Download or read book Africa s Urban Transition and the Role of Regional Collaboration written by Gordon McGranahan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa is in the midst of an urban transition and getting this transition right is critical. The continent's urban population is growing at about 3.3 per cent a year, the combined outcome of an overall population growth rate of 2.2 per cent a year and an urbanization rate of 1.1 per cent a year. Over the next ten years, Africa's urban population is projected to increase by over 150 million. Economic difficulties may reduce rural-urban migration, but Africa's towns and cities are not ready to accommodate anything like this many new residents.

Download or read book The Urban Question in Africa written by Pádraig Carmody and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2023-11-29 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illuminates the path to more generative urban transitions in Africa's cities and developing rural areas Africa is the world's most rapidly urbanizing region. The predominantly rural continent is currently undergoing an “urban revolution” unlike any other, generally taking place without industrialization and often characterized by polarization, poverty, and fragmentation. While many cities have experienced construction booms and real estate speculation, others are marked by expanding informal economies and imploding infrastructures. The Urban Question in Africa: Uneven Geographies of Transition examines the imbalanced and contested nature of the ongoing urban transition of Africa. Edited and authored by leading experts on the subject, this unique volume develops an original theory conceptualizing cities as sociotechnical systems constituted by production, consumption, and infrastructure regimes. Throughout the book, in-depth chapters address the impacts of current meta-trends—global geopolitical shifts, economic changes, the climate crisis, and others—on Africa's cities and the broader development of the continent. Presents a novel framework based on extensive fieldwork in multiple countries and regions of the continent Examines geopolitical and socioeconomic topics such as manufacturing in African cities, the green economy in Africa, and the impact of China on urban Africa Discusses the prospects for generative urbanism to produce and sustain long-term development in Africa Features high-quality maps, illustrations, and photographs The Urban Question in Africa: Uneven Geographies of Transition is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students in geography, urban planning, and African studies, academic researchers, geographers, urban planners, and policymakers.

Download or read book Understanding the Origin and Pace of Africa s Urban Transition written by John Andrew Fox and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this article I argue that urbanization should be understood as a global historical process driven primarily by population dynamics stimulated by technological and institutional change. In particular, disease control and expanded access to surplus energy supplies are necessary and sufficient conditions for urbanization to occur given historical evidence of an inherent human propensity to agglomerate. Economic development, which has traditionally been viewed as the primary driving force behind urbanization, can accelerate the process but is not a necessary condition for it to occur. Informed by this historically-grounded theory of urbanization, a range of qualitative and quantitative evidence is used to explain the stylized facts of sub-Saharan Africa's urban transition, namely the late onset of urbanization in Africa vis-à-vis other major world regions, the widely noted but inadequately explained phenomenon of 'urbanization without growth' observed in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, and the historically unprecedented rates of urban population growth seen in the region throughout the late twentieth century.

Download or read book Reflections on African Cities in Transition written by Purshottama Sivanarain Reddy and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume describes African cities in transition, and the economic, socio-political, and environmental challenges resulting from rapid post-colonial urbanization. As the African continent continues to transition from urban configurations inherited from colonial influences and history, it faces issues such as urban slum expansion, increased demands for energy and clean water, lack of adequate public transportation, high levels of inequality among different socio-economic population strata, and inadequate urban governance, planning, and policies. African cities in transition need to reconsider current policies and developmental trajectories to facilitate and sustain economic growth and Africa’s strategic repositioning in the world. Written by an international team of scholars and practitioners, this volume uses case studies to focus on key issues and developmental challenges in selected African cities. Topics include but are not limited to, smart cities, changing notions of democracy, the city’s role in attaining the SDGs, local governance, alternative models for governance and management, corruption, urbanisation and future cities.

