Smarter cities, fairer futures: Urban innovation in the Global South 

For a long time, smart cities have been promoted as a catalog of devices. The Global South is developing a more relevant definition: a smart city is one that expands capabilities for those least able to afford it, reduces emissions while enhancing comfort, and creates institutions that survive any single technology cycle.

 Innovation that fits the city

The most promising shift in urban mobility is migrating from gadget-led projects to purpose-built platforms.  The problem-solving mindset has already redefined mobility.

For example, instead of chasing large scale use of autonomous vehicles, many cities are digitizing bus operations, connecting informal minibus networks through shared data standards, and layering real-time information with shared payment systems.   

Digital Matatus in Nairobi has mapped and standardized informal bus routes into open data to better manage daily mobility options. In Dhaka, the BRTA’s integrated ticketing pilot integrates the private operators into one unified digital system. Meanwhile in Cairo and Lagos, city authorities are working with local startups to digitalise microtransit services and deploy GPS-based fleet management systems for shared buses and ride-sharing vans.

Digital public infrastructure, shared digital identity, payments, and data exchange layers, has ntegrated as an architecture for urban services in much of South Asia and parts of Africa. 

When transit, utilities, and health records integrate, innovation accelerates. Handheld meters can reduce water losses, mobile ticketing can make bus boarding faster, and telehealth kiosks can extend primary care into underserved communities. Importantly, these platforms lower the cost of local experimentation, empowering smaller cities, which are often the fastest growing, to innovate without the need for custom and costly systems.

Sustainability under heat and water stress

Climate change is reshaping the urban design agenda across the Middle East, Africa, and India. While heat is the most democratic risk, affecting everyone, the impact is far from equal.  

The most effective smart-city investments in this context are deceptively simple: in Doha, urban tree inventories are linked with maintenance schedules to reduce heat exposure along pedestrian corridors; in Ahmedabad, authorities are mapping and classifying cool roofs to better target subsidies under the city’s heat action plan; and in Cape Town, microclimate data are used to identify where shade structures, fountains, or misting stations can save the most lives during heatwaves.

Electricity and water are the third hinge points. Distributed solar plus storage systems already operating as microgrids in Kigali to provide health clinics and schools with reliable power for refrigeration and medical equipment. In Dubai, large-scale district cooling networks and real-time building energy management systems are lowering electricity demand in dense mixed-use areas. Meanwhile, smart water and energy monitoring programmes are improving efficiency in municipal buildings and reducing peak loads during heatwaves in Chennai.

On the water side, smart pressure management, leak detection, and effluent monitoring can yield millions of recovered litres per day. None of these are moonshot technologies, just consistent integration of sensors, open-data standards, and maintenance budgets that match election cycles.

Equity is a system requirement, not a retrofit

 If smart cities are to close gaps, equity must be central during the early design process.  Digital divides in device access, data costs, literacy, and language can amplify existing urban inequalities. Cities need inclusive designs providing offline or low-data pathways for essential services; shared access points in community spaces, accessed in local languages, and supported by humans. 

For residents of informal settlements, smartness will be judged by accessibility rather than innovation or technology. This means the ability to have digital addresses that facilitate deliveries, registration for utilities, and community-mapped infrastructures. 

Women and girls, who often face greater caregiving burdens, must also be the focus of design, including offering routing algorithms that prioritize safe, well-lit pathways, and off-peak, multi-stop transport options.  

Governance is the hardest challenge

Institutions can be a real barrier to progress as they depend heavily on closed systems that are difficult to integrate or replace. Cities need procurement that rewards performance based on open standards and portability clauses that ensure systems can be evolved regardless of the vendor. 

Privacy and surveillance need to be bright lines with legal grounds for data collection, limitations in data minimizing practices and purpose, schedules for deletion, and independent oversight. 

 Citizens should also have access to their own data, with sufficient resources when digital systems fail. Cybersecurity can no longer be an afterthought, as main infrastructures including water plants, traffic systems, and hospitals are considered targets of cyber-attack. Equally, the political economy of maintenance matters. 

Regional pathways, shared principles

While challenges are often shared in the global south, the starting points vary by region. The Middle East is defined by extreme temperatures and water scarcity, therefore energy-efficient buildings, district cooling, and reducing water loss are top priorities. 

In Africa, where urban peripheries have developed with less formal infrastructure; mobile-first services, solar microgrids, and crowdsourced mapping could serve as leapfrog ideas from the old systems.  India’s digital public infrastructure has the potential of scale, but inclusion beyond flagship corridors remains the challenge.  

Despite these differences, the path forward is shared; cities must define public and measurable outcomes, rely on open digital infrastructures, protect privacy, ensure inclusive access, and invest in local skills and maintenance.

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