The youth are the future of Africa’s cities

African ministers of housing and urban development recently met in Abuja, Nigeria, where they agreed on a common position on the world’s New Urban Agenda, known as Habitat III, to be adopted later this year.

The challenges of urbanisation require policy makers, especially in African countries, to take all necessary measures to develop new plans to draw the full benefits of urbanisation - including job creation, industrialisation, trade and commerce, and innovation.

Urbanisation has been recognised as one of the most significant global trends in the 21st century.

Currently, more than 50 per cent of the world’s population resides in urban areas.

Rapid urban population growth means increasing demand for urban land, particularly for housing.

Urban areas are crucial for national development as most of a country’s wealth is created in its cities.

Given the contribution of cities to the national economy, the future of African countries will be determined by the productivity of urban areas and the extent to which their growth and the accompanying challenges are managed.

For instance, in Kenya, economic activities in urban areas account for 55 per cent of the GDP.

It is projected that 80 per cent of future economic growth will be in the cities.

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

Like other countries in Africa and elsewhere in the world, Kenya’s development policies and plans should integrate the contribution of urban areas to ensure that they generate prosperity for all.

Youth are the urban future, yet many of them lack employment. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the jobless in Kenya are young people.

We have a common responsibility to review the place of young people in urban areas by putting in place practical actions to improve the livelihoods of the growing population of young people in towns.

In particular, Kenya must engineer sustainable urbanisation by supporting labour- and skill-intensive economic activities to create jobs for the youth and reduce poverty.

This can be done by nurturing the growth of high-productivity activities, particularly manufacturing and services, which benefit from agglomeration economies.

Policy and institutional interventions should ensure that productivity in the manufacturing sector increases at the pace of urbanisation.

Secondly, there is a need to improve productivity in the agricultural sector to transform rural-urban economies to achieve sustainable urbanisation.

A vibrant agricultural sector raises labour productivity in the rural economy. This would in turn reduce rural-urban migration.

The government should redouble its efforts to make agriculture appealing to the youth to provide employment. Increasing investment in agriculture should also be a priority to address growing youth unemployment.

HOUSING COSTS

Thirdly, the government must address the issue of the high cost of housing that is pushing young people to live in informal settlements.

It must develop a comprehensive urban planning policy to ensure that rapid urban growth leads to employment creation and economic growth, and does not result in mass production of slums, informality, and illegality.

Recent studies paint a sad picture of an unacceptable reality that about 70 per cent of the population of urban areas in Kenya lives in slums, which do not have basic infrastructure and services and face difficult conditions that erode living standards and human dignity.

Urbanisation presents realities that require thoughtful management to fulfil expectations and provide better lives for the people, especially the youth.

Indeed, the government must do everything possible to ensure that urbanisation works for the youth, not against them.

Mr Obonyo is the author of the Conversations about the Youth in Kenya. [email protected].