medium-sized towns, the key to balanced and sustainable urbanization

Making intermediate cities structuring poles of sustainable development in Africa is the main recommendation of the 9th edition of the Africities summit, which ended on May 21 in Kisumu, Kenya. More than 4,000 mayors, local and regional elected officials from Africa discussed an action plan aimed at helping intermediate cities cope with climatic and demographic shocks.

By 2040, two-thirds of Africans who will settle in urban areas will do so in medium-sized towns. Today, due to a lack of housing, schools, hospitals and jobs, these remain transit towns, before leaving for the already congested capitals.

The challenge now is to guarantee basic social services there and make these towns centers of economic growth, capable of rebalancing the territories. Intermediate towns also represent outlets for surrounding agricultural production and opportunities for rural regions.

“The rural exodus towards the hypertrophied national capitals leads to enormous challenges. It is a question of diverting part of these flows towards the intermediate cities, to reduce the pressure on the capitals”said Babati Mokgheti, Urban Development Officer at the African Development Bank.

“We must develop intermediate cities so that large cities can breathe. We must create jobs, infrastructure, industries, otherwise large cities will always be the attraction of these populations.”

Abass Fall, first deputy mayor of Dakar

at RFI

The city of Kisumu has started to act by imposing electric motorcycle taxis, the most popular means of transport, which run on clean energy. Against global warming, the city has also greatly increased the space reserved for parks and gardens.

“It is above all necessary to anticipate problems to avoid suffering them. It is easier to create a park or to build a metro line, if it has been thought of before the city is completely saturated”, said Anyang Nyongh’o, governor of Kisumu county.

Prioritizing the development of medium-sized municipalities is in any case what the local elected officials committed to at the end of this 9th edition of Africities. The next edition is scheduled for Cairo, Egypt in three years.