créés ou exacerbés par cette intégration. En particulier, l’analyse fait ressortir le fait que, pour un pays en développement, les gains associés à cette intégration se matérialisent surtout sur le long terme, tandis que les coûts (liés notamment aux r ...
  • Download PDF
    Is Manufacturing Still a Key to Growth ?
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    February 10, 2015
    Manufacturing is declining as a share of GDP not only in advanced countries, but in developing countries as well. This new trend, a result of complex forces, should be seen on balance as a reason for development-optimism, not pessimism. In the 21st century economy, manufacturing remains important, but poor countries can attract investment, grow rapidly and diversify away from agriculture on the basis of many possible sources of comparative advantage, without artificially promoting m ...