Drawing on the authors’ combined experience of over 70 years of work on urban legal reform in Africa, the guide is written from the starting point that the process of urban legal reform is absolutely essential to ensure the successful implementation and uptake of the law.

The guide considers how the law is written, who is involved and what information is taken into account by the drafting team and the combined effect of these factors in determining whether the law is likely to achieve its desired outputs.

This guide aims to help everyone involved in urban legal reform to work together, following new processes, asking new questions, consulting new people, to ensure that new urban laws are fit for purpose and play the role they need to play in realising the goals of the New Urban Agenda agreed to in 2016 in Quito at the Habitat III conference.