Our Vision
"The achievement of the SDGs is in peril. We are alarmed that the progress on most of the SDGs is either moving much too slowly or has regressed below the 2015 baseline."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, 09/23
Creating the critical infrastructure and capabilities for just development
Precious time and billions of dollars are wasted worldwide on slow and ineffective urban development that fails to last. Whether the problem is infrastructure development, slum upgrading, green energy, disaster preparedness, or climate adaptation, cities require meaningful knowledge and data representing detailed community needs and priorities. However, most African cities currently lack the capability to acquire and utilize this information.
Social and technological innovations pioneered by networked coalitions of slum dwellers, technologists, and researchers now allow cities and local communities to address these challenges together, at scale, everywhere, and at a locally sustainable cost.
TransformYourCity builds on demonstrated impacts of work in thousands of informal settlements in hundreds of cities, establishing that spatial data, collaborative planning tools, and associated stakeholder knowledge ecosystems are the key to just and widespread urban development and climate resilience.
Across West Africa – the world’s most dynamic and challenging region – TransformYourCity will deploy this collaborative approach alongside millions of people, starting with disadvantaged slum communities, creating detailed maps and urban plans that place everyone on the same map and enable practical and just solutions.
Impact studies show that the resulting open data infrastructure and census of informal settlements will directly benefit hundreds of millions of people in poverty and unleash billions of dollars in general economic benefits.
Creating an African network of capable cities based on the participatory power of peer collaboration and open data will seed a wider movement leveraging community knowledge and leadership, science and technology towards urgently needed sustainable and resilient urban development.
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
Jane Jacobs