ONE UN - United for Change Translating Africa's Urban Position into Transformative Actions (WUF13)

Distinguished Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our session on transforming Africa's urban position into a transformative action. My name is Hauka Kala Sovata. I'm the expert on decentralization, local governance and urban development with the African Union. We are gathering here at IP Volta Moment and 2026. It's a notable and a special year. We are 10 years into the implementation of the new Urban Agenda that was adopted by Member States in Ecado in 2016. And if I'm to take you back on Africa's history. Early this year, African Member States, Head of States gathered in Addis Ababa under the theme Access to Water and Sanitation, which they considered to be very, very pivotal towards Africa's transformation. And by default, or coincidentally, SDG 6 on access to Water and Sanitation is one of the goals which were under review this year. And later in April 2026, Africa gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to hold its second Africa Urban Forum under the theme Adequate Housing for All Advancing Socioeconomic and Environmental Transformation towards the realization of Agenda 2063. From that forum, ladies and gentlemen, we had an outcome document which was advocating or emphasizing that we should move away from dialogue, from political commitments that are based on theory, to now move on to action. And later that month we also had a forum on Africa's Resilience and Sustainable Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under which we have SDG 6 under review and SDG 11 on cities and Communities under review and Industrialization and Technology under review. And we are here at the Africa Urban Forum today to ramp up or amplify our voices on how we think Africa should move ahead. To advance. With those few introductory remarks, I bring to stage the Head of Governance and Human Rights from the African Union Commission, who's also the Secretariat for the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Public Service, Local Governance, Decentralization and Urban Development, Mr. Isaka Gaba Abdou to welcome us to this session. Thank you so much. Welcome, Mr. Isaka.

Thank you, gao. Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is a great honor to welcome you all to this important side event convened under the Team United for Change, Translating Africa's Urban Position into Transformative Actions. On behalf of the African Union Commission, I would like to acknowledge the invaluable collaboration and technical expertise of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and UN Habitat in strengthening Africa's urban policy discourse and continental coordination on sustainable urban development. The first and second African Urban Forums, hosted respectively in Ethiopia and Kenya, produce landmark continental outcomes. The Addis Ababa Declaration and the Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Urbanization and housing. These platforms have become foundational in shaping Africa's development while advancing the implementation of Agenda 2063, the new urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals Excellencies. Distinguished Participants Urbanization on our continent is no longer a distant trend. It is an accelerating present reality. Our cities are engine of economic growth, center of innovation, a space where our citizen aspirations are being realized. Yet they are also remain marked by stark inequalities like informal settlement, infrastructure deficit, housing shortage and climate vulnerability. At the first Africa Urban Forum held in Addis Ababa, African Union member states spoke with one unified voice. Urbanization is irreversible and it must be deliberately harnessed to drive Africa's structural transformation. This commitment is firmly anchored in Agenda 2063, our continental blueprint which envisions cities and human settlement at the hub of inclusive growth, resilience and prosperity. However, across continental platforms like the African Climate Summit, the African Forum and the Africa Regional Forum of Sustainable Development, the message is clear. The challenge is no longer defining our vision, it is ensuring implementation. The consensus is decisive. We must move from commitment to delivery, from frameworks to financing and from coordination to measurable results. This is why the second Africa Urban Forum has prioritized developing the Africa urban position not as another declaration, but as the continental implementation framework that align with policy, finance, data and governance system to support our cities as engine of socio economic transformation. Distinguished Participants at the 2nd Africa Urban Forum held in Nairobi, Africa consolidates its position with strong emphasis on adequate housing as a driver of socioeconomic and environmental transformation. Yet cities cannot deliver on these ambitions without the right tool and enabling system. So first we have three critical priorities. First, empower local government. Cities are the front line of implementation. They require strong a stronger mandate, enhanced capability, fiscal capacities and also access to sustainable financing. Second, unlock sustainable urban finance. This means expanding municipal fiscal space, strengthening domestic resource mobilization and also leveraging innovative financing instruments from climate finance to public private partnership. And the third, accelerate digital transformation as the State of urbanization in Africa 2024 report highlights digital technologies are foundational, not optional. They are enabled to better planning through data system, improve service delivery through E governance and greater transparency and accountability and the stronger citizen engagement. Yet infrastructure gap, affordability challenge and digital skills deficit continue to limit this potential. This side event is then a call to action, a call to strengthen multi level governance and coordination, a call to build bankable urban project and investment pipelines and also a scale up digital solution that work in Africa cities and ensure accountability for implementation. We count on our technical partners the UNECA and UN Habitat to continue supporting member states through expertise Data System financing framework. We count also on our mayors and city leaders to drive innovation on ground. And we count on all stakeholders here to move decisively from dialogue to delivery. So let us use this platform to share ideas and also demonstrate that Africa is not only defining its urban fixture, it is actively building it. I thank you for your attention.

