Building Sustainable Resilience for Sub-Saharan Africa’s Urban Era

Abstract

If you were asked to name the fastest urbanizing region on the planet, you should answer “Sub-Saharan Africa.” Currently, the region has 31 large cities, each with over 2 million people. By 2035, the number of such cities will be 49. The top 10 fastest growing large cities of the world are in the region, with Kampala and Dar es Salaam expected to double their populations by 2035. The region also has 148,000 square kilometers of low-elevation coastal zones, 17 large trans-boundary river systems, and 160 major freshwater lakes.² As cities expand without adequate urban planning, many have sprawled into river deltas, low-elevation coastal zones, wetlands, or hill slopes — areas that are highly prone to natural hazards such as floods, landslides, and cyclones. Even in cities where adequate plans exist, the lack of enforcement and investment means that the challenges of sprawl into high-risk areas remain.