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. The report is based on Africapolis.org, a geo‑spatial database covering 7 600 urban agglomerations in 50 countries. Read on

“What’s the role of international institutions in supporting African smart cities?” SWAC Secretariat Director Laurent Bossard presented the Africapolis database as a concrete example of how international organisations can help promote more understanding about the dynamics that shape Africa’s fast growing cities. He was a keynote speaker at the Afric’Up Startup Africa Summit, which gathered some 3 000 entrepreneurs, investors and innovators from 24-25 September 2019 in Tunis. Read on

Official Development Assistance for urban development is mostly channelled to big cities, benefitting some 63 million people or37% of the region’s total urban population of 171 million people. About 45% of urban development projects were implemented in agglomerations with more than 300 000 inhabitants. However, nearly half of West Africa’s urban dwellers live in small and medium-size cities. Considering West Africa’s rapidly growing small and mid-sized cities, development partners need to better target and scale up their support. Read on

UNESCO, in collaboration with the Italian Agency for Development Co-operation (AICS), launched on 13 July 2019 in Dakar a project on migration issues. Covering eight countries, the 3-million EUR project aims to better inform young people in West and Central Africa about the opportunities and challenges of international migration. The project will focus on capacity-building activities for young journalists and media representatives with a view to producing reliable information and creating a more balanced coverage of migration issues. Read on