Thank you so much, Mr. Isaka, for the opening remarks. Indeed, Africa's problems or urbanization is already defined. Now what we need is to act to see how do we implement this. And now I want us to bring this conversation based on evidence to demonstrate our urbanization trends. And at this point in time, I would like to call Mr. Thomas Simmen, who's the data specialist with the UN Economic Commission for Africa, to give us a picture of how Africa has been fighting in the implementation of SDG 11 across all the targets. Thank you so much. You are welcome on stage. Mr. Thomas.

Good morning distinct distinguished guests, partners, colleagues and mayors. It is a pleasure to contribute to this side event. And my presentation will focus on African urban window and I want to provide informed data, informed policy point for our discussion. My presentation highlights where Africa stands on unselected SDG 11 dimensions. For example, including slum population, public transport, urban sprawl and some environmental issues like solid waste collection and air pollution. African urbanization has a unique pattern. It is a paradox that Africa is urbanizing faster than any other region in the globe. But it is not materializing with productive jobs and it is marked with informality and it is not accompanied by productive jobs. But this give us also an opportunity for acceleration of transformative actions, expanding markets and generating productive jobs. When we deliver urbanization as planned, governed, invested, it has a rippling effect in other SDG 11 goals. SDG 11 is directly linked to other 11 SDG goals. So investing in urbanization and planning urbanization which can deliver proper, structured and effective service delivery to the citizens of any city. When we move to the continental picture, to sub regional dimensions, African African urbanization has many challenges in different contexts. For the north, they have different challenges urbanization challenges, which is different from the south and the east and the North. So we see that different bottlenecks and different challenges are present in different sub regions of Africa. This means that we need a territorial planning and contextualized solution for each sub region. When we see each dimension deeply, there is informality in Africa, but in the past 10 years only showed a marginal decline with regard to percentage. So the share of Islam population has declined, but the absolute numbers of Islam dwellers has dramatically increased. And also it is not even within sub regions. Some sub regions like Central Africa actually has a dramatic increase in the past 10 years. The other challenge or the other dimension of SDG 11 is urban sprawl. African urban city urban area is expanding in a significantly faster rate than its population. So we see that many Africa cities sprawling across many areas. This result in diminishing service delivery, providing infrastructure and even transportation services. This is indicated by very low access to public transport in walking distance. So the African average is 29.63%. Only of the population have only access to convenient public transport. The other one is because of vulnerability and informal settlements. The climate disaster has increased in Africa. The mortality rate has also doubled in the past 10 years. Unlike any other region in the globe. Globally, the mortality rate due to disasters have declined or halved. But in Africa it has doubled because of informality and exposure. The other dimension of SDG 11 is microeconomic toll of the disasters. Africa loses $133 billion of damage in the past 10 years. Also when we see the physical environment, Solid waste management is also one of the dimensions. We have this disparity in solid waste management. Southern Africa and Northern Africa are doing well. But the other parts of the region are still lagging behind. Only 27.3% of solid waste is collected in Central Africa. When we see air quality, most of African cities are at risk. The annual mean levels of fine particulate matter vastly exceeds the safety threshold which is set by who. When we see the civic environment, public spaces are not available for the public. Only 1/3 of the population in Africa has a convenient access to public open spaces, which is a very which is below the global average. And Central Africa also reporters a very extreme spatial inequality. Only 12.4% of the population have access access to public spaces. When we see the governance layer, this is actually promising. 49 countries in Africa have urban national urban policies. But when we go to the implementation, 70% of the countries have implementation plan down to the local level. So there are challenges that constrains achievement of SDG 11. These are four challenges. One is governance and institutions. There are weak institutional capacity and inconsistent planning frameworks across Africa. The second one is data deficit. If we see the SDG indicators, we have 15 indicators and we only have data for seven indicators. So this shows that the availability of data. The other one is climate amplification. When climates are amplified, most of our population in the urban area living in informal settlement. So the disaster is very high. The other one is the urban areas in Africa. Are marked by informal settlements and informal economic activity across Africa. On the average, 80% of economic activity is done by informal actors. So it is very challenging to have policies they are not also visible in the data. So this is Africa standards regarding to SDG 11 goals. