A Systematic Review of Sustainable Urban Planning and Development Outcomes in Sub Saharan African Cities

Sustainable urban planning is increasingly recognised as a global agenda for promoting inclusive, resilient, and environmentally sustainable cities. However, rapid urbanisation, fragmented institutions, land-governance challenges, informality, and socio-spatial inequalities across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) constrain the translation of planning aspirations into effective development outcomes. The study investigates urban planning processes influence on sustainable urban development outcomes in SSA cities. Following the PRISMA 2020 reporting guideline, the study synthesises 78 peer-reviewed articles published between 2004 and 2025. The findings indicate that planning effectiveness is mediated by governance quality, institutional coordination, policy coherence, land institutions, implementation capacity, political commitment, and participation. Similar planning interventions may therefore produce different outcomes across metropolitan, secondary, peri-urban, and informal urban contexts. The review further shows that planning outcomes should be assessed in distributional terms. While planning interventions may improve infrastructure, resilience, and spatial organisation, they may also contribute to exclusion, affordability pressures, and unequal access to urban benefits. Sustainable urban planning in SSA should therefore be understood as a governance-mediated process rather than solely as a technical exercise in plan preparation. Strengthening outcomes requires integrated institutions, coherent policy implementation, meaningful participation, inclusive infrastructure provision, and adaptive governance responsive to rapidly urbanising African cities.