From Commitment to Action Towards a New Urban Agenda Platform for Africa

Ten years after the adoption of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), African cities stand at a critical crossroads. Rapid urbanization, housing deficits, climate vulnerability, informality, and socio-spatial inequalities continue to challenge the realization of safe, inclusive, and resilient cities and communities across the continent. While global and regional mechanisms such as the New Urban Agenda Platform and the Asia-Pacific Urban Agenda Platform (AP-UAP) have strengthened coordination, knowledge exchange, and monitoring, Africa still lacks a dedicated regional platform to consolidate efforts, amplify African urban priorities, and accelerate NUA implementation. This side event marks the official launch of the Regional Platform for the New Urban Agenda for Africa, building on lessons learned from the global and Asia-Pacific experiences. The session will bring together national and local government officials, regional institutions, development partners, UN agencies, civil society, academia, and urban practitioners to collectively reflect on Africa’s urban trajectory and co-design a collaborative platform tailored to the continent’s realities. The event will facilitate an open dialogue grounded in lessons learned, good practices, and implementation challenges from past regional and global platforms, ensuring that the Africa NUA Platform responds to the continent’s specific urban realities and priorities. Through this collaborative process, participants will contribute to defining the platform’s vision, objectives, thematic focus areas, and partnerships, with the shared ambition of strengthening coordinated action to advance safe, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities across Africa. Discussions will focus on how such a platform can support policy coherence, peer learning, monitoring of NUA commitments, and multi-level partnerships to advance adequate housing, climate-resilient urban development, and inclusive communities. The session aims to move from dialogue to action by initiating a shared roadmap, identifying new partnerships, and mobilizing stakeholders to operationalize the Africa NUA Platform as a catalyst for safe, resilient, and sustainable urban development.