Africa is home to the world’s youngest population and the world’s fastest growing cities. City planners and policy makers across the continent are addressing the challenges that these demographic trends pose to the creation of an environment in which young people can thrive.

The Smart Cities Mission in India, launched in 2015, is a unique experiment undertaken with the aim of improving people’s quality of life in cities. It bypasses traditional institutional approaches and employs innovative methods to achieve its targets.

Urbanisation is the mega trend reshaping Africa. The continent’s population is rapidly growing and is expected to reach 4 billion people by the end of the century. This is coupled with unprecedented rural-to-urban migration, driven largely by young people.

A 25% rise in food insecurity increases the risk of conflict by 36%, while a 25% increase in the number of people without access to clean water increases the likelihood of conflict by 18%, says Institute for Economics and Peace.

Urban forests, trees and green spaces play a pivotal role in enhancing the quality of urban life, but their benefits are still not equally accessible to all, according to this new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In this report, the transformation of 100 cities across India as part of Smart Cities Mission (SCM) is examined through the lens of SDGs. The mission has reached the lives of more than 100 million urban dwellers in India. The 100 Smart Cities are representative of India’s urban geography.

The case study aims to take a snapshot of the municipal waste management ecosystems of certain countries in the Global South, particularly focusing on private sector-led good practices, inclusive growth and sustainable financing. The countries were selected upon criteria such as GDP, total waste production and geographic variety.

This study proposes an actionable framework to guide government stakeholders (state or national) that are either at the ideation stage or the early stages of implementing Urban Employment Programmes (UEPs) in India.

African cities and local governments are under increasing pressure to provide infrastructure and services to the growing population. Yet, most remain severely under-resourced, leaving them unable to make the necessary investments.

SDG11 provides a critical ‘entry point’ into the 2030 Agenda for urban decision-makers, stakeholders and community groups, who often engage in a voluntary or ad-hoc manner with both national and international processes.