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Thomas, for that deliberate and explicit presentation of how Africa is faring. He has given us a picture across the SDG 11 indicators, which are the variables that would define how our cities should be for them to be resilient, sustainable and inclusive. Of course, he's showing us that Africa is not industrialization, is not matching the pace of urbanization. And we see how informality is more variable, is more common among African member states. And of course, the challenges that we have, which are weak municipal finance implementation challenges that we have seen. And at this point in time, I want us to now bring on to stage our panelists who are going to delve deeper into this to give us the true picture and appreciate the challenges that we have in Africa in implementing and even suggesting the solutions for us to be able to translate this position into transformative action. I will call them. First on stage, I'll call Mr. Isaka Gaba Abdou, who is the head of Governance and Human Rights and the coordinator for the Secretariat of the STC8 with the African Union. Welcome to stage. And then I would also like to call upon Ms. Jane Lumumba, who is the Program Management Officer with the African Union Regional Office for Africa, responsible for strategic planning and climate change action. And then to stage, I would also like to call our distinguished panel, Mr. Robert Sangori, who is the Deputy Director with the State Department of Lands and Housing from the Government of Kenya. And then I would also like to call on stage the member, sorry, the mayor for Harare, Honorable Mayor Jacob Mafume to stage. Welcome, Honorable Mayor. And then I would also like to call the city engineer for Nairobi, the manager for Nakuru from Nairobi, Kenya, to stage. Welcome, sir. I want us you to bring us into perspective, Mr. Isaka Gaba Abdu. The African Union held its first Africa Urban Forum in Ethiopia in 2024. And then in 2026, we went to Nairobi, where we had our second Africa Urban Forum. And at these two forums it was highlighted that urbanization remains at the center of Africa's transformation towards achieving the Agenda 2063. And now the question that I would want to ask you is that how is the Africa urban process from AUF1 to AUF2 Shaping a unified Africa urban position? And what concrete outcomes and implementation pathways can we expect as Stakeholders as Africa move towards the realization of the 2063 agenda. Over to you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Mrs. Gawo, for the question. I see that the question has two segments. The first is about how African Forum per shape a unified African position and also talk about what concrete implementation outcome or pathway can stakeholder expect as Africa move towards and beyond wuf. First of all, when you look at the Africa Urban Forum process from the Africa Urban Forum 1 held in Addis Ababa and the Africa Urban Forum 2 held in Nairobi last month, so it is fundamentally about building a common Africa vision and implementation pathway for sustainable urbanization. Second, when the Africa Urban during the Africa Urban Forum 1 member states made the historic and the collective commitment that urbanization must no longer be viewed as a challenge to contain. As challenge to contain, but as a strategic opportunity to accelerate Africa's structural transformation under Agenda 2063. So the forum creates also a platform that's brought together all stakeholders from government to local authorities, from private sector to academia and civil society to speak with one voice on the future of African cities. So here it's good to highlight that African forum 1 move the discussion beyond theory so it establish political consensus around key priority areas such as integrate urban planning, decentralization, housing climate resilience, infrastructure development and municipal finance. And The Africa Urban Forum 2 become now the implementation for focus phases of this process under the team of The Africa Urban Forum 2 Affordable Housing for all. All stakeholders recognize that housing is not only a special issue but also an economic and resilience issue because housing creates jobs, stimulate local economy and also strengthen social inclusion and also build climate resilience. More importantly, The Africa Urban Forum 2 helped consolidate what we now refer to as African Urban position which is a unified continental framework aligned with Agenda 2063, the SDGs and also the new Urban Agenda. So the position this position is important because provide Africa with a coherent voice in global urban discussions such as WUF 13 while also guiding action at national and local level. Now, in terms of practical terms like what stakeholder can expect, I think the implementation pathway emerging from this process will include stronger alignment international and of national urban policies and also development framework with Agenda 2063 and also SGZ 11. And secondly there is a greater emphasis on localization and also empowering local government as frontline implementer of sustainable urbanization. And also there is a need to improve coordination between continental institution, member state cities and also development finance institution and also technical partners to to support the implementation. And fourth we the increased focus on municipal finance, investment readiness and Also the development of bankable urban project and finally stronger monitoring and accountability mechanism to ensure that commitment made at continental and global forum translate into measurable improvement in people's life. This is what I can say regarding to your question. Thank you.

Thank you so much Mr. Issaka for giving us the picture of the regional policies and how they are going to facilitate urbanization across Africa. In fact, you even answered a question that I wanted to make as a follow up, like how do we make the whole process work from national governments to regional governments. But you have already mentioned. So I now want to come to you, Ms. Jane Lumumba, as the partner supporting African Union. You have been very central towards development of the global Housing Compact. So housing challenge and solution in Africa as the center of economic development. We all know that housing remains as the center as we already indicated at the Africa Urban Forum. Now the question that I want to pose to you is that how can we now position it to ensure that it drives not only as a social issue, as we already discussed, to now make it an economic development mechanism and to also make sure that it builds climate resilience. Over to you madam.

