Training City Leaders Can No Longer Wait

No company would ever appoint a CEO who had never studied business. Yet, around the world, city leaders are appointed or elected with little or no structured training in how to lead the complex ecosystems they are asked to govern.

This must change.

Cities are consequential. They are not just the places where we live, work and raise our families. They are the places where humanity’s future is shaped. They generate 80 percent of global GDP and account for 70 percent of emissions. And they are the places where we build our personal wealth. The global value of residential real estate alone exceeds the combined total of global GDP, global equities, global debt and global gold reserves.

Leading these cities is difficult. Regardless of whether city leaders are appointed or elected, success requires political skill to build consensus across a wide range of interests. It requires technical knowledge spanning urban economics, sustainable development, urban mobility, financing and governance and more. It requires the executive ability to deliver real results.

Most of all, it requires a dedication to public service. A daily commitment to improve the lives of millions.

Yet, when it comes to preparing leaders for this complex role, the world is failing. Universities offer degrees in urban planning, civil engineering and public administration, but few provide a comprehensive curriculum that equips leaders to handle the full spectrum of city governance.

That is why the Saudi delegation to the U20, in collaboration with the 2025 co-chairs and mayors, city leaders and academics from around the world, is calling for a step change: the Master of City Administration, or MCA.

Announced at the U20 Global Summit in Johannesburg, the MCA will become the world's first global qualification for city leadership. Just as the MBA sets the standard for corporate leaders, the MCA is designed to provide a pathway for individuals planning a career in the highly complex field of urban leadership. A pathway not just for mayors, but the dozens of senior administrators and department heads that surround and advise them.

It will combine a global curriculum with local adaptations, recognizing that, while different cities face different challenges, all can benefit from a shared framework around city leadership. 

Developed by top universities in collaboration with serving and former city leaders, the MCA aims to fuse academic rigor with practical, real world knowledge that can be put into practice from Day One.

The demand is extraordinary. Today around 600 cities have a population in excess of one million people. By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion people will have moved into the world's urban areas. This will require the expansion of existing cities and the development of new ones. These new cities not only need to be well built: they also need to be well led.

By our estimate, the world will need at least 290,000 senior urban leaders by 2050. If we assume that one in three graduates of the MCA program will go on to such a role, then we have an implicit demand for more than one million MCA graduates in the next quarter century.

This is not impossible. Every year around 250,000 people enroll in MBA programs around the world. The world already invests considerably in preparing future corporate leaders. We need to invest at the same scale in the people who will lead our cities into the future.

Saudi Arabia today is making significant strides in urban development. Vision 2030 places urban transformation at the heart of national progress. Projects like the Line at NEOM challenge the boundaries of urban design, while initiatives like the Riyadh metro, New Murrabba and Jeddah Central are creating healthier, more sustainable, more livable cities.

If we can pioneer the future of urban development, then we can pioneer the future of urban leadership. Now is the time to act: to move from dialogue from delivery and from ideas to institutions.

Our cities are where we will fight the battle against climate change. They are the places where we will create jobs and build livelihoods. They are where we will build and bridge cultures. But they cannot thrive without leaders who are ready, trained and inspired to meet the challenges of the future.

Saudi Arabian institutions have never stood back from the challenge of leadership. Who better than Saudi universities to take the lead in shaping the people who will govern the world's cities?

The Master of City Administration is more than a degree program. It is a promise that the future of our cities will not be left to chance but instead entrusted to knowledgeable, strategic, compassionate leaders prepared to serve.

If the future of humanity will be written in our cities, then it is time for the world's universities to give our city leaders the tools to write it well.