Rome — Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Executive Secretary, Ms. Vera Songwe, on Wednesday urged African governments to strategically integrate urbanization in their national development plans if they are to unleash the potential of urbanization for growth and transformation on the continent.
Speaking at an International Conference on African Cities in Rome, Ms. Songwe said Africa's targets of economic diversification and industrialization will not happen without well-planned and managed urbanization.
"To build efficient cities Africa must ensure its cities are inclusive, provide jobs for the youth, care for the sick, and have space for innovation and recreation," she said, adding that "considerable opportunities exist for cities to drive Africa's structural transformation though challenges remained."
She spoke about the history of African cities and the rapid urban transition that Africa is currently experiencing, saying while cities were being overwhelmed by the demand for jobs, housing and services, the trend represented a remarkable opportunity for accelerating Africa's transformation agenda.
"African cities have a rich and proud past from Timbuktu to Benin and Mombasa which can and should inspire their future," said Ms. Songwe.
The ECA Chief said Africa's urbanization was an inevitable megatrend that called for an immediate response.
"There is a limited window of opportunity to effectively respond to the region's rapid urban growth," she said, adding urbanization required substantial investments "but doing nothing is not an option. The returns of urban investment are high but so are the costs of neglecting investment in cities".
Ms. Songwe stated that the centrality of urbanization for economic growth and transformation was already explicitly recognized by African countries such as South Africa, Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegal and Rwanda.
"This is encouraging and to be emulated across the continent such that urbanization becomes a foundation or achieving middle-income status, a core priority for most African Member States."
ECA contribution to African Urban Agenda
Ms. Songwe told delegates that in recognition of the magnitude of the urban wave sweeping across the continent, ECA had developed a strategy and work programme to ensure urbanization was fully harnessed for structural transformation on the continent.
ECA's 2017 Economic Report on Africa focused on urbanization and industrialization receiving recognition because of the pioneering ideas and innovative approach it conveys. As a follow up, ECA has developed an e-learning platform to train African national policy makers in this area.
The ECA was also instrumental in the setting of Africa's urban agenda.
"We played a key role in the development of the African Union's Common African Position on the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) which directly informed the New Urban Agenda adopted in Quito in 2016 at the conference. Currently, we are collaborating with UN-Habitat and the African Union to develop an implementation framework of the New Urban Agenda ensuring alignment with continental and national priorities for inclusive growth," said Ms. Songwe.
Importantly, she added, the ECA is supporting member States to better integrate urbanization in national development plans, with a special focus on industrialization. This is based on guidelines and training modules to support African countries in the inter-sectoral coordination of urbanization through Ministries in charge of development planning.
In addition, Ms. Songwe said, the ECA is working with member States in strengthening urban data and statistics, given the serious gaps constraining effectively and timely policy responses.
"In particular, more economic data on cities are required to expand the scope of analysis and policies on urban issues so ECA has launched a regional initiative to estimate the contribution of cities to GDP," she said.
Ms. Songwe underscored the ECA's commitment to engaging in partnerships to support African Member States in their efforts to unleash the potential urbanization for growth and transformation.
