New Master's Degree For City Leaders Launched at World Urban Forum as Urban Pressures Intensify

The World Urban Forum in Baku was the stage for the launch of the Master in City Administration (MCA) degree, a response to calls from mayors worldwide for a more structured approach to preparing leaders to manage the complexity, scale and pace of modern urban growth.

Cities generate approximately 80% of global GDP, house half of humanity, and produce 70% of global emissions. Yet the leaders responsible for managing them frequently navigate political, technical and economic challenges without formal preparation for the role. The MCA is designed to address that gap by establishing urban leadership as a professional discipline with its own globally recognised graduate qualification.

The need is substantial. Today, around 600 cities have populations of one million or more: a figure projected to grow by as much as 50% over the coming decades. An estimated 290,000 trained administrators will be needed to manage existing and new cities by 2050, as the global urban population grows by approximately 2 billion. By comparison, approximately 250,000 people enrol in MBA programs annually. Graduate-level education for city leaders has not kept pace.

Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, said the initiative reflects an urgent need to align global efforts behind stronger urban leadership.

"The challenges facing cities today, from climate pressures to rapid urbanization, require a new generation of leaders with the skills to manage complexity and deliver sustainable outcomes," Ms. Rossbach said.

"The MCA is a global response to that reality: an effort to equip city leaders with the capabilities required to lead effectively at scale.”

Modelled on the MBA, the MCA is designed to do for urban leadership what business education did for corporate management: professionalise it, standardise it, and build a global network of practitioners connected by common training.

The program is interdisciplinary, globally coordinated, and locally adaptable, with core curriculum standards enhanced by region-specific content and practical input from former mayors and senior administrators.

His Excellency Fahd Al-Rasheed, Adviser to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia and former Urban 20 Chair, first proposed the MCA at the Urban 20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 2024. H.E. Al-Rasheed said the program responds to a structural deficit in how cities prepare their leaders.

"Cities are where the future will be decided, yet the leaders responsible for managing them are often required to operate across political, technical and economic domains without structured preparation," H.E. Al-Rasheed said.

"The MCA represents a pivotal step in resolving that.”

King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and LUISS University in Rome, Italy, will launch the first MCA programs later this year, with delivery expanding through a broader global university network. The initiative has received support from city mayors, urbanists and academics since H.E. Al-Rasheed first published the proposal through the Brazilian Center for International Relations in 2024.

Nasiphi Moya, Mayor of Tshwane and former Urban 20 Co-chair, said the demands of modern city leadership are particularly acute in the Global South, where UN data show a disproportionate increase in urban growth.

"The Global South is already bearing the brunt of the increase in urbanization, putting greater strain on infrastructure, housing, civic services and mobility. The challenges facing incoming mayors have outpaced the preparation available to those entering the role,” Mayor Moya said.

"The need for systematic training for mayors to address these challenges is acute. Initiatives like the MCA are essential to ensure future city leaders are better equipped to lead our cities into the future.”