ECA to Mobilize African Cities to Join Quality of Life Initiative

Wednesday, 26th March 2025

By inAfrika Reporter,

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has announced plans to engage key urban stakeholders in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe to adopt and implement the Quality of Life Initiative spearheaded by UN-Habitat. This ambitious move seeks to improve urban living conditions by equipping cities with the tools and data necessary to promote people-centered development amid Africa’s accelerating urbanization.

The cornerstone of the initiative is the Quality of Life Index, a dynamic and adaptable measurement tool that evaluates urban life across nine domains, including access to basic services, housing quality, transportation, public safety, and economic opportunities. The Index blends globally recognized standards—such as those from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—with locally identified priorities, allowing cities to customize the framework according to their distinct challenges and values.

“Urban growth is inevitable, but the quality of life it delivers is not guaranteed,” said Ms. Atkeyelsh Persson, Chief of ECA’s Urbanization and Development Section. “We need to move beyond macroeconomic metrics like GDP and instead focus on whether city residents have access to safe water, green spaces, reliable public transport and job opportunities.”

In response to requests from participating countries, ECA will convene multi-stakeholder workshops in the coming months. These gatherings will unite policymakers, statisticians, urban planners, and community leaders to discuss what constitutes a good quality of life and how cities can begin measuring and improving it.

Mr. Giuseppe Tesoriere, ECA’s focal point for the initiative, emphasized the need for data-backed urban policy: “Without real data on the human experience, decision-makers are left navigating urban development in the dark. But there’s a strong appetite for change. City leaders are eager to gain better tools for understanding what genuinely enhances daily life and how to deliver those changes effectively.”

One of the initiative’s strategic strengths lies in its alignment with Africa’s growing Voluntary Local Review (VLR) process. VLRs are city-level assessments of SDG progress that foster collaboration among governments and citizens. By integrating the Quality of Life Index into VLR frameworks, cities can move from broad aspirational targets to actionable, data-driven strategies that directly benefit their populations.

The initiative also contributes to a broader global push by the UN Regional Economic Commissions to elevate urban well-being as a key development priority. ECA is working closely with ESCWA and other regional bodies to produce a unified inter-regional position paper on enhancing quality of life in cities, signaling strong global commitment to this approach.

Through capacity-building, technical support, and sustained collaboration, ECA aims to help cities in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe not only join the initiative but lead in demonstrating how urban growth can translate into better lives for all.