Climate change: Crosscutting report

Working Paper 27

Hayley Leck, Zakiyya Atkins, Luka Dreyer, Yakhuluntu Dubazana, Clara Marais, Lorena Pasquini, Tashi Piprek, Meggan Spires and Kate Strachan

February 2025

Abstract

Urban Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. This report synthesises the research conducted by the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) in 12 African cities across eight “domains” (key areas of urban power, policy and practice): housing; informal settlements; land and connectivity; structural transformation; neighbourhood and district economic development; youth and capability development; health, wellbeing and nutrition; and safety and security. The report focuses on climate-change-related findings across these domains, highlighting the importance of participatory approaches and inclusive planning to address the impacts of climate change on a range of complex urban challenges.

Urban growth often outpaces infrastructure and service delivery in African cities, including the provision of decent and affordable housing, leading to sprawling informal settlements and fragmented, poorly connected urban landscapes – heightening urban vulnerability to climate-related risks. To adapt to climate change and enhance resilience in urban areas, it is critical to upgrade informal settlements, strengthen land tenure and build affordable, low-emission, climate-resilient housing. Integrated solutions need to simultaneously address the challenges of security and the wellbeing of vulnerable populations. To improve food and nutrition security in the face of climate change, greater investment is needed in domestic food production and distribution, alongside findings ways to enhance the resilience of the agriculture and fishery sectors whilst reducing their emissions. Climate change disrupts urban economies by affecting productive infrastructure, livelihoods, key services and supply chains. Informal economies not only provide essential services and goods to urban residents, but also bolster cities’ adaptive capacity to environmental changes. Urban development strategies need to harness the informal sector’s potential for sustainable growth, enhancing millions of livelihoods and strengthening resilience to climate-related risks. Economic development and structural transformations should leverage low-carbon technologies to position African cities as global leaders in climate-resilient development. Empowering young people through education, training, economic development, entrepreneurship and technology access is also vital. The city cases examined in the report emphasise the importance of locally led actions, such as building coalitions which advocate and lobby for the informal sector. They suggest the need for integrated and multisectoral approaches, collaborative governance arrangements, and the ability to access and/or unlock finance.

Keywords

Urban resilience, climate adaptation and mitigation, informal settlements, housing and infrastructure, youth and inclusivity, participatory planning, economic development, sustainable urban governance, food security and nutrition