Making Inclusion More Inclusive

africanCities, Essay, expanding design practices, Kate Meagher, Middle Density, Politics and economics

African Cities, Co-production strategies, Connections, Cultural agitator, Dataviz & simulation, Decision makers, Developing policies, Digital era, Economic growth, Economy, Ecosystem, Empowering society, Essay, Inclusivity, Informal economy, Knowledge, New technologies, Participation, Population, Strategies, Transportation, urban, Urban Development

This essay is part of the Developing Urban Futures publication, documenting new research on African cities carried out in the build-up to the 17th Urban Age conference in Addis Ababa.

Cities across Africa reveal a pressing need for more inclusive approaches to urban development. Despite growth rates averaging 5 per cent for much of the past 15 years, African cities are confronted by expanding slums, persistent poverty and expanding unemployment and informality. Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest rate of informal employment, accounting for 77 per cent of the non-agricultural labour force, and even in the era of ‘Africa Rising’, the International Labour Organization notes continued increases in working poverty. Underlying growth dynamics, based on natural resource dependence, dwindling access to land and decades of infrastructural neglect and deindustrialisation, fail to generate adequate levels of employment or basic services for rapidly expanding urban populations.