From 8 to 10 April 2026, the Sahel and West Africa Club (OECD/SWAC) participated in the second Africa Urban Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. This was the second edition of this key event for the continental urban agenda, following the inaugural edition held in September 2024 in Addis Ababa. Organised by UN-Habitat and the African Union, the Forum provided four days of discussions with policy makers and experts working on urban issues across the continent.
SWAC co-organised two sessions during the Forum, both focusing on the links between the regional integration and corridor development agenda and urbanisation, the central theme of the upcoming edition of the Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics report series. The first session, entitled "Cities as Engines of Integration: Building a Common Response to Africa’s Rapid Urbanisation", was co-organised with the African Development Bank. The second, a high-level event entitled "Urban Planning and Infrastructure Development in Corridors", was co-organised with UN-Habitat, with the SWAC serving as rapporteur.
One of the key messages highlighted by the panellists was the need for corridor operators to move from viewing cities as merely links along a corridor and instead recognise them as strategic hubs. To deliver on their promise, corridors must connect people, not just goods.
A common African vision for the World Urban Forum
As Africa urbanises faster than any other region, with more than 40 000 people moving to cities every day, discussions focused on how integrated corridor planning can support access to affordable housing, reduce commuting costs and enable more inclusive and climate-resilient urban growth. Establishing a shared vision and defining the role that continental and regional organisations can play in supporting this growth through their own projects are essential.
The discussions held during the Forum culminated in the adoption of a joint declaration which will play a key role in articulating a common African vision ahead of the next World Urban Forum.
Cities as engines of integration: Building a common response to Africa's rapid urbanisation
This side event aimed to answer the following question: How do cities currently contribute to regional integration in Africa, and how can this role be strengthened through corridor strategies that place urban development at their core?
One of the key messages that emerged from the discussions was the lack of systematic inclusion of cities in infrastructure development and planning. Current corridor management often views cities not as partners and opportunities, but as obstacles to be avoided. A multi-level approach linking local, national and regional planning is essential to integrate cities and fully unlock the potential of corridors. Corridors that take urban development into account can enhance the integrative power of cities. Cities located along these corridors are not merely transit points; they serve as anchor hubs for markets, supply chains, innovation and cross-border co-operation.
The event opened with a framing presentation on Africa’s urbanisation dynamics and the role cities can play in regional integration, delivered by Margherita Fadda, Policy Analyst at the Sahel and West Africa Club. This was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Anton Cartwright, Associate Fellow at the African Centre for Cities, featuring Jens Aerts, Managing Director of the Office for Sustainable Land & Urban Management; Victoria Flattau, Senior Urban Development Officer at the African Development Bank; Vymala Thuron, Director of the Funder Management Group at Shelter Afrique; and Ibrah Wahabou, Head of Infrastructure Project Preparation at the African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD).
Ibrah Wahabou of AUDA-NEPAD highlighted the need to systematically consider cities as a key component of infrastructure development and planning. Corridor management currently tends to view cities as obstacles and sources of complexity. This must change if corridors are to fully realise their potential:
The gap between urbanisation dynamics and corridor planning is not a knowledge gap and the OECD has highlighted this through the Africapolis publication that clearly demonstrate for years that data is available and the information to take the right decision is there. The gap is more about co-ordination, governance and design; and design starts with project preparation. Project preparation is where the response starts. (..) We do not factor urbanisation as a key component of infrastructure development and planning. Feasibility by default does not include cities by default, and where it does, information is not complete.
Vymala Thuron, Director of the Funder Management Group at Shelter Afrique:
How do you balance the need for scale, and the sensitivity of location and where people want to live? When looking at the housing supply chain, you can unpack a lot of information. What is striking is that today regional integration and urbanisation are accelerating, however, the financial system is not structured to match scale. When we talk about regional integration, how to think local and move global? How do we ensure that we are looking at production, volatility and macroeconomics and geopolitics influencing the cost of material, how are we including that in the project design, and how are we finally structuring the deal at this level?
Victoria Flattau, Senior Urban Development Officer at the African Development Bank:
I am currently working on the Lobito corridor, connecting Zambia and Angola, and as an urban focal point, I am able to support our task manager who is coming from the transport subsector and say "we need to actually look at the logistics along this corridor, the municipalities, and the communities, and how can we bring their voice in the design and structuring of this type of investment".
With the help of UMDF, we can see where there are gaps, and we can help elevate the voice of the subnational. A lot of times it's going to be through the economic sector: perhaps there is a gap in looking at community benefits, perhaps there is a gap in creating these urban nodes, how they can grow and connect one another along the corridor. (...) If we can show the cost benefit analysis, we can help leverage the social environmental angle in a more impactful way, that will help align the visions of the political parties as well. They will be able to say "we are) not only investing in this infrastructure, we are investing in our people, we are investing in the future growth of the country and of the region itself".
Jens Aerts, Managing Director of Office for Sustainable Land & Urban Management:
It’s important to have a cascade of planning, where all levels of engagement are involved. Using the multilateral existence of countries, not just cities, not just national government, it’s also the regional and country level, with a mechanism to have plans together, with clear accountabilities.
I am currently working in Pakistan with the World Bank, where we work in a large corridor, where (we) insisted not only to have a regional economic plan, but also in urban development plans in cities along that corridor. That works very well, there is a co-ordination of the World Bank, provincial countries and also local authorities. (...)
Especially in Ethiopia, everything is (driven by) top-down (planning), and there is a tendency that international finance institutions also plan top-down, because (these are) large-scale, continental corridors. You really need to support cities, and the region, to make their own plans. To also have in the plan, what is your economical DNAs, what are the methodologies and mechanisms that you can also explain and prove that, and exercise on return on investment and where you can engage private sectors, in very local, granular investment schemes.
A warm thank you to our key partners at the African Development Bank Group, African Centre for Cities, African Union Development Agency-NEPAD, Shelter Afrique Development Bank, UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) and OSLUM | Office for Sustainable Land & Urban Management, for making these conversations possible.
