Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2020
Produced by the Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD), “Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2020: Africapolis, Mapping a New Urban Geography,” reveals the profound urban transformations occurring in Africa. Its goal is to help policy makers develop more inclusive and targeted policy options that are in line with African realities. It highlights the diverse and multifaceted nature of Africa’s contemporary urban transition — a diversity which is rarely captured in existing analyses and narratives. For example, it shows that between 2000 and 2015, 2 500 new urban agglomerations emerged in Africa, revealing the existence of hundreds of urban agglomerations that had not been recorded in official statistics. These agglomerations are rooted in rural transformations that are giving rise to new and unique urban forms, increasingly blurring the lines between rural and urban. The report is based on Africapolis.org, a geo‑spatial database covering 7 600 urban agglomerations in 50 countries.
