The Africa Urban Lab (AUL) and The Kings’ Foundation have announced their collaboration to advance research and innovation in urban growth and expansion, urban leadership development, and excellence in urban innovation across Africa.
The Africa Urban Lab is dedicated to training the African city builders, planners, and urban leaders of tomorrow to harness rapid urbanization for human prosperity.
The King’s Foundation works globally to create sustainable communities through the Foundation’s placemaking projects and to transform lives through their practical education programmes.
Key aspects of this partnership include:
Urban Expansion in Africa
Urban Expansion Program & Toolkit: Support the dissemination and implementation of Urban Expansion principles and the Rapid Planning Toolkit in 15 rapidly growing, underserved secondary cities across Africa to guide future urban growth.
Research & Education: Identify future research and education initiatives on urban expansion for potential collaboration.
Partnership Development: Strengthen partnerships with African cities, universities, civil society organizations, and local initiatives to advance urban expansion strategies continent-wide.
2. New Cities in Africa
Knowledge Exchange: Share best practices and technical expertise in planning and developing new cities.
Capacity Building: Collaborate on training, research, and education projects focused on new city development.
Living Urban Labs: Establish select new city projects as experimental urban labs to test, evaluate, and scale innovative urban policy solutions.
Speaking on the partnership, the AUL’s Founder and Director, Kurtis Lockhart, said, “the Africa Urban Lab is thrilled to be working with The King’s Foundation to scale-up urban expansion planning work across the continent, and to help leverage new cities as living urban labs where cutting-edge urban policies can be tested, and successful policies pinpointed and replicated more broadly. The King’s Foundation has been one of the leaders in promoting sustainable urbanization across the world, and the AUL couldn’t agree more with the urgency and importance of rapid urbanization over the next several decades. This mega-trend is truly one of the most pressing public policy imperatives of the 21st century.”
Leslie Ohomele, Associate Director of International Projects at The King’s Foundation added, “The King's Foundation looks forward to working with the Africa Urban Lab to promote and implement research, educational, and practical initiatives relating to rapid urbanization, urban expansion, and sustainable urban development. We are motivated by the objectives of articles 7.1 to 7.4 of the Declaration on Sustainable Urbanism agreed at CHOGM 2022, and we hope to benefit from AUL's considerable expertise on the subject of urban expansion, as well as benefit from their presence and experience in the sub-Saharan African region.”
This collaboration reflects AUL and The King’s Foundation’s commitment to sustainable urban growth in African cities, leveraging cutting-edge research and planning in urban expansion and new city development.
About Africa Urban Lab (AUL):
The Africa Urban Lab (AUL) at the African School of Economics Zanzibar (ASE-Z) aims to train the African city builders, planners, and city leaders of tomorrow to harness rapid urbanization for human prosperity. The AUL will support cutting-edge research on urban issues, provide world-class education in urban studies, and promote applied knowledge through practical learning experiences in real-world settings.
About The King’s Foundation:
The King’s Foundation (The Foundation) is a charity founded by King Charles III and was first formed in 1990. Inspired by the vision and values of His Majesty, The Foundation builds and supports communities where people, places and the planet can coexist in harmony. The charity offers education courses and spearheads placemaking and regeneration projects in the UK and overseas.
For more information about this collaboration, the AUL, or other inquiries, please contact Heba Elhanafy ([email protected]).