The Urbanization & Industrialization (UI) Framing Paper is one of four papers outlining the research agenda for the Africa Urban Lab. Historically, GDP per capita and urbanization have increased together, largely because cities have been drivers of industrialization. However, in contemporary Africa, urbanization has generated much less industrialization (Gollin et al., 2016). Research can help us better understand why the decoupling of urbanization and industrialization has occurred and how to more effectively harness the benefits of density, including agglomeration economies, to promote employment-creating economic growth. The Urbanization & Industrialization research cluster at the Africa Urban Lab aims to rigorously answer these questions and pinpoint the most effective policy options to restore this link across the continent.