A community of practice on circular development is emerging in Africa. ICLEI Africa and partners are articulating what circularity can mean for our cities, with governance strategies that support informality, traditional knowledge and ecological regeneration as vital aspects of urbanisation.
Food initiatives in cities not only contribute to food security, but they also benefit a city’s economy and biodiversity. ICLEI Africa’s recent research shows that beyond these benefits, urban food gardens can also play a role in the social transformation of a city.
The advantages of indigenous foods include reconnecting us with our roots; offering higher nutritional value than their exotic counterparts; and supporting a resilient and sustainable food source, especially in the face of climate change (De Bruin et al., 2018).
Lessons from a food systems webinar
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.
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.