Download or read book African cities and collaborative futures written by Michael Keith and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This groundbreaking volume brings together scholars from across the globe to discuss the infrastructure, energy, housing, safety and sustainability of African cities, as seen through local narratives of residents. Drawing on a variety of fields and extensive first-hand research, the contributions offer a fresh perspective on some of the most pressing issues confronting urban Africa in the twenty-first century. At a time when the future of the region as a whole will be determined in large part by its cities, the implications of these developments are profound. With case studies from cities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania, this volume explores how the rapid growth of African cities is reconfiguring the relationship between urban social life and its built forms. While the most visible transformations in cities today can be seen as infrastructural, these manifestations are cultural as well as material, reflecting the different ways in which the city is rationalised, economised and governed. How can we ‘see like a city’ in twenty-first-century Africa, understanding the urban present to shape its future? This is the central question posed throughout this volume, with a practical focus on how academics, local decision makers and international practitioners can collaborate to meet the challenge of rapid growth, environmental pressures and resource gaps.

Download or read book Africa s Development Dynamics 2021 Digital Transformation for Quality Jobs written by African Union Commission and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons learned in the continent’s five regions – Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa – to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, this analysis of development dynamics attempts to help African leaders reach the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local.

Download or read book Africa s Urban Revolution written by Doctor Edgar Pieterse and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-01-09 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The facts of Africa’s rapid urbanisation are startling. By 2030 African cities will have grown by more than 350 million people and over half the continent's population will be urban. Yet in the minds of policy makers, scholars and much of the general public, Africa remains a quintessentially rural place. This lack of awareness and robust analysis means it is difficult to make a policy case for a more overtly urban agenda. As a result, there is across the continent insufficient urgency directed to responding to the challenges and opportunities associated with the world’s last major wave of urbanisation. Drawing on the expertise of scholars and practitioners associated with the African Centre for Cities, and utilising a diverse array of case studies, Africa's Urban Revolution provides a comprehensive insight into the key issues - demographic, cultural, political, technical, environmental and economic - surrounding African urbanisation.

Download or read book Africa s Infrastructure written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable infrastructure development is vital for Africa s prosperity. And now is the time to begin the transformation. This volume is the culmination of an unprecedented effort to document, analyze, and interpret the full extent of the challenge in developing Sub-Saharan Africa s infrastructure sectors. As a result, it represents the most comprehensive reference currently available on infrastructure in the region. The book covers the five main economic infrastructure sectors information and communication technology, irrigation, power, transport, and water and sanitation. 'Africa s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation' reflects the collaboration of a wide array of African regional institutions and development partners under the auspices of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa. It presents the findings of the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD), a project launched following a commitment in 2005 by the international community (after the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland) to scale up financial support for infrastructure development in Africa. The lack of reliable information in this area made it difficult to evaluate the success of past interventions, prioritize current allocations, and provide benchmarks for measuring future progress, hence the need for the AICD. Africa s infrastructure sectors lag well behind those of the rest of the world, and the gap is widening. Some of the main policy-relevant findings highlighted in the book include the following: infrastructure in the region is exceptionally expensive, with tariffs being many times higher than those found elsewhere. Inadequate and expensive infrastructure is retarding growth by 2 percentage points each year. Solving the problem will cost over US$90 billion per year, which is more than twice what is being spent in Africa today. However, money alone is not the answer. Prudent policies, wise management, and sound maintenance can improve efficiency, thereby stretching the infrastructure dollar. There is the potential to recover an additional US$17 billion a year from within the existing infrastructure resource envelope simply by improving efficiency. For example, improved revenue collection and utility management could generate US$3.3 billion per year. Regional power trade could reduce annual costs by US$2 billion. And deregulating the trucking industry could reduce freight costs by one-half. So, raising more funds without also tackling inefficiencies would be like pouring water into a leaking bucket. Finally, the power sector and fragile states represent particular challenges. Even if every efficiency in every infrastructure sector could be captured, a substantial funding gap of $31 billion a year would remain. Nevertheless, the African people and economies cannot wait any longer. Now is the time to begin the transformation to sustainable development.

