The Africa Urban Lab (AUL) is a research center at the African School of Economics-Zanzibar focused on rapid urbanization across Africa. Our organization’s mission is two-fold. First, the AUL conducts frontier research on the challenges of and solutions to rapid urbanization on the continent. Second, we train the African city builders, planners, and urban leaders of tomorrow to harness rapid urbanization for human prosperity. You can read more about the AUL’s vision and motivation in our founding essay.
The AUL’s philosophy is that of a ‘teaching hospital.’ In medicine, students go through four years of medical school to learn the latest frontier knowledge, and then are paired with an experienced doctor in a ‘teaching hospital’ to understand how to apply the knowledge they’ve learned in the classroom in the real-world. Just as human bodies are complex phenomena, cities too are complex systems. The AUL is a ‘teaching hospital’ for urban leaders, bridging frontier research and policy action.
We conduct frontier research on African urbanization, currently focusing on four research clusters: Urban Expansion & the Periphery; Innovative Urban Governance; Urbanization & Industrialization; and Cities, Culture, & Technology.
Read more on our Research work here.
