Why do African cities matter?
CHALTU SANI: Successful cities will be the engines that power Africa’s future. They will drive economic growth and social progress. They’re critical for addressing poverty, inequality, and climate change, while also serving as centres of innovation and prosperity—fostering job creation, tackling inequality, improving access to education and healthcare, and attracting investment.
To realise successful African cities, we need three things.
- We must manage the urbanisation of the continent more proactively.
- Africa’s leadership needs to understand the complex nature of urban systems and plan accordingly and appropriately to local contexts.
- Building strong, innovative cities that drive the prosperity of our nations must be the guiding principle for all our actions as leaders.
Unlike the gradual evolution and growth of Western cities or the oil-driven boom of Middle Eastern ones, Africa’s cities are being shaped by unique demographic, economic, and technological forces.
This is why cities must be at the heart of Agenda 2063. They are key to realising the prosperous Africa we want.
What has Ethiopia’s federal government done to enable cities to lead national development?
CS: Ethiopia’s urban development represents a complete philosophical transformation through four basic reforms.
We’re giving cities a lead role in our country’s economic transformation. Previous policies positioned cities as being there to support rural transformation. The new urban policy shifts that have happened in recent years firmly define cities as playing a central rather than support role to how we develop as a nation.
We have also changed our leadership philosophy from rigid and dogmatic to one that’s far more pragmatic, transformational, and legacy-based. We are focusing on indigenous knowledge-based adaptive leadership to address decades-old urban challenges.
In our new policies, we’ve granted cities autonomy in terms of revenue collection and budgeting, priority-setting, and planning. Ethiopia has 2,543 cities, towns, and urban centres generating 55.1% of GDP. We have implemented urban
structural reform that’s resulted in the merger of some of these regional strategic towns to form stronger, larger cities. Shaggar City is one of them.
We are prioritising urban planning, investing in critical infrastructure, and devolving power to local authorities to make decisions reflecting the needs of each unique city.
Ethiopia hosted the first African Urban Forum in 2024. What’s the future of this platform?
CS: I’m so happy when I reflect on that first African Urban Forum we hosted. We had an amazing time with Africa’s leaders—more than 2,500 participants from 47 African countries, including 55 ministers, ambassadors, and mayors.
The forum has immense potential to become a transformative platform for collaboration and action. It will continue as a political, academic, and expertise platform for Africans to discuss the urban agenda.
I hope the STC-8 (the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Sustainable Urban Development) will again host the second African Urban Forum, hopefully in 2026. I envision it as a dynamic space where city leaders, policymakers, civil society, and private sectors co-create solutions to urbanisation challenges.
It can drive advocacy for urban priorities, share best practices, and shape policies supporting sustainable, inclusive cities. By aligning with global agendas like the G20 and UN Sustainable Development Goals, the forum can amplify Africa’s urban voices, ensuring our cities are central to the continent’s development narrative for decades to come.
The message is clear: African cities have their own identity and major potential. But, in order for them to lead the continent’s transformation toward prosperity, they must be fully empowered.
*Edited for clarity and length
