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Amb. Gifty Nyarko Calls for Inclusive, African-Led Approaches at Global Sustainable Built Environment Conference At the 1st Global Scholarship for Sustainable Built Environment Research Conference (SURE_BUILT), held from 4–5 September 2025 at the University of Johannesburg, PLn Amb. Gifty Nyarko, African Ambassador for Inclusive Urban Governance and Climate-Resilient Development and the National Interim President of the Local Government Service Association of Physical Planners, delivered a powerful call for a paradigm shift in the way cities are researched, planned, and built. Speaking before an audience of scholars, urban planners, engineers, architects, policymakers, and development partners, Amb. Nyarko urged professionals in the built environment to embrace inclusive, African-led, and community-anchored approaches to urban development. “The question is not whether Africa is urbanizing — but whose knowledge is shaping that urban future, and whose voices are being left behind,” she said. She stressed that while African cities demonstrate innovation and resilience, they remain disproportionately vulnerable to climate change, inequality, and systemic exclusion. According to her, these complex challenges cannot be solved through fragmented disciplines, elite-driven models, or externally imposed frameworks. “We cannot build inclusive, climate-resilient cities using fragmented and exclusive approaches,” Amb. Nyarko stated. “True inclusion requires us to dismantle hierarchies in knowledge production and shift from research for communities to research with communities.” She challenged engineers, architects, and physical planners to lead the shift toward interdisciplinary, participatory, and context-sensitive practices. “Engineers and architects must move beyond technical solutions and begin to see communities as co-creators, not clients,” she said. “Your designs and innovations must be grounded in lived experience and community realities — particularly those of informal workers, women, youth, and marginalized groups.” She emphasized the need to redefine professionalism in the built environment so that it is rooted in equity, accessibility, sustainability, and local knowledge. Amb. Nyarko underscored that African communities are not waiting for permission to innovate. Across the continent, youth-led design studios, participatory housing upgrades, and community mapping projects are already reshaping urban futures. She called for these approaches to be amplified, scaled, and institutionalized through stronger policy, investment, and professional adoption. “Let this be a turning point,” she urged. “A moment when we commit to building cities that are inclusive by design, resilient by necessity, and sustainable by principle.” Concluding her address, she painted a collective vision for Africa’s urban future: “The future is interdisciplinary. The future is collaborative. The future is African. Let us build it — together. End-
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Amb. Gifty Nyarko calls for inclusive, African-led urban development

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