Can western building standards breathe life into African cities? Assessing WELL Air readiness in Lagos and Kampala

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated global adoption of health-focused frameworks like the WELL Standard, yet their applicability in Sub-Saharan African cities marked by informality, infrastructural deficits, and deep inequality remains critically under-examined. This study assesses regulatory readiness in Lagos, Nigeria, and Kampala, Uganda, for the WELL Building Standard's Air concept through a qualitatively-driven analysis supported by descriptive quantitative data, framed within policy mobility and regulatory transplantation theory. A PRISMA-guided structured review of Scopus literature (2010–2024) identified 45 studies, revealing a pronounced research gap: while health impacts of air pollution dominate the literature, governance frameworks remain severely understudied. Systematic document analysis compared national regulations; Uganda's National Environment Management Authority NEMA) against WELL's four Air Preconditions using the novel R.E.A.D. (Review, Evaluate, Analyze, Decide) framework, operationalized through a transparent scoring matrix. Findings demonstrate critical misalignments: PM 2.5 thresholds fall below 2021 WHO guidelines (Lagos aligns with Interim Target-1 at 35 µg/m³; Kampala with IT-2 at 25 µg/m³); indoor air quality standards are absent in Lagos and nascent but unenforced in Kampala. The R.E.A.D. analysis scores both cities at zero for Delivery (enforcement capacity), identifying four barrier clusters: infrastructural deficits, governance fragmentation, economic constraints, and socio-cultural misalignment. The study concludes that direct WELL adoption is currently not a viable strategy in the current context; instead, staged certification, architectural adaptations and context-inclusive pathways that prioritize the development of delivery capacity alongside incremental regulatory alignment offer the most viable route forward in the Global South. • Lagos PM 2.5 levels (68 µg/m³) exceed WHO guidelines 13-fold; Kampala levels reach 2–8 × higher • Nigeria's NESREA 2021 lacks indoor air standards; Uganda's NEMA 2024 includes them but unenforced • PRISMA-guided dual-search strategy reveals critical governance research gap across Sub-Saharan Africa • Novel R.E.A.D. framework enables systematic evaluation of international standard transferability • Context-sensitive pathways combining regulatory reform, low-cost interventions, and staged certification offer most viable route