African Cities in Action Advancing South South Cooperation for Integrated Urban Developmen

This networking event will serve as an African-led platform to advance South-South cooperation and peer learning among African countries on integrated urban development in support of Agenda 2063 and the New Urban Agenda. The session will bring together experiences from across the continent, including the General Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP, Egypt) as one reference case, alongside perspectives from Cameroon, Mozambique, regional development finance institutions, and global policy partners. Speakers will exchange experiences in shaping national and local visions, strategies, and policy frameworks for sustainable urban development, highlighting transferable and adaptable practices that respond to diverse African contexts. Building on ongoing collaboration between GOPP and UN-Habitat Egypt, the event emphasizes African-led expertise, multi-level governance, and the operationalization of national urban policies, spatial planning systems, institutional coordination, financing mechanisms, and implementation capacity. The session is designed to enable early, multi-directional knowledge exchange and partnership-building, ensuring that dialogue directly informs implementation while addressing shared challenges such as informal urbanization, financing gaps, and institutional fragmentation. By convening countries at different stages of urban policy development, the event will foster trust, identify areas of mutual interest, and lay the foundation for sustained cooperation and knowledge exchange across African cities. Discussions will demonstrate successful practices and challenges, including implementation gaps, financing constraints, institutional fragmentation, and the need for inclusive, people-centered urban development models. Objectives • Advance South–South cooperation by enabling peer knowledge exchange among African countries on integrated urban development and planning. • Strengthen collective capacity for implementation by sharing experiences on institutional coordination, financing mechanisms, and translating urban plans into action. • Position African-led expertise as a driver of sustainable urban transformation, promoting context-specific solutions that respond to diverse national and local realities. • Catalyze strategic partnerships and collaboration among governments, regional institutions, development finance actors, and technical partners to support scalable and inclusive urban development outcomes.