Kurtis Lockhart is an urban development leader, researcher, and the Founder and Director of the Africa Urban Lab (AUL). He holds a PhD in political science from the University of Oxford, where his research examined the impact of institutional reforms on public goods provision in sub-Saharan Africa. He also obtained an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics—where he graduated top of his class—and a BA in Economics and Development Studies from McGill University. While at Oxford, he taught both quantitative methods and African politics, seamlessly bridging rigorous academic theory with real-world development challenges.
Before focusing on urban innovation, Lockhart built extensive on-the-ground expertise managing developmental research and randomized control trials. He served as a Research Manager for the International Growth Centre and Warc Africa in Sierra Leone, and for the ELIMU Impact Evaluation Center in Kenya. These early roles across varied sectors solidified his understanding of the complex bottlenecks facing developing regions and underscored the urgent need for scalable, structural solutions.
A prominent advocate for innovative governance, Lockhart previously served as Executive Director and Head of Research at the Charter Cities Institute (CCI), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. There, he championed the development of charter cities—new urban centers granted special jurisdiction to enact institutional reforms—as a mechanism to address Africa’s rapid urbanization. Expanding on this mission in 2024, he launched the Africa Urban Lab in Zanzibar. Operating as a “teaching hospital” for urban professionals in partnership with the African School of Economics and CCI, AUL trains the next generation of municipal leaders and planners to transform urban growth into economic prosperity.
Lockhart’s broader vision aligns deeply with themes of human progress, emphasizing how institutional evolution can lift communities out of poverty and foster long-term resilience. At the MTAConf 2022, he made a presentation on Charter Cities: Empowered Cities for the Urban Age, illustrating how decentralized, empowered cities can overcome traditional development hurdles. By reimagining city governance as a catalyst for human flourishing, Lockhart continues to shape the future of urban resilience and economic freedom across the Global South.
