A globally distributed
R&D and Training Centre of Excellence strengthening evidence, skills and leadership for healthy, climate-resilient cities in Africa
Our mission
To serve as the intellectual infrastructure that supports actionable research, skills development and coalition-building to inform and accelerate healthy climate-resilient urban development in Africa.
Where the Academy sits within the UrbanBetter ecosystem
The UrbanBetter Academy is a core part of UrbanBetter’s hope infrastructure, contributing the intellectual capacity that helps cultivate and sustain hope as a practical force for urban change. It achieves this by strengthening the generation and interpretation of evidence, developing skills for agency, and creating and maintaining pathways to influence.
While Cityzens mobilises youth and communities to generate hyperlocal evidence and surface demand for healthier, climate-resilient cities, the Academy supports research and analytical work, skills development and pathways that enable lived experience and evidence to shape and accelerate action for healthy climate-resilient urban futures.
The Cityzens and Academy ecosystem creates a reinforcing loop between lived experience, knowledge and action, connecting what matters on the ground to research, skills and leadership development and institutional learning and coalitions so that cities can act with greater legitimacy, ambition and impact.
What we do
We work alongside Cityzens hubs, city leaders and other key actors to support healthy, climate-resilient urban development in Africa – strengthening how evidence, skills and collective ambition are mobilised to inform urban design, planning and infrastructure decisions.
We leverage Global Africa’s intellectual capacity across the continent and diaspora, connecting expertise to African cities where decisions and investments are being made. We support the analysis and institutional uptake of locally generated evidence.
Our work focuses on the urban environments that shape the air we breathe, the ways we move and the food we eat. By tackling health and climate together, the Academy supports collaboration, leadership and learning grounded in African contexts and strengthened through global intersectoral and intergenerational coalitions.
Four core functions of the Academy:
1. New Research
We co-produce actionable research and data insights with Cityzens hubs and city leaders to strengthen the evidence base for healthier, climate-resilient cities.
Our work supports the analysis and uptake of citizen-generated evidence in planning, policy and investment decisions.
2. New skills
We build future-ready skills and leadership that strengthen agency and enable action on health and climate risks in cities.
This includes training in participatory methods, anticipatory leadership (futures literacy) and science diplomacy, alongside skills that support the business case for healthy, climate-aligned urban action.
3. New Coalitions
We build and activate coalitions that strengthen collective imagination, raise ambition and translate evidence into action for healthier, climate-resilient cities.
Through Sankofa dialogues, policy salons and masterclasses, we align diverse actors around credible pathways to action and support an African urban health Community of Practice that sustains collaboration and shared learning.
4. Diaspora Knowledge Hub for Healthy Urban Futures
Across all of our work, we mobilise diaspora knowledge capital as a strategic resource for healthy, sustainable urban transformation, working in partnership with continent-based experts and institutions. This approach strengthens reciprocal collaboration and connects African cities to global Africa’s expertise and influence while centring local leadership and priorities.
Recent outputs
- 23 January 2026
- 23 January 2026
