Diaspora Knowledge Hub for Healthy, Hopeful Urban Futures

What we do

We activate diaspora intellectual capital as a strategic resource for Africa’s healthy sustainable urban transformation.

Through the lens of transnational knowledge diplomacy, we aim to mobilise diaspora as strategic bridge-builders and to foster reciprocal South-North and South-South flows of knowledge, technical collaboration and scalable solutions across geographies.

Our Approach

Africa’s global diaspora, estimated at 160–300 million people, remains one of the world’s most underutilised intellectual and diplomatic assets.

While remittances exceed $90 billion annually, the diaspora’s knowledge, networks and soft power represent far greater, untapped potential to accelerate healthy climate-resilient urban transformation across the continent.

While much diaspora engagement has focused on financial (remittances and investment) capital, the UrbanBetter Diaspora Knowledge Hub centres an often untapped resource: intellectual capital – the knowledge, skills, and technical, professional and research expertise – that can shape, test and scale solutions for healthy, climate-resilient cities.

Our central premise is that if we activate, equip and connect a global knowledge ecosystem conducive for Diaspora scholars and practitioners to engage with continent-based partners and to invest their intellectual capital, then we can strengthen collective global African capacity to lead urban transformation for health, equity and sustainability.

The Hub aims to build a long-term, challenge-led, knowledge ecosystem for sustained engagement that delivers triple wins: for African cities, for diasporan countries of residence, and for tackling globally relevant health and climate challenges.

It focuses on bridging diaspora expertise with locally grounded priorities, creating and strengthening credible pathways – with high legitimacy and trust – for knowledge exchange, co-creation and collaborations with institutions and cities on the continent and globally.

Our Initiatives

The UrbanBetter Diaspora Knowledge Hub is a platform and sustained institutional mechanism to harness Africa’s global intellectual capital and imagination in support of healthy, resilient and hopeful urban futures on the continent.

To achieve this goal, we will co-design the Hub’s programmes with diaspora professionals, practitioners, researchers, policymakers and local partners on the continent, ensuring that engagement is demand-led, reciprocal and responsive to real-world urban challenges.

African Diaspora Intellectual Capital Pulse Survey

This first initiative of the Diaspora Hub is a new engagement tool designed to listen to and map the assets, hopes and priorities of Africa’s diaspora professionals with expertise of relevance to healthy climate-resilient urbanisation.

It seeks to surface the breadth of diaspora intellectual capital and the untapped demand to contribute their intellectual capital — knowledge, skills and expertise — to advance Africa’s sustainable urban development.

Get in touch! We invite you to be part of shaping the Diaspora Hub and its future initiatives.

Our Activities

Vacancies

We’re Hiring: Centre Manager (Fixed Term)UrbanBetter Academy @ Cambridge

Diaspora hub