Photo by Amani Nation on Unsplash

Building climate change resilience in African cities: Why the UN’s New Urban Agenda is needed now

As population density skyrockets, megacities in Africa are likely to suffer the most from climate change. The UN’s New Urban Agenda holds the key for unlocking climate resilient cities in Africa and around the world, says Oumar Sylla, Director of UN-Habitat’s regional office for Africa.

Ministers responsible for housing and urban development from across Africa recently met in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss how best to respond to urbanisation on the continent.

In light of the upcoming High-Level Meeting at the UN on 28 April on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, national expert representatives of the Special African Ministerial Session on Sustainable Urbanisation and Housing made the case for working together to implement the framework in their respective countries.

The two-day African ministerial consultations towards the High-Level meeting were organised by UN-Habitat, UNECA, and the African Union with the support from the government of Kenya.

The New Urban Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, on 20 October 2016. It highlights linkages between sustainable urbanisation and job creation, livelihood opportunities and improved quality of life, and insists on the incorporation of all of these sectors in every urban development or policy and strategy.

As part of this, ministers must work with their respective governments to double down on tackling climate change in order to fully implement the New Urban Agenda.


Read the full article on New African Magazine

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