ICLEI Implementing for IMPACT in African cities and regions

World Habitat Day

Bold action. Proven impact. Inclusive change.

This World Habitat Day, and throughout Urban October, we’re highlighting how ICLEI Africa is making an impact across the continent, celebrating 30 years of supporting African cities and regions to create a more resilient, sustainable urban Africa.

The immense, interconnected urban sustainability challenges our world, and our continent in particular, currently face need to be tackled in an integrated, inclusive way with tenacity, boldness and proven expertise. We are doing just that.

ICLEI has the unique ability to not only elevate the voices of local and subnational governments at the global level, but to implement projects on the ground, at the local level, that really transform cities and regions.

We work with ALL local and subnational governments, large and small, wherever they are on their sustainability journey, across a diverse spectrum of sustainability issues.

Did you know? We currently have active projects in 121 cities across 41 African countries, all helping people to live better lives.

Building and strengthening partnerships that deliver | We don’t do it alone. We work collaboratively within the strong global network of #ICLEI, and with many other partners and funders to broaden our impact! Just one of our projects alone, #AfriFOODlinks, is successfully being delivered by 26 partners to drive change in 65+ cities in Africa and Europe.

Connecting through culture | Another people-focused project dedicated to harnessing and enhancing cultural benefits and local knowledge for climate action, the #RacetoResilience Culture Initiative, connects 75 cities in Africa and the USA to build climate resilience by embedding culture, heritage and the arts into community adaptation strategies.

Moving closer to the action | To serve cities better, we have grown our physical footprint too. In addition to our Cape Town headquarters, we have an office in Mauritius, and seven country focal points, as well as various project offices, in cities throughout Africa.

Accelerating delivery | Recently, ICLEI Africa has also established three pan-African centres of excellence – focusing on finance, food and clean cooking – designed to further unlock opportunities and accelerate city-scale implementation.

Sharing knowledge and building capacity

We have trained over 8,000 stakeholders and produced over 600 knowledge products and tools in the past 5 years. We offer more than 40 technical and capacity building services.
Featuring: Circular and Resilient Urban Water Management | A compendium of solutions for local and regional governments, Cameroon adaptation finance landscape tool, Urban food systems infographic & fact sheet | Food is urban, Clean cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa explainer video

Making learning accessible
As part of this training, we built a learning portal when the pandemic halted travel, to ensure our offerings to African cities and regions remained uninterrupted: #LearnWithICLEIAfrica. Explore courses that range from climate change resilience to nature-based solutions.
Featuring: COURSE | Empowering urban communities | People-centred decision making for nature-based solutions

Building impact bridges
In our work as an intermediary, we convene, coordinate, and bridge gaps to build a shared understanding – leveraging our deep knowledge of cities, trusted relationships and technical and political expertise to broker impactful local action through policies, projects and partnerships.
Featuring: Our Centres of Excellence

Driving change through our passionate people

Our 75 dynamic, multi-skilled professional staff have a collective 159 degrees and a combined 745 years of experience, and they speak a total of 27 languages. See our team here.

Living our core values in everything we do
Our team is accountable to a strong set of company values and are committed to helping people live better lives.

Harnessing innovation and creativity
We apply innovation methodologies and context-appropriate solutions to harness opportunities and address challenges.

Alongside this, we are using creative approaches, including futuring and visioning, to help leaders look beyond immediate crises, anticipate risks and imagine resilient, desirable futures.