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Welcome to Student Diaries—where young people’s thoughts and ideas are heard.
The Charter Cities Institute is proud to introduce a student blog series titled ‘Student Diaries: Perspectives on Urbanization & Development’.
This blog series will amplify the student voice on urbanization, governance, and other critical development issues in Africa. As the continent’s population increasingly gravitates towards urban centers, understanding how urbanization can be leveraged as a catalytic force for development is important, and since 60% of Africans are under 25 years old, hearing their voice is arguably even more important. Accordingly, this blog series invites young people to contribute to Africa’s development discourse with well-researched, analytical, nuanced blogs on sustainable and inclusive urban development.
The Student Dairies programme has been nothing short of enlightening. Not only have I gained a tremendous amount of insight on sustainable urban development but also had the opportunity to hone my creative writing and analytical skills. Most importantly, I have been provided with the platform to share my work with a wider audience-a prospect that I never thought to be conceivable.
Subilo Banda
The University of Zambia
Africa is undergoing its urban transition this century, but with much less prosperity than urbanization offered the West. Africa’s urbanization is characterized by premature deindustrialization, high unemployment, and unproductive employment, persistent poverty, inadequate infrastructure, informal settlements, diseases among other challenges. Turning around Africa’s fate requires bold ideas. Young people will play a pivotal role in driving urban innovation and serving as agents of change with their voice, creativity, and passion.
Through this blog series, we aim to build a new generation of young talented passionate Africans engaged in a range of critical issues like new cities, urban governance, infrastructure development, industrialization, special economic zones, economic development, and policy reform.
Specifically, Student Diaries aims to:
If you are 24 or younger, with a burning desire to be heard, we invite you to get involved.
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The Charter Cities Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to empowering new cities with better governance to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.
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