Connecting Urban Research and Policy in Cape Town

On 20 August, J-PAL Africa’s Water, Air and Energy (WAE) Lab, together with the City of Cape Town and the International Growth Centre (IGC), hosted the first Cape Town Urban Economics Research Seminar.

The event brought together municipal officials, researchers and partner organisations to share emerging research, discuss its relevance to Cape Town’s policy priorities, and strengthen collaboration between researchers and policymakers in identifying shared questions and solutions.

The first seminar, Housing, Transport and Public Works, was organised around three policy-focused sessions. The public works and employment session featured research on Cape Town’s Expanded Public Works Programme and labour-market networks among entry-level workers. The transport session examined rail service quality and access to employment, alongside new research using GPS data to map minibus taxi operations. The final session focused on housing, exploring models of residential growth across Cape Town’s housing markets and the relationship between short-term rentals and housing prices.

Across the discussions, several common themes emerged: urban challenges need to be understood as interconnected systems; programme and policy design matter alongside scale; and better use of administrative, operational and alternative data can strengthen both research and government decision-making.

The seminar reflects the WAE Lab’s broader partnership with the City of Cape Town, connecting researchers and government counterparts around policy-relevant questions and creating opportunities for rigorous evidence to inform real-world decisions.

The series continues on 10 September with a second seminar focused on Water, Sanitation and Energy, bringing together another group of researchers and City officials to explore evidence relevant to Cape Town’s urban policy priorities.