Making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable is currently Goal 11 of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which targets to ensure access to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services for all, and upgrading slums by 2030.

That Kigali City has announced plans to review the City Masterplan to make its implementation more inclusive is a welcome development.

This is because many Rwandans today, especially the youth, continue to leave their homes in the rural areas in search of work in fast-growing urban areas, especially in and around the capital city, Kigali.

According to a recent report by the World Bank titled Rethinking Urbanisation in Rwanda: From Demographic Transition to Economic Transformation, released in January this year, the urban share of the country’s total population (now about 12 million) has increased much faster than official records suggest because the definitions of urban areas need streamlining.

A 2012 census and 2014 household survey calculated the urban share of the population at 16.5 per cent and 17.3 per cent respectively.

However, using another simpler definition of the term urban, the report’s researchers found that the level of urbanisation had increased far more — from 15.8 per cent to 26.5 per cent between 2002 and 2015, an increase of 132 pe rcent or almost two million people.

In other words, says the report, large scale urbanisation has already taken place in Rwanda.

Opportunities not enough

While people are moving to cities in search of greener pastures; jobs, services and others. Currently, there aren’t enough opportunities and services for every one.

That’s why we see this phenomenon of expanding city slums and informal settlements. People go where they can afford and that’s how they end up in places with poor access to services.

Therefore, given the overwhelming evidence that the urban population is increasing rapidly, adequate planning and concrete measures are needed to address issues that may arise in the long term.

In particular, there is a need to pay attention to the different income gaps in our society as space is allocated and infrastructure development is done.

At the moment, the city appears divided depending on the size of your pocket. The well-to-do in our society live on one side of town while the people at the bottom of the pyramid are concentrated in certain places mainly slums.

Yet, we need people from the bottom of the pyramid, for example, the house-help, the taxi driver, and others.

Effective urban planning that is inclusive means those at the bottom of the pyramid are allocated spaces and integrated in the City to avoid a situation where they create their own spaces that they feel they can afford, creating an unending cycle of slums as we have witnessed around Kigali.

And perhaps more importantly, there is a need to expand investment in other cities outside Kigali.