By 2050, the global urban population will double, and nearly seven of every 10 people will live in cities. This exponential growth brings challenges for equality and inclusion, yet surfaces opportunities for innovation, investment, and economies of scale. Hear from leader shaping the future of cities to address the needs of all citizens.
Architect and Urban Planner, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centre (SPARC)
Smruti J is an urban development professional working base in India and extended work in Asia and Sub-Saharan African cities. Smruti is currently the Programme leader at SPARC-Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centre which is an affiliate for the transnational Slum Dwellers International (SDI) network, which spans over 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. She is presently based at Mumbai and works on projects in India and within the network of SDI especially in South East Asia, Sub-saharan Africa. The network operates from the premise that organized communities of the urban poor are central to the generation of inclusive, resilient and sustainable cities. SDI federations organize around daily savings, profiling and enumerating their settlements, and partnering with government to implement incremental upgrading of slums. She works closely on the “Know Your City” Campaign which is mapping and creating digital footprints of community-led informal settlement profiling, and mapping, the KYC campaign supports partnerships between local governments and city . She has worked with Planning and Architecture Universities and published on a number of topics of relevance to her work at SPARC and SDI. Smruti is an Architect and holds a Masters in Urban Planning with special focus on Informal Habitat, Infrastructure and Transport planning and Design from CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Mayor Sowah is a Social Entrepreneur with over 23 years of work in local economic development and small business development. He holds MSc in Local Economic Development from the Institute of Local Government Studies, Ghana and a BSc in Public Administration from the University Of Ghana, Legon.
Mayor Sowah is a Vice Chair (Africa) of the Steering Committee of “C40 Cities”; a Global Climate Leadership Group focused on Mayoral led climate change and mitigation actions.
Mayor is the Founder & Executive Director of the Social Enterprise Agenda. He is also the Founder of MAS Investments Ltd. He serves on the Advisory Board of The Beyond Aid Project, a social enterprise that builds capacity for young vulnerable women in rural and urban low income communities to add value to locally available raw materials for their economic empowerment.
Mayor Sowah is an avid reader and collects a lot of books. He is a sports enthusiast and chairs the Greater Accra Swimming Association and is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the Trust Sports Emporium.
Geci is a Johannesburg-based scholar-practitioner who mainly works on urban planning and governance issues. She is currently currently an Associate of South African Cities Network, Visiting Research Fellow with the Wits School of Governance, and National Organiser of the Civic Tech Innovation Network in South Africa. Geci’s experience and interests span a range of development foresight, policy, innovation and practice topics, particularly relating to cities and local systems. She has two decades’ experience working and publishing in these fields. Her recent publications include the book Innovation Africa (Emerald ) and a foresight journal special issue on Urban Futures.
Geci previously worked with South Africa’s National Treasury Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant programme, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Advanced Policy Institute. She holds Masters’ degrees in Urban Planning and Architecture from UCLA, and a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
She is active a number of roles including as a Regional Advisor: Africa Innovation Summit; Curator: The Emergence Network, Council Member: South African Council of Planners; Board member: African Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (AfricaLics) and Plan Act NGO; founding director: Southern African Node of the Millennium Project and co-founder: ForesightForDevelopment.org; Associate Editor: African Journal for Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (Taylor & Francis) and Africa Regional Editor: foresight (Emerald).
Chris Underhill MBE is a professional mentor and an expert in the field of community mental health. In founding BasicNeeds he developed the Model for Mental Health and Development to serve communities in Low Income Countries. Now called the BasicNeeds Model it is managed and championed by CBM UK. He created the wellbeing and resilience organisation www.thrive.org.uk (gardening to change lives) and went on to found www.add.org.uk (global disability rights in development). He runs www.mentorservices.org.uk and is co-founder of the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs www.elderscouncil.net, and is Chair of the Catalyst-2030 Mental Health Collaboration. He is a Skoll Foundation awardee in Social Entrepreneurship, an awardee in Social Entrepreneurship of the Schwab Foundation, and a Senior Fellow of Ashoka and was honoured with an MBE by the Queen.
Shauna serves as Chief Executive Officer for IDEO.org, leveraging her deep expertise in design and social impact to oversee the strategy and vision for the organization.
Over the past decade at IDEO.org, Shauna has worked on projects and programs focused on advancing health equity, criminal justice reform, refugee rights, gender equality, and climate resilience. In her previous role as Executive Design Director, Shauna worked alongside design teams and communities to surface insights that unlock new possibilities, launch new products and services that meet people's needs, and craft narratives that inspire collective action.
Prior to joining IDEO.org, Shauna worked to expand access to education and health care at organizations like Room to Read and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. She also helped launch and grow a number of mission-driven startups.
A social scientist at heart, Shauna holds a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
