URBANIZATION CHALLENGES IN

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

• African cities are gowing fast:

urbanization rates exceed 4 - 5% per annum

• Slums absorb about ¾ of the

population growth

• The number of poor is expected to reach

400 million in 2015 – equivalent to 46%

of Africa’s population

• Increasing inequalities

in income distribution

and slow economic

growth increased the

proportion of people living

with less than $2 per day:

from 90 million in 1960s

to 233 million in the late 1990s

• In 2030 the sub-saharan cities will host

over 50% of the population and absorb

87% of the

poulation

growth.

• In 2001, 166 million people – 72% of Africa’s

urban population – lived in slums

• With no effective pro-poor policies, urban slum populations will double every 15 years

• Millennium Development Goals

Target 11 Guidelines

• Slum Upgrading Policies

• Slum Upgrading Facility (SUF)

• Cities Without Slums (CWS)

• Regional Urban Sector Profile

Study (RUSPS)

• In Africa 50% of the

urban population do not

have adequate water

supply

• 60% lack adequate sanitation

• Poor households pay 10 to 100 times as

much as the rich for water

• Water for African Cities

Programme

• Lake Victoria Initiative

• Collaboration with

African Development Bank and EU water facility

• Africa is home to an esimated 29.4 million

people infected with HIV/AIDS.

• GNP can shrink by up to 40% within 20

years because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

• Life expectancy is expected to fall by 30

years in some

countries.

• Slum dwellers are

more exposed to

the HIV risk.

• UN-HABITAT and Shelter for

Orphans

• Urban Management

Programme (UMP) –

HIV/AIDS through participatory

planning

• Africa hosts 30% of the world’s

refugees

• Disaster Management Programme

• Safer Cities Programme

• On going projects implemented in over 10

countries

• UN-HABITAT member of ECHA of the

United Nations

• Visibility and sensitization of the urbanization challenges in Africa

• Finalize the Regional Urban Sector Profile Study Programme and provide countries with baselines for urban interventions

• Support EC to publish the urban sector guidelines

• Agree on the modalities to support governance of the urban sector in Africa

• Take the outcome of this workshop to AMCHUD and to next GC of CSD 13 in NY

THANK YOU