Participatory Futuring for Informal Settlements and Booming Towns: Learning from African Cases

Africa’s cities are among the fastest-growing globally, with housing, services, and safety needs rising fastest in informal settlements and “booming towns.” Yet residents, often the majority, struggle to influence long-term decisions due to inaccessible planning, fragmented authority, uneven investment, and survival pressures. Informal settlements show ingenuity in hybrid service delivery and low-cost solutions that can inform wider practice.

This session will draw on applied learning from Embu (Kenya), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), and Cape Town (South Africa) to introduce participatory futuring approaches. These help residents, practitioners, and governments co-produce visions and translate them into sequenced, accountable investment pathways. Focus areas include safer housing, resilient services, inclusive public space, and climate adaptation that move beyond crisis management toward aligned, long-term action.

Participants will test approaches through a short exercise, learning how to select methods and convert outputs into adaptable vision-to-action guides.