Download or read book African Cities and the Development Conundrum written by Carole Ammann and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 10th thematic volume of International Development Policy presents a collection of articles exploring some of the complex development challenges associated with Africa’s recent but extremely rapid pace of urbanisation that challenges still predominant but misleading images of Africa as a rural continent. Analysing urban settings through the diverse experiences and perspectives of inhabitants and stakeholders in cities across the continent, the authors consider the evolution of international development policy responses amidst the unique historical, social, economic and political contexts of Africa’s urban development. Contributors include: Carole Ammann, Claudia Baez Camargo, Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, Karen Büscher, Aba Obrumah Crentsil, Sascha Delz, Ton Dietz, Till Förster, Lucy Koechlin, Lalli Metsola, Garth Myers, George Owusu, Edgar Pieterse, Sebastian Prothmann, Warren Smit, and Florian Stoll.

Download or read book The Urban Question in Africa written by Pádraig Risteard Carmody and published by Wiley. This book was released on 2023-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Since 2007, most of the world's population has lived in urban settings for the first time in human history. Africa is the last (inhabited) predominantly rural continent, but its most rapidly urbanising one. It is undergoing an "urban revolution" (Parnell and Pieterse, 2014) unlike that seen anywhere else in the world for reasons that will be elaborated later. What this means for development outcomes and pathways is one of the most pressing questions facing the region. Africa's urbanisation rate is rising steadily, and this will continue in coming decades (see Figure I.1). The geographical distribution of urban agglomerations is widespread, and some estimates suggest more than 50 cities on the continent have populations greater than one million people (see Figure I.2). Lagos and Kinshasa alone are thought to hold approximately 14 million people each (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2018), although some estimates put the formers' population at over 20 million. Many cities in the region have populations which have grown rapidly in recent decades. For example, Kinshasa added 8.2 million people between 2000 and 2020; Lagos added 354,000 per annum, and a few even tripled their population numbers since 2000 (e.g., Luanda and Dar es Salaam). However, some of the fastest growth rates of all (7.3% per year 2015-2020) are registered for smaller urban settlements such as Gwagwalda (Nigeria), Kabinda (Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC]) and Mbouda (Cameroon) (Satterthwaite, 2021). Some observers posit that thirteen of the world's twenty largest cities will be in Africa by the end of this century, with Lagos potentially being the first city with more than 100 million people (Hoornweg and Pope, 2017) . As Figure 2 demonstrates, urban growth will be highly significant throughout the region and not only in mega, primate, or large cities but in secondary agglomerations as well. By 2050 it is estimated that 70% of all Africans will be urbanites (Paller, 2019)"--

Download or read book Urbanization and Socio Economic Development in Africa written by Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-16 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main goal of this book is to put urbanization and its challenges squarely on Africa’s development agenda. Planned urbanization can improve living conditions for the majority, help in the expansion of the middle class, and create conditions for economic transformation. However, many African cities have developed haphazardly, resulting in the decline of public services, in slum proliferation, and increases in poverty. African cities thrive on activities characterized by easy entry and low productivity, generally referred to as the "informal sector". Indeed, today some urban dwellers are poorer than their cousins in the countryside. In spite of reform attempts, many governments have not been able to create an enabling environment, with adequate infrastructure and institutions to sustain markets for easy exchange and production. This study argues that with careful policies and planning, the situation can be changed. If the recent natural resource-led economic boom that we have seen in many African countries is used for structural reforms and urban renewal, African cities could become centers of economic opportunity. The challenge for African policymakers is to ensure that urban development is orderly and that the process is inclusive and emphasizes the protection of the environment, hence green growth.

Download or read book Africa s Cities written by Somik Vinay Lall and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. This study, however, identifies a deeper reason: African cities are closed to the world. Compared with other developing cities, cities in Africa produce few goods and services for trade on regional and international markets To grow economically as they are growing in size, Africa’s cities must open their doors to the world. They need to specialize in manufacturing, along with other regionally and globally tradable goods and services. And to attract global investment in tradables production, cities must develop scale economies, which are associated with successful urban economic development in other regions. Such scale economies can arise in Africa, and they will—if city and country leaders make concerted efforts to bring agglomeration effects to urban areas. Today, potential urban investors and entrepreneurs look at Africa and see crowded, disconnected, and costly cities. Such cities inspire low expectations for the scale of urban production and for returns on invested capital. How can these cities become economically dense—not merely crowded? How can they acquire efficient connections? And how can they draw firms and skilled workers with a more affordable, livable urban environment? From a policy standpoint, the answer must be to address the structural problems affecting African cities. Foremost among these problems are institutional and regulatory constraints that misallocate land and labor, fragment physical development, and limit productivity. As long as African cities lack functioning land markets and regulations and early, coordinated infrastructure investments, they will remain local cities: closed to regional and global markets, trapped into producing only locally traded goods and services, and limited in their economic growth.

