During the next 16 years, all of the world’s 10 fastest growing cities are going to be in Africa. If this growth is a process of people voting with their feet, as last year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Paul Romer once put it, these cities are winning.
Yet urbanization in many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is not delivering the benefits of people and firms clustering together. Historically, cities have been the drivers of productivity and engines of economic growth.
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One key factor preventing this potential from being unlocked is how cities are governed. It matters who makes the decisions and how they do it. It also matters how decisions are subsequently implemented.
Cross-city experiences, which we detail in our newest policy paper, have shown that tangible policy options that target underlying institutions can lead to better governance outcomes.
