Nature, health and climate have always been connected. The COVID-19 pandemic is adding further impetus to the need for us to harness this connection to co-develop solutions with our cities that preserve the natural world that sustains us, combat the climate crisis, and enhance physical and mental well-being.

KwaDukuza (formerly known as Stanger), a local municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal, was selected as the winner, beating seven other entries, four of which were major cities.

Mobility of the future goes beyond public transit, densification and electrification to include health and well-being and attend to the ways in which city goers interact with mobility and their cities and the impact it has on their daily lives.

Sufficient access to energy and resilient infrastructure are essential to realise the potential of African cities. Three years ago, a series of local-level solutions made five communities very happy. We revisit them to find out if the solutions were, in fact, sustainable.

The Reflecting Cities project brought together leaders and technical officials from four major African cities to rethink how they view their cities’ most pressing sustainability challenges, namely traffic, urban greening and waste. After a series of engagements, they go home with a practical toolkit outlining the solutions they themselves came up with.

An open letter from our Regional Director, Kobie Brand

READ THIS ARTICLE IN ENGLISH La pandémie COVID-19 met nos communautés, nos gouvernements, nos systèmes de santé et nos économies à rude épreuve. Pendant cette période, beaucoup de nos villes sont confrontées à d’immenses crises sanitaires qui s’ajoutent aux défis cumulatifs et sans précèdent du développement durable. Il sera donc d’autant plus important de renforcer … Continued

Urban metabolism is an intuitive concept aimed at managing resource consumption and making cities more sustainable. The concept is most studied in the Global North, and there is little insight into how we implement urban metabolism principles in the Global South. Urban Intertwininga new ICLEI Africa project, intends to reframe the principles, tools and approaches of urban metabolism to be practical, tangible and applicable to cities on our continent. This will be achieved by embracing the decentralised, informal, fluid and interconnected nature of our resource systems to shape thriving, equitable African cities.