Adolescents from six countries – Ghana, Senegal, Ecuador, Colombia, India and Vietnam – gathered in Accra today to lead an international dialogue on what makes cities healthier and more inclusive for young people.

The half-day event, titled Urban Youth Dialogue, was organised as part of the Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) programme, a global initiative funded by Fondation Botnar.

It brought together around 150 participants, including adolescent leaders, policymakers, urban practitioners, civil society organisations and researchers.

Unlike traditional conferences, the dialogue was co-designed and co-led by adolescents, who set the agenda and led discussions based on their lived experiences of growing up in cities.

The event took place at a time when more than half of the world’s adolescents live in urban areas, yet young people remain largely excluded from urban decision-making.

In Africa alone, urban populations are expected to double over the next 25 years, making inclusive and responsive urban planning increasingly urgent.

Participants engaged in interactive formats such as Cityscaping, where adolescents shared everyday realities from their cities, and Futurescaping, where mixed groups of young people and adults co-designed visual ideas for adolescent-friendly cities.

Insights from these sessions will feed into ongoing learning and policy discussions within the HCA programme.

“We are not just the future – we are part of the present. We shouldn’t have to wait until we’re adults to shape how our cities are designed. This dialogue gave us space to speak about our cities and be taken seriously,” said Selase Tsyokplo, an adolescent participant from Ghana.

"For too long, young people have had no real decision-making power. This event flipped that dynamic, with adolescents leading the dialogue and defining what healthy cities mean from their own perspectives, ” said Augustine Akrofi, Country Representative at Ecorys Ghana.

The Urban Youth Dialogue event marked the public-facing culmination of the Global Learning Forum 2026, a week-long international learning process hosted in Ghana as part of the HCA programme.