By 2050, African cities will be home to 2.5 billion people
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about-mission

Our Mission

Training a new generation of professionals to build the African cities of the future

We believe that the challenge of building sustainable african cities able to offer to the population quality access to essential services will not be achieved without an adequate training of those in charge of the transformation. This is why we have created the largest online learning platform on sustainable urban development in Africa.

The ACL Platform

The African Cities Lab e-learning platform is available in French and English. This initiative funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, allows all stakeholders involved in the construction, development and operation in urban areas to access quality education on sustainable urbanization to meet the 2050 challenges of African cities.
The MOOCs

The MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are online course, free of charge. Our MOOCs focus on all aspects of urban space planning and are divided into eight themes. They are taught by experts from Africa.

Online training courses

These are in-depth courses, designed for professionals involved in the construction of african cities of today and tomorrow who want to improve their professional practice and expertise.

Hybrid training courses

We offer deep-dive trainings to key decision makers. The courses are made of an eLearning component to gain foundation knowledge, as well as classroom training and field visits to deepen and contextualise knowledge.

African Cities Lab Webinars

Through a series of 4 webinars, the partners of the African Cities Lab, in collaboration with EPFL, are providing insights for the political and scientific dialogue in the run-up to the Cotonou conference in 2023. The objective of these webinars is to discuss the major themes that make up the African digital city and set the framework for the agenda of the Conference. This webinar series will present research, trends, use cases and critical insights on how cities are or could be more effective in harnessing and leveraging digital technologies to promote sustainable development and achieve SDGs.
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African Cities lab - 2023 SUMMIT

Challenging the current vision of African cities, digital cities are presented as a rational response to future demographic projections. African Cities Lab creates the "African Cities lab - 2023 SUMMIT", a major event that aims to increase the scope and develop synergies between research and entrepreneurship on the African continent. It is all about accelerating digitization of cities and promoting scientific excellence in Africa. The first edition of the Conference will take place in 2023 in Cotonou, Benin.

Learn more

Our Partners

EPFL
Agence de Développement de Sèmè City
UM6P
UCAR
KNUST
UR
UCT

SECO