Yeah, thank you very much. And indeed we are a supporter of the African Union. And just to thank you African Union once again for recognizing the importance of the American African Africa Affordable Housing Compact. But before I address your question, Gao, allow me to sort of discuss the three converging challenges within housing. One is the affordability gap. And I think, you know, Saka Gao, you have mentioned affordability is a challenge. We have a situation where 10% of Africans urban households do not have access to formal housing. And then almost, Maybe just like 5% can access mortgages and the rest are left to deal with informal settlements. And not because of choice, it's just because the formal housing ecosystem does not accommodate for that. Then we bring in the issue of informality where we have a situation where half of the continent, if not more are living in informal settlements. And what this shows to the system is that we have a serious and mental demand signal because people do not build informal settlements because of choice. It just so happens that the formal housing ecosystem cannot deliver land, finance and services at speed and at the right price point. And then we have the climate issue. You know, African cities concentrate climate risk. And this can be seen across the sub regions. We have for example coastal flooding in West Africa, the severe heat strike stress in the Sahel. We have water scarcity in cities like Cape Town. So the way housing is currently built across the continent, it sort of locks that Vulnerability. And if we are to really have housing and urban development in a way that's climate resilience, we have to change the way that we're built. So then what do we do next? And this is some of the things that the compact addresses. One, I think first and foremost, land reform and regulation. As a precondition, housing at scale cannot be delivered if the land cannot deliver. Land is not serviced. We have to ensure that our systems, land registries are digitized. We have to ensure that titling is simplified. And land, public land, has to be available for affordable housing. And we're now starting to see African governments and even municipalities availing public land land for affordable housing, which I think is important. And then secondly, it's around blended finance. And the deal platform, which is very central to the affordable housing Compact really argues for this. And the thesis of the deal platform is that public budgets and commercial capital alone cannot deliver on affordable housing. So what are we saying? We need innovative blended finance instruments. We need to de risk our financial instruments. We need first loss guarantees. We need aggregation mechanisms that enable DFIs, pension funds and other institutional investors to come in and contribute to delivering affordable housing at space and at the right price point. And when I say the right price point, we also need to understand that in Africa there are a number of housing markets at play. So which market do we target? How do we structure blended finance instruments to deliver across those different housing markets, which we're still yet to really understand? And then thirdly, is around in situ upgrading. I think the most cost effective way of increasing housing and delivering housing at scale, considering that most of our cities have informal settlements, is to improve what already exists. And there's a lot of research that shows that once we do our infrastructure retrofits, we do land tenure right, really per dollar, the outcomes are better than greenfield resettlements, which means moving people from the slums to another area. And what this does is also it ensures that communities and livelihoods stay intact. And then fourthly, it's around a climate resilient design. Currently, when we talk about climate resilient design, it's conceived as a premium. We have nature based solutions, we have flood based siting, we have passive cooling. But these are not embedded in how we build houses, in how we develop our cities. These are seen as premium costs. So what we need to do as planners and as you know, players in the ecosystem is how do we embed this in the process to ensure that when we build housing, when we build, when we improve our informal settlements, this is part of the process. And then lastly it's around industrializing the construction sector. And I think this is very key because then this speaks to economic transformation. Currently, when we want to build, we import from China, we import from Turkey. But what we are seeing, and even through the compact is that if we can industrialize this construction system, and there's a lot of research that says that prefabrication, modular building and alternative construction is actually 30 to 40% cheaper than brick and mortar. So. And what this does, it opens up a whole African supply chain within the construction sector, which then leads to that economic transformation and then there's a multiply effect. So I think that's the way we'll do it. And the UN Habitat stands ready with the Affordable Housing Compact, which was adopted by member states at AUF to really deliver and to really address some of these issues around affordable housing, informality and climate resilient in the construction and the housing sector. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Jane, for giving us the picture on the housing challenges in Africa and even coming up with the solutions. Of course we need financing. And as we already know, Africa is trying as much as possible to trade within itself through the Africa Free Continental Trade Agreement and indeed the value chains in housing would even create jobs. Thank you so much for this. Now I want us to transition now to go to the local level, from the regional to the technical, and then we are now moving on to the local level. I want to bring in our city and regional governments from Africa now to give us the true picture of the implementation aspect of Africa's urban development strategies. At this point in time, I would like to bring in from the national government because the national governments work with local government. I want to bring in the perspective of the national government and hear it from the government of Kenya. I would like to bring on Robert Sangori, who is the Deputy Director. Dr. Robert Sangori. How do we make sure that now that we have the regional policies from the African Union and we have the technical support and technical solutions as recommended by our technical partners now, how do we bring this together to ensure that we integrate the urban planning development strategies into our national development plans and make sure that they also speak to the local development plans and the local policies? Over to you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Gao. I think the conversation that we are having today comes at the right time in terms of the convergence that we need. We are all privy to the issue of the international obligations that we have, starting with the implementation of the new urban agenda, which is of course the anchor to our urbanization process in terms of defining the pathway that we take. But then this is, you know, complemented by the SDG on sustainable cities and communities, of course, which takes cognizance of the safety, resilient issues at the city level. But beside that, to the point which you've just raised, is the issue of how then we look at the kind of transformation that is needed as we translate, you know, the policies into practice, and not just practice, but the actual implementation at the grassroots. And the national government therefore has a key role here in terms of looking at the quality and standardization of the policy frameworks and regulatory frameworks that then guide the implementation processes. And this cannot be achieved if we don't look at the issue of governance. And the aspect of governance then becomes critical because we look at the players from the national government perspective that holds the key to sustainable urbanization policies, which then are translated into action at the local government level. And in this frame, therefore, we look at the policy formulators, formulation process, but again, connecting with implementation, we have the key actors. I've just talked about the local government or sub national groups which takes to implementation the policy frameworks from the national government. But again, there is a whole spectrum of players here. Again, not just the local government themselves. We have the built environment professionals who then makes a critical contribution to the process. We are professionals in the built environment all the way from planners to the other groups, the architects, the engineers. We are looking at the issue of governance, the issue of infrastructure, but not only that. The issue of planning then comes into play that then integrates the whole conversation. So how then do we integrate all this? So I think this is the conversation that then we are having. And then how all the teams are brought into the same page in terms of how they translate the actions that are needed. So two reflections that I want to have at this stage is that my colleague Jane brought the dimensions of the issues that arose from the presentation that was done at the start and the issues that we have just raised. But even in terms of the aspect of resilience, which is critical, the issue of resilience is not only in this infrastructure, but the local government. We will be talking about how do you integrate resilient, urban, special plants into this conversation? And you know, the whole issue of resilience then becomes a technical issue that needs to be unpacked. So again, going back to, you know, the presentation that was done at the start, the integration of all this in terms of the metadata that is then required in all the four key areas that then defines how the Implementation are taking place. So in my view, therefore that becomes critical. And this then boils back to what then we narrow down to from the government of Kenya perspective, where we have identified the issue of housing as critical and connecting the conversation. We just looked at the Baku Continuity Coalition, for example, the conversion that we have at the COPS and the World Urban Forums. How do we connect these conversations? So all this boils back to how all these are integrated at the national level for take off in terms of the implementation processes. So we would bring some of this into the discussion and narrowing down to specific implementation issues. And this why we find that picking on a particular issue like the affordable housing program, which the President of Kenya is leading in terms of the practical implementation then becomes critical. But a whole range of how the governance process is then put, then becomes the apex of the success that we need in terms of the transformation that then this can bring to the people of Africa. So these are convention that then we can continue then having in the perspective that then they are taken in the right context, but with the synergies that are needed from all the actors in the space to drive the processes forward. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Dr. Sangori, for giving us the picture of implementation at national level. I hear you talking about multilevel governance partnerships which are very, very critical. And that's the reason why we are even here to talk about how do we come together to make sure that everything works. I now want us to transition now to the local government perspective and I would like to move to you now. Dr. Kitao Tabanja, the city manager of Nairobi, Kenya, of Nakuru, sorry. Africa has a strong urban position, a strong urban regulatory framework, but now we see most of the things not working. Implementation gaps persist. But now the question that I want to ask you is how can we make multi level governance, decentralization and local institutions accelerate the delivery of the sustainable urban development outcome?

