Thinkpiece:Cities of Hope: Accelerating access to urban opportunities for young people in the developing world

My contribution to this discussion about cities and employment generation relates particularly to my longstanding experience studying the cities of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with reference to a range of livelihood issues, including incomes, employment, and low-income housing. My focus has often been on the experiences of migrants to the city who still make up a very large proportion of the total population in many SSA large cities, although probably less than half nowadays.1 I have used both secondary data and my own surveys to examine urban migrants’ livelihoods and, importantly, their views and perceptions of the cities in which they live and their expectations (not to be confused with aspirations) for their futures. During most of the over three decades of this work SSA urban economies have been weak and became much weaker with corresponding serious changes in ordinary urban residents’ incomes and welfare. Both primary and secondary data have indicated that, as would be expected from migration theory, in some countries this has led to reduction in the length of stay of migrants in towns, due to their intense economic vulnerability. There is also significant differentiation between countries which is important to recognize. The differences can generally be explained with reference to local and global economic forces. These observations are largely derived from SSA regions beyond South Africa and the following discussion needs to be understood in this light. In many ways South Africa is different but there are also important lessons to derive from elsewhere and specific reference is sometimes made to South Africa’s situation below.