Africa is entering a defining urban moment. With nearly one billion new urban residents expected and over 60% of future infrastructure yet to be built, the decisions made today will shape health, climate resilience and economic opportunity for generations.
The Sankofa Working Paper 2026, developed by UrbanBetter in partnership with the Royal African Society, sets out a bold proposition: Africa’s global diaspora is not just a community, it is a strategic reservoir of intellectual capital capable of shaping the continent’s urban future at scale. Yet while financial flows are well established, the infrastructure required to mobilise knowledge, expertise and networks remains fragmented.
This report marks a shift from dialogue to delivery.
Grounded in insights from the inaugural Sankofa Dialogue, which brought together leaders across academia, government, philanthropy, civil society and business, the paper introduces the Diaspora Knowledge Hub for Healthy, Hopeful Urban Futures: a scalable platform designed to connect global expertise with local action, strengthen institutions, and accelerate impact across cities.
At its core is a powerful idea: “hope as infrastructure”, which is the recognition that long-term transformation depends not only on capital and policy, but on the systems, coalitions and capabilities that enable societies to imagine and build better futures. The report outlines how cities can be designed as systems that generate health, and how diaspora expertise can bridge global knowledge with local realities to drive more effective, context-driven solutions.
The proposed Hub offers a multi-city, replicable model to:
- Mobilise diaspora expertise across sectors
- Strengthen the link between evidence, policy and implementation
- Support leadership pipelines across generations
- Enable more strategic, health- and climate-aligned urban investment
- Build coordinated coalitions across Global Africa
This is a coalition moment, one that moves beyond fragmented engagement towards sustained, institutional collaboration.
We are actively seeking partners to co-build and scale this work.
