Over the next three decades, Africa’s cities will double in population, adding 704 million new urban residents and bringing the total urban population to 1.4 billion by 2050—making Africa the continent with the second-largest urban population after Asia. This rapid growth will drive a significant expansion of built-up areas. How can African cities make room for this additional urban population?
Following the virtual launch of the report Africa's Urbanisation Dynamics 2025: Planning for Urban Expansion, held on 6 March 2025, the Sahel and West Africa Club (OECD/SWAC) will further explore this question by organising a series of webinars. Based on the report’s key findings, these webinars will delve into specific, urgent and interrelated aspects of urban growth: land governance, urban financing and housing.
Ensuring access to land and land tenure security are fundamental for urban planning: for the public sector land is needed for roads, open spaces and public services; and for households and businesses in the form of developable parcels and lots. Yet, land access problems are increasing at the same pace as urbanisation: coexisting land tenure systems, rapid land use change, informal land markets and opaque land values make it difficult to manage urban land. Besides, urban land governance involves a diversity of actors including landowners and users, land professionals, local, municipal and national planning authorities, but also investors and land brokers. Unpacking these land governance systems and understanding the ways in which urban and peri-urban land are acquired is a crucial step of planning for sustainable urbanisation.
Peri-urban zones are particularly crucial for urban planning and land governance: while they are progressively absorbed by horizontally expanding cities, the land status is oftentimes still rural and dominant land uses are farming and agriculture. As an effect of urbanisation, land in peri-urban areas undergoes various transformations, including land use-related, legal, spatial and administrative changes. Agricultural land is increasingly subdivided, demarcated, titled and thereby transformed into a market commodity. Rarely are these processes regulated and co-ordinated by public authorities on a larger scale. The informal nature of land transformations and transactions in peri-urban areas represents a challenge for urban governance. Informed urban planning is based on a clear understanding of peri-urban land tenure regimes, markets and administration.
This webinar will bring together experts, land professionals and decisionmakers to address the nexus of land and urban planning: which are the current needs, but also the challenges of land acquisition for urban planning? How can land in cities and urban fringes be governed sustainably, taking into account both existing land rights and the need for land for urban expansion?
