Support effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda to facilitate urban poverty mitigation through job creation and entrepreneurship development in Africa

In line with the overall theme of WUF9: “Cities 2030, cities for All: implementing the New Urban Agenda”, the overall objective of the side event meeting is to engage all the urban stakeholders in the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in Africa while ensuring that it is people-centered. The meeting will identify strategies put in place by governments at national and local levels, private sector, academia, civil society, philanthropy as well as the international partners, in order to harness the NUA’s potential to eradicate poverty, inequality, unemployment and exclusion in Africa. The meeting will explore ways to harness both the urban and the demographic dividends while addressing productive capacities, unemployment, youth, infrastructure deficit and urban planning.

The urban and demographic transitions currently underway in Africa are two of the most important shifts with profound implications for inclusive growth and transformation. Africa’s urban population is expected to triple in the next 50 years as a result of natural increase and migration, mostly by young people/youth. Africa has the largest concentration of young people in the world, and who are becoming more and more urban than rural.

Regional and global agendas, including the Common African Position on Habitat III, the African Union Agenda 2063, the NUA and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, stress the need to enhance a people-centered urban and human settlement development while ensuring accessibility to housing and urban services for all, including vulnerable groups.

The meeting is co-organized by the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and UN-Habitat.

Participants in the highly interactive event will include all WUF9 participants, key stakeholders, including national and local government officials, representatives of UN system, private sector, philanthropy, civil society, youth representatives and academia, among others.