As 2024 draws to a close, we at the Africa Urban Lab (AUL) look back on a truly transformative inaugural year. While we launched the AUL a few short months ago, we’ve already achieved some remarkable milestones. And we’re more excited than ever about building on these successes in 2025.
AUL’s mission is to train the African city builders, planners, and urban leaders of tomorrow to harness rapid urbanization for human prosperity. An essential part in fulfilling this mission is building a ‘community of practice’ of African city builders across the continent.
In 2024, we took significant steps toward this goal by establishing partnerships with some of the continent’s most well-respected academic institutions. Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were signed with Ardhi University, the University of Nairobi, Makerere University, and the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras Zanzibar Campus. These partnerships are not just formal agreements; they represent a commitment to co-creating knowledge, sharing expertise, and nurturing the next generation of urban professionals, urban researchers, and city leaders.
And the journey doesn’t stop there. Looking ahead to 2025, we are finalizing collaborations with the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), the University of Dar es Salaam, and Addis Ababa University, among others. The AUL team is now hugely looking forward to operationalizing these university partnerships in 2025 and beyond.
On top of university and academic partnerships, the AUL was proud to forge several partnerships with cities-focused development organizations in 2024. We formalized partnerships with UN-Habitat, with United Cities Local Government-Africa (UCLG-A), and with Ethiopia’s African Leadership Excellence Academy (AFLEX). By working together with these urban-focused implementing organizations and the above university partners, the AUL stands as a much-needed bridge between frontier urban research and urgent policy action.
One of the proudest moments of 2024 was welcoming our inaugural cohort for the AUL’s very first Professional Diploma in Urban Development. This program has brought together 38 talented students from across Africa and beyond.
These individuals represent a diverse array of experiences, perspectives, and aspirations—from several mayors or deputy mayors, to directors of national ministries of planning, all the way to freshly minted urban planning undergraduates—all united by a shared commitment to shaping the future of the continent’s cities. (Here’s a more detailed breakdown of our first Diploma program.)
Their journey is just beginning, and we’re excited to see how they will apply their learning to real-world challenges, becoming catalysts for change in their communities and beyond.
In 2024, the Africa Urban Lab stepped onto the global stage, speaking at key events such as the inaugural Africa Urban Forum in Addis Ababa, UN-Habitat’s World Urban Forum in Cairo, and numerous other conferences and seminars—both online and in-person. The AUL even hosted our very own, first Public Talk with world-renowned urban planner, Alain Bertaud, of New York University’s Marron Institute and George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.
These platforms allowed us to share our vision, learn from others, and connect with like-minded organizations dedicated to urban transformation. The connections we’ve forged this year set us up for an exciting 2025. We can’t wait to start implementing and actioning these partnerships, further inculcating a ‘community of practice’ amongst our university partners, cities-focused development organizations, city leaders and urban policymakers, and other urban professionals.
As we turn the page to a new year, we’ll be building upon the momentum already generated from 2024. The year ahead promises to be even more exciting as we:
Operationalize partnerships to translate urban research into needed policy action. In particular, we’re excited about greenlighting the implementation of several urban expansion programs across several cities in the region.
Solidify and expand our network of partnerships with universities, cities-focused development organizations, and city builders.
Welcome a new cohort of AUL students and continue supporting our current cohort as they transition from learners to practitioners.
Deepen our involvement in regional and global forums and conferences.
None of the achievements this year would have been possible without the unwavering support of our partners, the hard work of our students, and the dedication of the AUL team. Thank you for being an integral part of the Africa Urban Lab’s story. Here’s to a remarkable 2025—and beyond!
