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As their population surges, Lusaka invests in Early Childhood Development

Across Zambia, cities are putting their youngest residents first.

December 11, 2025

Anya Groner, Writer, Journalist, Teacher

Home to more than three million people, Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka, is one of southern Africa’s fastest growing municipalities. High fertility rates and rural-to-urban migration have created a growth rate of nearly 5% per year. For Chilando Chitangala, Lusaka’s first female mayor, leading a city with a ballooning population means meeting the needs of the youngest and most vulnerable residents first. Under her leadership, city officials have adopted an early childhood development framework to design infrastructure, create public programming, and plan for the city’s future. “Chitangala has been one of the main drivers of [making Lusaka a child-friendly city],” says Bwalya Funga, a senior officer in the Lsuaka’s Housing and Social Services Department and coordinator of the city council’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) program. “The rest of us have been there to provide technical support, but the vision sits with her.”

A trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, sparked Mayor Chitangala’s interest in the wellbeing of children and their caretakers. At the time of her visit, the city had just published a guidebook emphasising the importance of play in early childhood and was beginning the process of building 12,000 new playgrounds–around two per city block. Every child, including those living in poverty, would soon have access to facilities that could support their physical health, cognitive development, and emotional intelligence. Though expensive, the city had garnered significant support from NGOs including the Van Leer Foundation, which helped launch the program.

Inspired, Mayor Chitangala sent a three-person team from Lusaka to the Urban 95 Academy, an executive education program based at the London School of Economics and funded by the Van Leer Foundation in 2024. Bwalya Funga travelled with Judith Kanyanda and Evelyn Musonda, both colleagues from Lusaka’s Housing and Social Services Department, to London where they city leaders from around the world to study how urban planning impacts early childhood development. The experience was revelatory. “We’d been building cities for adults,” says Funga, “not considering the children or caregivers.”

“At first, our career employees were just associating ECD with the department of housing and social services,” she says. But lately, everyone from engineers to teachers understands that they have a stake in ECD.”
Evelyn Musonda, Lusaka’s Housing and Social Services Department

With the mayor’s support, the team created an interdepartmental city-wide steering committee and conducted a baseline study of ECD programming across the city. That study revealed stunted growth rates among children and unequal access to ECD opportunities. “The bigger part of Lusaka is very urban,” says Musonda. “These are areas with very low levels of income, and as such, their priorities are really not on ECD.” Prioritising early childhood development requires a city-wide shift in thinking, a change that Musonda believes is already underway. “At first, our career employees were just associating ECD with the department of housing and social services,” she says. But lately, everyone from engineers to teachers understands that they have a stake in ECD.”

That buy-in has enabled the city to put together numerous new programs. Lusaka is in the process of rehabilitating ten early childhood education spaces, beginning with Matero, a densely-packed, low-income township. They’re also greening and revamping 41 community parks across the city, including the historic Freedom Park at the city’s centre; hosting car-free days to create temporary outdoor space for children and their caretakers; and offering coaching classes for parents. The city has won numerous international grants to support these efforts and is allocating 10% of its community development funds to ECD programmes. “A lot of people are now concerned about how we plan and think around our cities,” reflects Funga. “To see partners show interest in this programme, not only at international level, but even at national level… that’s a big win for us.”

In recent months, Lusaka’s city officials have reached beyond their borders to collaborate with and learn from other Zambian locales. In their sister city Chongwe, a rural ECD centre teaches adult literacy while children cook, garden, eat, and play. Musonda hopes Lusaka can one day emulate that model.

Though less than two years old, Lusaka’s child-friendly urban design has inspired officials in neighbouring cities to rethink urban planning. Over the past year, five more Zambian cities have sent officials to the Urban95 Academy. Lusaka’s city officials see this surge of interest as a sign of their success. “As the capital city of Zambia, we want to do a good job so that other municipalities are able to see that actually this can be done,” says Musonda. With financial support from the Van Leer Foundation and Big Win Philanthropy, she predicts Lusaka will one day become a regional centre of excellence, much like how Addis Ababa inspired mayor Chilando Chitangala

A Renovated Early Childhood Development Classroom in Matero, Photo courtesy of Lusaka City Council

The African coordinator for the Van Leer Foundation, Karima Grant, tours a renovated classroom with Mayor Chilando Chitangala