Applying emerging technologies to localize sustainable development and empower informal settlement communities across sub-Saharan Africa

Over 20 years ago, UN-Habitat focused the world’s attention “on the challenge of slums” and proclaimed it “the face of urbanization in the 21st century”. Two main issues emerged then: The first was the recognition that there was almost no data on fast changing urban centers in low and middle-income nations, and especially on their informal settlements. This included spatial data (maps of buildings, services, other infrastructure and amenities) as well as the socioeconomic and health status of these populations. The second issue was the first estimate of the magnitude of the problem, of about 1 billion people worldwide living in slums. This global challenge led to new international policy targets aimed at significantly mitigating slums and extreme poverty in the Millennium and then Sustainable Development Goals and in the creation of coalition organizations such as Cities Alliance dedicated to this cause.

In the intervening two decades some things have changed dramatically while others have not. Our knowledge of slums and urban development has changed radically thanks to new collaborative mapping, new community organization models, and new science and technology. Thanks to these developments and their integration in new workflows we now see the ability to systematically identify and track urban poverty and informality in ways that are community- and place-based, rigorous, and verifiable, encapsulating the principle of “putting people first in the digital area”. On the other hand, “the world remains far off the mark in reducing the proportion and absolute numbers of slum dwellers” as concluded in the most recent update on SDG 11 by UN-Habitat. Also, in 2023 the UN-Habitat members assembly adopted a resolution in support of the Global Action Plan (GAP) to accelerate the transformation of slums and informal settlements to achieve the stated 2030 goals. Improved data and knowledge of slums and informal settlements are considered crucial for localizing the goals; informing collaborative efforts, plans and policies; and tracking progress to ensure that interventions are inclusive, effective and cost-efficient.

The proposed event, hosted collaboratively by Slum Dwellers International (SDI), Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and the Million Neighbourhoods Project at the University of Chicago and supported by Cities Alliance and UCLG, will discuss concrete ways in which new data and open mapping technologies in the hands of organised communities and local governments are i) facilitating equitable multistakeholder coalitions for slum transformation city by city, ii) promoting the reimagination of our cities through data informed inclusive urban planning and iii) strengthening accountability and financing opportunities by tracking local verifiable and transparent changes over time (progress or deterioration) in detailed land uses, (climate) risks, access to services and human development at the settlement level.