The African Ambassador for Inclusive Urban Governance and Climate-Resilient Development, Planner Gifty Nyarko, has called for urgent and inclusive action to address the worsening crises facing cities across Africa and the world.

Speaking to the press after the official commemoration of World Habitat Day 2025, Gifty Nyarko, who also serves as the National President of the Local Government Service Association of Physical Planners, noted that African cities are grappling with multiple challenges from climate shocks and displacement to deepening inequality and weak governance systems.

“Our cities are under siege from multiple fronts: climate shocks, displacement, inequality, and governance failures, but they are also our greatest hope. If we act boldly and inclusively, we can transform them into engines of resilience and social cohesion.”

Gifty Nyarko stressed the need to rethink who gets a voice in urban planning and crisis response as people living in informal settlements, including slum dwellers, women, youth, and displaced communities, must be seen as partners, not just statistics.

“Too often, the urban poor are treated as figures in reports,” she noted. “But they are the ones innovating at the margins, surviving with dignity, and holding fragile systems together. We must bring them to the table, not leave them in the footnotes.”

She cautioned that any effort to tackle urban challenges without the active participation of vulnerable and marginalised groups is “doomed to fail,” stressing that lasting resilience cannot be built on exclusion.

Turning her attention to the escalating threat of climate change, she observed that African cities are bearing some of the heaviest burdens of a global crisis, despite having played a minimal role in causing it.

“It’s unacceptable that communities that have done the least to cause climate change are paying the highest price. Floods, heatwaves, and water shortages are destroying livelihoods and deepening poverty in our cities.”

She called for climate-resilient urban planning that integrates green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and stronger regulations to protect vulnerable communities. “We must stop designing cities for the few while leaving the many in danger,” she added. “Every development decision should ask: who does this serve, and who does it leave behind?”

On the role of government, Gifty Nyarko said the time has come to move away from rigid, top-down governance models that alienate citizens and urged city leaders and planners to embrace participatory planning and work closely with civil society and informal sector actors to ensure policies reflect real-life needs.