With more than half of Africans expected to live in cities by 2050, we need to turn urban areas into engines of development, African Economic Ou

The study (pdf), produced by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN’s Development Programme, said authorities must create inclusive growth, jobs, better housing and social safety nets, and improve links with rural areas to boost development in urban areas, now home to about 472 million Africans.

“As two-thirds of the investments in urban infrastructure to 2050 have yet to be made, the scope is large for new, wide-ranging urban policies to turn African cities and towns into engines of sustainable structural transformation,” the report said. “In order to seize this ‘urbanisation dividend’, a number of bold policy reforms are necessary.”

In 1950, 14% of Africans lived in urban areas compared with 40% today. By the mid-2030s, half are expected to live in cities and towns, with the proportion peaking at 56% around 2050. To put this in a historical context, it took Europe 110 years to move from 15% urban dwellers in 1800 to 40% in 1910.

Many urban dwellers are young – more than half of Africa’s population (pdf) are under the age of 18.5 and 19% are aged between 15 and 24 years old.

Young people have been variously described as a reason for hope or a potential source of instability. The report said nine out of 10 working young people in sub-Saharan Africa are poor or near poor, and yet the working-age urban population now supports more family members than comparative populations elsewhere.