Yeah, thank you very much. And just to reintroduce myself, I'm Gita Ola Baja, the manager Nakuru City and I present the intermediary cities where the rubber meet the road. We can make those policies at the regional, international level, but they narrow down to us for the implementation because we are the people interact with the community directory and we get the feedback whether it works or not. Because we are the one who implement those projects. We are the people who are able to interact and also get the feedback, public participation in order to see whether the policies that have been developed at the higher level, they are making impact. One of the main impediments that we have in the implementation of the policies and the framework is you find multilevel governance, where you find that there are so many players who want to implement the project. Then at the national level, they are still wanting to do the project within the city. The regional offices also want to implement this project. And this affect the project because also the city itself is also trying to do this project. So what we need to do is to have a multi level governance system where we bring everybody on board and then we also give defined roles that the city is supposed to do this and that will enable the reporting and also seeing and testing whether the project are working at the community level. Then the other thing that we also need to do is the decentralizations and the local governance, whereby you find that we need to have the transfer of the physical transfer, the resources need to come to the municipalities and the cities. We also need to have the transfer of the staff, the technical staff, and the approval being done at that level. We also need to have the infrastructure decision being made at that level. Why, when it floods today, we are the people at that level who are able to identify the neighborhood that is flooding. And in so doing, we need some resources to do some intervention and also subsequent planning. So the only best way we can be able to effectively implement those regional, those national policies is when we have those transfers done and done at the municipal level so that we can be able to quickly address the challenges that we face at that level. And you see the cities at that point, we are better placed to identify the community's priorities. We are better placed to manage the large conflicts, oversee the local infrastructure and also engage the residents directory. And that will enable the regional weather international, like the SDGs to be effectively reported and also achieved. We also have the strong institutions. We also need to have the capacity done. We also appreciate what the government of Kenya is doing at the national level. The State Department of Housing and Urban Development capacity building the managers of the municipalities and also ensuring that once we recruit the planners, once we have the engineers, their capacity built in order for them to in order in order for them to carry out the project effectively. And that is very key because with weak planners and the engineers, weak financial management, outdated records and also limited data and insufficient technical expertise, all those can jeopardize the implementation of the framework that are approved. The other thing is about the informality must be integrated in the governance system. We have so many in African countries, We have so many informal housing, informal transport, informal labor market, informal hard tenor. And this one Also needs to be regularized so that at the point where you're implementing the regional policies, they are legally done without litigations, without the challenges that may cause the delay in the implementation. And finally we have the climate resilience requires empowered local government. We have challenges that we are facing at the cities level, the municipal level, the flooding, the drought. You know, we talk about the inflation, infrastructure shocks, all these, if they are well managed, we find that we are going to achieve the policies that have been proposed. And also we are also going to give feedback to the regional, to the national and also the international bodies on how best they can improve the decision on maybe what they can add. And finally, city to city is learning. You find that you don't have to event a wheel to reinvent the wheel. Why? If Nakuru city is able to implement flooding, to get a solution for the flooding within the city, you find most of the global south cities suffers from the same problems. And some of those solutions, they are scalable and replicable in other cities. And we also need to capitalize on that. And we appreciate because we've also learned a lot from other cities which are also going to help in implementation of these policies. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Mr. Gitaou. I liked it when you indicated that indeed cities are where everything is taking place. They are the launching pads for everything. They are at the forefront. When disaster strikes, they are there. And of course you highlighted that multi level governance is a good approach, but let it be with come with clarity. Thank you so much for that intervention, sir. I would now like to move on to his honorable mayor Jacob Mafunge. The question that I would like to ask you is that how can financing mechanisms become more accessible to African cities? Because we have seen the presentation talking about infrastructure deficits, informality forming the bulk within cities, whether informal trade, informal housing construction forming the part. How do we make sure that we have the working mechanism to ensure that we implement sustainable urban development projects? And also it has been discussed that on most occasions cities are grappling with developing bankable projects. So I would like to bring you on to say how can we make sure that we get the access to financing and what is it that needs to be done to make sure that the projects that we propose as cities become bankable? Thank you so much, sir. Over to you.

