Urban deprivation and enhanced inequality in sub-Saharan Africa

Globally, 1.2 billion urban dwellers live in slums facing essential service deficiencies and heightened vulnerability, thereby challenging the United Nations' commitment to "Leave no one behind" in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We investigated availability of key urban services (water, sanitation, housing, living spaces) that define slums, revealing that 58.9% of households in 27 African countries lack access to at least one of above service based on household surveys, leading to their categorization as slums households. While slum proportion has decreased over the past two decades, however inequality has rose in countries with a high prevalence of slums.

Through the integration of household surveys, geospatial data, and machine learning algorithms, we estimated the wealth level and key service availability across sub-Saharan Africa. This approach revealed that 53.4% of urban population resides in slums, surpassing the UN's estimate of 44.9%. This study revealed that poor urban service in slums exacerbate inequality, however current aggregated statistics underestimate the extent of under-serviced urban slums, leading to ineffective efforts in building prosperity for all.