Speaking in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, as part of a nine day tour to West Africa, HRH The Prince of Wales stressed the importance of planning sustainably in urban expansion, warning that, when creating new towns and cities, the main arterial routes, farmland and natural ecosystems must be protected if the potential benefits of economic growth are to be realised. 

Toolkit to shape growth

To that end, the Prince of Wales described how his Foundation (The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment) has been working with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, the Commonwealth Association of Planners and Commonwealth Association of Architects to develop an online toolkit that will help shape and plan growth in secondary cities, where most of the projected urbanisation is expected to occur. This aligns closely to the work that CLGF is already undertaking via the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network (CSCN) bringing together mayors from across the Commonwealth to review the best ways to create prosperous and healthy cities, while also developing rural and small state economies.

The number of people living in towns and cities has almost doubled in the last twenty five years and by the year 2050, the world’s urban population is projected to increase by an additional 2.3 billion people - the total current population of the Commonwealth.

Sharing Commonwealth experience

Given the challenges across the Commonwealth to address rapid urbanisation, the Prince of Wales said he believed there is a great opportunity through the diversity of the Commonwealth to share tools, techniques and best practice for planning walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income human settlements that can play such a vital role in the reduction of poverty, mitigation of the impacts of climate change and reversing damage to finite ecosystems. 

For more information on this, read the Prince's speech in full and go to the Ghana country profile on the CLGF website.