Thank you very much. I'm Jacob Mafume, the mayor of the city of Harare, which is the capital city of Zimbabwe, with a population of 3.5 million to 4 million and increasing like all the Other cities. It's an honor to be here and, and thank you, madam Facilitator, for bringing me on board. I think the financing is the key question. And that has been the Achilles heel of development for African cities. The ability to develop bengable project. And part of the problem has been the financial mechanisms and methods that are available to African cities. One, there's been a skills flight in terms of creation of complicated financial mechanisms. In the old days, cities used to finance themselves through municipal bonds, through pension funds, and with the flight of skills to developed countries. People and financiers who were conversant on these instruments, infrastructural bonds, municipal bonds, and in many cases municipal bonds used to be more attractive than government bonds because of the reliability of municipalities to be able to pay. Because we collect rents from citizens at infinitum and until the end of time. So it should be easy to make and to pay off a municipal bond. Secondly, the land tenure system to be able to create title deeds and a coherent and consistent land tenure system to provide for security in terms of bankable projects. And it's ironical or it's an oxymoron because the cities control most of the land within their locality. But what they cannot do is to develop instruments to make that land securitable. In other words, make it, take it to a bank, get a loan and secure that loan with that particular point land. It becomes difficult for the city to just develop a land bank land tenure system. So you'll find cities inherited buildings, inherited land, which basically they look at and simply declare from time to time that this is our land. But they are not value adding to those particular pieces of land. And then the development of bankable projects, the ability to secure the investor's return, in other words, to make people pay. Herein politics comes through, inefficient collection mechanisms, debt forgiveness at election time comes through and so forth. And that makes investors a bit edgy in terms of engaging financing with municipalities. So that needs to be corrected. And digitalization or digitization is part of the process of doing that. Prepaid meters or, or smart meters, identification through GPS of who the ratepayers are collecting from them. And making sure that you increase the percentage of those that pay from below 50% closer to 70% or 80%. And that will then enable investors to invest in infrastructure that was inherited. Infrastructure, transport, roads, sewer, water and lighting and other infrastructures. How once you are able to make people pay for what they are receiving, it becomes easier to create. And then of course, developing Linkages with organization. We as harare, we are working with UNEQUA to create capacity to deliver bankable projects. So cities need to create, to tap into multilateral organizations, to tap into multilateral financial institutions, to develop the skill set and the capacity to draw down on international funds that are available on climate, on energy and on infrastructure development. And once that capacity is developed, then we can talk about bankable projects. Then consistent policy frameworks, some of the policy frameworks are not protected by law and therefore are not consistent. And that then brings doubts in terms of the ability for the municipalities to be able to create bankable projects. And I think if we deal with going back to basics, because what we are talking about are not things that are not being done elsewhere, they are being done elsewhere. And part of life is being able to copy successful models. And once we are very good at copying bad behavior at times, but find it very difficult to copy best practices. So part of it is simply being able to adapt, being able to implement and being able to absorb what are best practices that are being done elsewhere. And then we'll be able to produce bankable projects and also create employment, create viable financial models and re attract the skills that would have left our municipalities. So I believe that at the core, in conclusion, at the core of what a municipality is, a municipality is basically a glorified financial institution. And once it fails in handling its finances and what people pay to it, it therefore cannot contract and it breaks its promises to the citizens. And the promise to the citizen is basically that I will collect your money, I will use it responsibly to be able to provide maximum services to all and sundry that live or visit the city. Thank you.