Download or read book Brazil s Early Urban Transition written by George Martine and published by IIED. This book was released on 2010 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Urbanization and Socio Economic Development in Africa written by Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-16 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main goal of this book is to put urbanization and its challenges squarely on Africa’s development agenda. Planned urbanization can improve living conditions for the majority, help in the expansion of the middle class, and create conditions for economic transformation. However, many African cities have developed haphazardly, resulting in the decline of public services, in slum proliferation, and increases in poverty. African cities thrive on activities characterized by easy entry and low productivity, generally referred to as the "informal sector". Indeed, today some urban dwellers are poorer than their cousins in the countryside. In spite of reform attempts, many governments have not been able to create an enabling environment, with adequate infrastructure and institutions to sustain markets for easy exchange and production. This study argues that with careful policies and planning, the situation can be changed. If the recent natural resource-led economic boom that we have seen in many African countries is used for structural reforms and urban renewal, African cities could become centers of economic opportunity. The challenge for African policymakers is to ensure that urban development is orderly and that the process is inclusive and emphasizes the protection of the environment, hence green growth.

Download or read book Environmental Change and African Societies written by Julia Tischler and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-07 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume Environmental Change and African Societies contributes to current debates on global climate change from the perspectives of the social sciences and the humanities. It charts past and present environmental change in different African settings and also discusses policies and scenarios for the future. The first section, “Ideas”, enquires into local perceptions of the environment, followed by contributions on historical cases of environmental change and state regulation. The section “Present” addresses decision-making and agenda-setting processes related to current representations and/or predicted effects of climate change. The section “Prospects” is concerned with contemporary African megatrends. The authors move across different scales of investigation, from locally-grounded ethnographic analyses to discussions on continental trends and international policy. Contributors are: Daniel Callo-Concha, Joy Clancy, Manfred Denich, Sara de Wit, Ton Dietz, Irit Eguavoen, Ben Fanstone, Ingo Haltermann, Laura Jeffrey, Emmanuel Kreike, Vimbai Kwashirai, James C. McCann, Bertrand F. Nero, Jonas Ø. Nielsen, Erick G. Tambo, Julia Tischler.

Download or read book For the City Yet to Come written by AbdouMaliq Simone and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2004-10-07 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among government officials, urban planners, and development workers, Africa’s burgeoning metropolises are frequently understood as failed cities, unable to provide even basic services. Whatever resourcefulness does exist is regarded as only temporary compensation for fundamental failure. In For the City Yet to Come, AbdouMaliq Simone argues that by overlooking all that does work in Africa’s cities, this perspective forecloses opportunities to capitalize on existing informal economies and structures in development efforts within Africa and to apply lessons drawn from them to rapidly growing urban areas around the world. Simone contends that Africa’s cities do work on some level and to the extent that they do, they function largely through fluid, makeshift collective actions running parallel to proliferating decentralized local authorities, small-scale enterprises, and community associations. Drawing on his nearly fifteen years of work in African cities—as an activist, teacher, development worker, researcher, and advisor to ngos and local governments—Simone provides a series of case studies illuminating the provisional networks through which most of Africa’s urban dwellers procure basic goods and services. He examines informal economies and social networks in Pikine, a large suburb of Dakar, Senegal; in Winterveld, a neighborhood on the edge of Pretoria, South Africa; in Douala, Cameroon; and among Africans seeking work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He contextualizes these particular cases through an analysis of the broad social, economic, and historical conditions that created present-day urban Africa. For the City Yet to Come is a powerful argument that any serious attempt to reinvent African urban centers must acknowledge the particular history of these cities and incorporate the local knowledge reflected in already existing informal urban economic and social systems.

Download or read book Capital capacities and collaboration The multiple roles of community savings in addressing urban poverty written by and published by IIED. This book was released on with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: