Representatives from seven African cities visited the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo, Fortaleza and Curitiba, to discover inspiring solutions being implemented by local authorities to promote sustainable urban development.
The study tour, which took place between August 5 to August 13, was organised as part of the African Development Bank’s African Cities Program (ACP), launched in 2020.
The delegation consisted of 19 high-level municipal staff drawn from planning departments, finance departments, transportation services, and others, working in eight African cities which are already benefiting from the Urban and Municipal Development Fund and C40: Nairobi (Kenya), Beira (Mozambique), Tshwane (South Africa), Lomé (Togo), Dakar (Senegal), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Freetown (Sierra Leone).
Financed by the South-to-South Cooperation Trust Fund (SSCTF) in collaboration with the Bank Group’s Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF), with the participation of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the trip was inspired by the idea that peer exchanges between cities in the Global South can enrich the urban planning approaches and strategies of decision-makers in African municipalities.
“Africa’s rapid urban transition has many similarities with that experienced by Latin America in the 1950s and 60s. By visiting Brazil today, we can see firsthand, and with hindsight, how cities have absorbed this growth; which solutions have worked, and which have not,” said Darline Tognia, UMDF Coordinator and leader of the delegation.
A statement by the AfDB noted that the visit began in Sao Paulo, the largest city in South America, where innovation and sustainability coexist with complex urban and environmental challenges. At Parque Bristol, a popular neighbourhood, participants visited a publicly run multipurpose facility for children, which benefits from a “School Feeding Program”, a large-scale municipal effort to promote healthy eating, while also supporting urban agriculture.
As part of the tour, the group also met with waste recycling cooperatives, visited an electric bus maintenance center, learnt about public transport by river-boats, and how informal settlements are being upgraded by the municipality trough the provision of basic infrastructure, improved transport integration, social housing programs and environmental protection measures.
The Urban and Municipal Development Fund envisioned the trip as a means of consolidating a network of African cities interested in adopting urban solutions with an inclusive and human-centered approach.
Previous tours include the ones organised in 2022 to Copenhagen, Denmark; and Malmo, Sweden, to discover the renowned sustainable urban planning strategies of Nordic countries.