Thank you so much, honorable mayor, for bringing it into perspective. Indeed, the natural resources are in cities, the land is in cities, the property is sitting in cities. And what we need is to capacitate local governments to be able to package this land, package this assets, to translate them into security for bankable project. Thank you so much, my esteemed panel. I just want to ask you one question, question that is common to all of you. Just in one minute. Starting with you, Mr. Isaka. What do you think is very, very key to make sure that we translate Africa's urban position into measurable, impactable outcomes? What is very, very key that do you think should be done from the African Union's perspective? Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Mrs. Gawo. I think the most important action is to empower cities with the governance, system, finance and partnership needed to translate the global or the global or continental commitment into impact at city level. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you so much to you, Ms. Jane.

That was first. Mr. Isaka. Yes. I think for me, you know, housing is the most visible pointer of success or failure of a city's urban development and prosperity. So for me, I think investing in affordable housing, investing and meeting that demand, especially for the lower income, is very critical if we're going to see our cities succeed and prosper both socially and economically.

Thank you so much, Ms. Jane. Dr. Sangori.

Thank you. I think I want to draw one parallel here in terms of what I see moving us forward. During the African Urban Forum in Nairobi, the second session, the AU team launched a very useful tool in terms of the African Urban Resilient Report, which I think, as we looked at it during that stage, provides key linkages to resilience in our cities. And so, in terms of synergies of programs, I would then draw parallel in terms of how do we look at the harmony of the various programs that exist in the continent, each not in terms of conflict, but in terms of the synergies that they draw in the implementation, implementation framework. And so this then brings to the issue of the governance that I spoke to earlier in terms of mapping all the partners and their roles and all the alignment that are needed so that we see how the programs that exist in our cities, in the continent has synergy to each other and for, you know, targeted implementation that we are talking about. And so in this case, we are able to draw how the transformations can come in a very prompt way without any delay. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Dr. Sangori. I now move on to you, Mr. Gitao.

