Growing liveable cities in Africa

Growing liveable cities in Africa

Africa's total population is expected to almost double to nearly 2.5 billion by 2050, where roughly half will be living in urban areas. Urbanization is at the heart of development on the African continent, where currently 17 of the world's 20 fastest-growing cities are located. While urbanization comes with many challenges, it also offers great opportunities. If planners can adopt people-centred and climate-proof approaches now, they can create green, liveable cities for years to come.

In this episode, we find out how Nordic city planning models have sparked ideas for green urban planning in Africa, Asia and Latin America. And we look at how these models can support economic growth, youth employment, services, and liveable neighbourhoods, while also ensuring sustainable development.

This episode comes from a Nordic Talks live event, held at COP26, organized by the Nordic Development Fund in close cooperation with the African Development Bank.

 

"Most cities in Africa are yet to come, so we can actually plan for them to be green and liveable in the future." 

Astrid Haas, Urban Advisor at the African Development Bank. 

This podcast episode features the following speakers

Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson (Iceland)

Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson (Iceland)

Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson has been Mayor of Reykjavík City since 2014, a city that recently launched the Reykjavik Green Deal for sustainable economic recovery after COVID-19 and aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. Dagur studied, trained and worked as a doctor, but also has a master's degree in Human Rights and International Law from Lund University. He was first elected to the Reykjavík City Council in 2002 and chaired the city's Planning Committee from 2004 to 2006.

Tatiana Gallego (Belgian/Spanish)

Tatiana Gallego (Belgian/Spanish)

Tatiana Gallego heads the Housing and Urban Development Division at the Inter-American Development Bank and previously led the Asian Development Bank's Southeast Asia Urban Development and Water Division. She is an urbanist and engineer with over 20 years' experience in international development. Tatiana's interests include urban climate change resilience and biodiversity, integrated water resources, and regional and urban planning and governance.

Peter Anyang' Nyong'o (Kenya)

Peter Anyang' Nyong'o (Kenya)

Peter Anyang' Nyong'o is the governor of Kenya's Kisumu County. He served as a member of parliament for the Kisumu Rural constituency for 20 years and became Kisumu County's first senator in 2013. He has also served in the national government as the cabinet minister for planning and national development between 2003 and 2005. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago and has published several books and articles on democracy, democratization, and the political economy of development in Africa.

Astrid Haas

Astrid Haas (Uganda/Austria)

Astrid Haas is an urban economist, formerly working with the African Development Bank's Urban and Municipal Development Fund as a long-term consultant. She supports cities across Africa to strengthen their financial systems, focusing on unleashing new opportunities for sub-national financing. Astrid has comprehensive experience in municipal and infrastructure finance. In 2016, she was nominated by the University of Cape Town as one of Africa's Young Leaders, and in 2020 she received Johns Hopkins University's Outstanding Recent Graduate Award for her work on urbanization.