Public Square EA at the Africa Clean Air Forum 2026: From Clean Air Data to Public Accountability
- Owomugisha Julian
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Clean air is no longer a side conversation. It is a public health priority, an economic issue, a governance challenge, and a measure of how seriously African cities are planning for the future.
This was the message Public Square EA carried into the Africa Clean Air Forum 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa, where our team was represented by Owomugisha Julian Tabaro and Arinda Mackline.
The forum brought together policymakers, researchers, civil society actors, practitioners, development partners, and clean air champions from across the continent under the theme “Investment Case for Clean Air and Healthy Cities.” For Public Square EA, this was not only an opportunity to participate in a continental convening, but to contribute to a growing African conversation on how air quality data can move from monitoring platforms into public action, institutional accountability, and healthier communities.
Representing Public Square EA
Owomugisha Julian Tabaro participated as a podium presenter and co-chair of the session “From Schools to City Systems: Integrating Youth Engagement, Monitoring Innovation, and Municipal Practice for Clean Air.” Her contribution focused on how schools and universities can serve as clean air sentinel institutions spaces where monitoring, learning, youth engagement, public awareness, and policy dialogue come together.
The central argument was simple: institutions should not only host air quality monitors; they should become active platforms for clean air action.
Schools and universities are not passive spaces. They are where children learn, where young people organize, where communities gather, and where future leaders are shaped. When these institutions are connected to air quality monitoring, they can become powerful entry points for public education, community protection, and evidence-driven policy.
Arinda Mackline also represented Public Square EA with a strong contribution on clean air accountability hubs. Her presentation emphasized that monitoring air pollution is only the beginning. Data becomes meaningful when it is visible, understandable, and useful to the people and institutions expected to act on it.
Her message reinforced one of Public Square EA’s strongest beliefs: air quality data must not remain in technical rooms. It must reach communities, students, city actors, health advocates, media, and policymakers in a form that can drive action.
From Monitoring to Accountability
Across our contributions, one message remained clear: Africa does not only need more air quality data. Africa needs air quality data that changes decisions.
Monitoring is important. But if data does not influence how cities manage transport, waste, household energy, schools, markets, public health systems, and urban planning, then monitoring alone is not enough.
Clean air work must therefore move through four stages:
Monitoring — making pollution visible.
Awareness — helping people understand what the data means.
Accountability — asking who must act, where, and how.
Action — translating evidence into practical protection and policy change.
This is the space Public Square EA continues to occupy: the bridge between data and people, between public concern and policy action, between environmental evidence and everyday life.
Why This Matters for African Cities
Air pollution is often treated as an environmental issue. But in reality, it is much bigger.
It affects children walking to school.
It affects market vendors cooking and trading for long hours.
It affects traffic officers, boda riders, street workers, and commuters.
It affects productivity, hospital costs, education outcomes, and the quality of the future workforce.
When poor air quality reduces people’s ability to work, learn, breathe, and live fully, it becomes a development issue.
For cities like Kampala, the clean air conversation must therefore be connected to transport planning, waste management, energy choices, green infrastructure, public health, and enforcement. Clean air is not just about measuring pollution; it is about changing the systems that produce it.
Public Square EA’s Continuing Commitment
Public Square EA’s participation in the Africa Clean Air Forum strengthened our commitment to building public-facing air quality work that is grounded in evidence, community engagement, and policy relevance.
Our work continues to focus on:
making air quality data accessible and understandable;
supporting citizen and institutional monitoring;
strengthening youth and community engagement;
connecting clean air to public health, productivity, and justice;
supporting policy conversations that move beyond awareness;
and building partnerships that turn evidence into action.
The Africa Clean Air Forum reminded us that Africa’s clean air movement is growing. But the next step is clear: clean air must move from conference halls into schools, markets, roads, homes, city systems, and national development priorities.
At Public Square EA, we believe the air people breathe should never be invisible in decision-making.
From monitoring to accountability, and from awareness to action, the work continues!