Yeah. Mine is to. My proposal is to have a decentralization of functions and resources and also have reporting structure that is able to report both way, that is from the local levels to the African Union, so that we can have the national and the African Union, so that we can have intervention done timely and we can be able to measure whether we achieve it or not. And that is going to inform subsequent policy and also looking into those policies and giving the feedback. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Gitau. And I want to give it to you, Honorable Mayor Tos, sum it up.

Thank you. Well, conclusion within a conclusion. And I believe part of where we need to go is bankable financing, sustainable financing, and to make our cities commercially viable, economically viable. There will always be someone who is able to make a road. There's always someone who will be able to bring you water. There'll always be someone who's able to give you light. The challenge is if you do not make it economically viable, commercially viable, you are dancing on the same spot or you are running on a treadmill. So the idea is to make sure that whatever we are doing is economically viable. So seek you first, the economic kingdom and everything else will follow.

Thank you so much. We have listened to our distinguished panelists. From the African Union perspective is that member states should give power to local governments, but not only power, but also the fiscal power. They be able to determine their budget, they be able to manage their resources and translate them into financing. And from the technical partners, the technical advisors, UN Habitat, they are saying if we get housing right, it will determine whether we win the sustainable battle, the sustainable urbanization battle, or we lose it. And from Dr. Sangori, representing African member states, he's saying all the policies that we have across the continent, if we try to harmonize them, see what is working, what is not working, we can be able to make it. And from the city engineer, he's also talking about decentralization and also reporting. How do we report? But I want to believe the scorecard that we recently launched would also help us in trying to see how we monitor implementation across our member states and how we do our reporting. And of course, the mayor is summing up. He's saying, let us make it more attractive to investors, let us make it more commercially viable. If we have land, let's make sure that we turn it into finance. How much does this land value? How much can we attract from the banks with what we have? If we have the natural resources, if we have the carbon sinks, let us the carbon sinks. The forests are within cities, they are within territories. Let us convert them into monetary assets. Thank you so much, distinguished panelists. I just want to throw it to you, the audience, if you have any question that you would want to ask to our distinguished panelists, or to make all comments or any addition to what has been discussed. Thank you. I want to believe we have come to the end of our discussion. At this point in time, I would like to thank my distinguished panelists and I would ask you to take our seats. And at this point in time, I would bring Mr. Giuseppe, Dr. Giuseppe, to come to the stage to summarize all that has been discussed here and bring the perspective on how we're going to move forward. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Madam Chair, honorable mayors, member states, partners from Africa, Union Commission, unhabitant colleagues, so we achieve an important milestone today as we live on Tuesday, we leave a room at African Ministerial meeting where we raise one key point that we are standing together to raise one voice for the African urban position. The idea to be united for change is shaping a new commitment that starts with the first African Urban Forum in Addis Ababa, followed by the Nairobi Declaration with the African Urban Forum in Nairobi. And we are moving. We are ending the World Urban Forum and we are moving towards July when there will be the high level meeting review for the urban New Urban agenda HLPF in New York. From the discussion, I would like to mention that so strongly we are discussing on how to shift from a fragmentation that has limited the capacity to translate the urbanization in economic growth and social progress to towards more an integration has been well aligned the importance of the policy alignment and a unified voice at the same time has been strongly identified importance to design a roadmap that can guide us for the future of African urbanization. In few words, our distinguished panelist has really make the point on the importance of the integration with the global framework and localization and a strong policy alignment that can guide us for the integration with partners. Housing is the core of this world social the world urban for and are still reminded that housing should be at the center of any planning and activities. Lender reform, blender finance and site regeneration has been identified as a solution to make housing a leverage for for an economic growth and social progress. Again, we cannot move without strong governance. This as well identified from our member states, from national local government, from Kenya that has been once again remind us that without a multi level governance, without linking the governance with a clear implementation path roadmap we cannot do a lot. We can do a lot if we use a participatory process. If we link our action with a clear governance. Finance is the last component of a successful formula after planning, after governance finance. He has been well remarked by our honorable mayor from Harare. That is the catalyst that make possible the change. But at the same time the capacity to design deliver bankable project, mobilize financial partners and investor remain the key challenges we need to face. If we would like to translate African urban position. Planning, finance, governance are successful element of our strategy and they should guide our action. Ladies and gentlemen, our event Stay united for change Remark once again that we need to continue our support our partnership to empower cities and capacitate the cities and local government to translate the global framework to local framework to local action. The center of this transformation has been well identified as housing and we need continue to foster a strong decentralization process to make possible and to make our city livable and improve the quality of life of our people living in the African cities. I would like to conclude with a big thank to our member states, our partner from our from. From African Union Commission, our partner from UN Habitat to support all this process. Thank you very much.