Davos and Downpours: Putting "Cities, Not Slums", on the Global Agenda

The perennial downpours are here once again in Accra. When the rains come, the city stops. The gutters overflow. The roads become impassable. The streets are water-logged. The cars groan as the pot-holes suddenly become mini craters. Workers arrive late, if at all. And for the one in six people who live in informal housing in Ghana, it means kiosks/makeshift homes are flooded and for many more, it means preparedness because invariably, lights will go off at any minute. Ghana’s urban population has expanded from 36% in 1990 to 57% in 2019[1], and it will continue to grow as migrants move in search of greener pastures, owing to climate change, economic hardship and at times, conflict. What’s happening here is a microcosm of a much larger movement of migration the world over, which requires a bigger-picture type of solution: a joined-up approach between governments, civil society, the private sector including project developers and local communities. A solution called “social development zones” wherein these relevant stakeholders come together to uplift communities by reducing regulatory barriers to the formal economy, notably, by making it simpler for people to have formal home-ownership rights and work permits, to stimulate productivity, in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals. That’s the solution being offered by SDZ Alliance at Davos this week, who we’re fortunate to be partnered with, and this short video, which captures the need for SDZs in Brazil and Ghana[2], explains more.

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*Photo credit: Lema Concepts

[1] https://borgenproject.org/fwd-slums-in-ghana/

[2] We were fortunate enough to have produced the Ghana component of this video in collaboration with Lema Concepts. A huge thank you to them for their time and effort.