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Between ACC and the field: a reflection on two years of learning

ACC invites you to join us as researcher Andrea Pollio reflects on his time as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow jointly at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, and at the department of Urban and Regional Studies (DIST) at the Polytechnic of Turin.

INFO SESSION | DAAD MPhil Southern Urbanism Scholarships

The African Centre for Cities, through Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), are calling for scholarship applications for 2024. DAAD are offering five In-Region Scholarships* for students from Sub-Saharan Africa who enrol for the MPhil Southern Urbanism (Masters in Urban Studies) programme at the University of Cape Town. If you are interested in applying for the scholarship but have questions, join MPhil Southern Urbanism convenor Anna Selmeczi for this information session. WHEN | Tuesday, 4 April 2023 TIME | 12:00-13:00 SAST REGISTER HERE  

WEBINAR | Localizing the SDGs in African Cities

On the first UN Science, Technology and Innovation in Africa Day, 2 May 2023the International Science Council together with the African Centre for Cities present webinar aimed at exploring effective ways of accelerating local action towards the implementation of the SDGs in African cities.

On tactical planning

African Centre for Cities hosts visiting scholar Marco Di Nunzio for a seminar entitled On tactical planning, on Thursday, 11 May 2023, from 13:00-14:00. 

Lived experience as a pathway to community agency? Toward new framings of nutrition in urban South Africa

The Nourished Child project took a lived experience approach to understanding how systems interacted in the lives of women to shape their and their children's quality of diet. Central to the project was the development of a range of creative dissemination tools to engage policy makers, and increase community agency. In this presentation Jane Battersby reflects on the process, politics, and outcomes of the project, and the potential of projects of this kind to affect long term transformative change. Ahead of the presentation, you can also view the Nourished Child exhibition in the foyer of the Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building. WHEN | Monday, 15 May 2023 TIME | 13:00-14:00 VENUE |Studio 3, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT

MPhil Southern Urbanism Info Session

If you are interested in applying for the MPhil Southern Urbanism programme but still have some questions? This info session, hosted by programme convenor, Dr Anna Selmeczi will provide a brief overview of the pedagogical approach, programme structure and entry requirements, as well as discussion time to answer all your questions.

Ma in Sustainable Urban Practice Info Session

From siloed practitioner to systems integrator for sustainable African city futures – the new Masters programme, convened by the African Centre for Cities, at the University of Cape Town cultivates a new generation of urban practitioner. The complex, multi-dimensional demands of our rapidly urbanising world require holistic, inter-disciplinary thinking and practice. However traditional professional paradigms and often-siloed institutions seem doomed to replicate the entrenched patterns and practices of path-dependent urban infrastructure provision and management. To overcome the often-fragmented ways in which urban questions are framed, institutionalised, and engaged by varied levels of government, citizens, civil society organisations, and private sector actors, we need a new kind of urban practitioner, who can work across practices, professional norms, hierarchies, sectors and urban problems. To meet this need, the African Centre for Cities (ACC), UCT, launched a Masters in Sustainable Urban Practice, which seeks to cultivates urban integrators who are able to discern opportunities for integration, and can build the necessary coalitions for change; who are confident in varied cultures of communication and can build bridges between sectors, fields, and scales of urban practice. Join this information session with programme convenor Dr Mercy Brown-Luthango. WHEN | Friday, 25 August 2023 TIME | 12:30-13:30 SAST REGISTER HERE  MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Lunchtime Lecture: Panya Routes – From platform to plotform

Join ACC and the Michaelis Galleries for a lunchtime lecture by Dr Kim Gurney on her latest book Panya Routes: Independent art spaces in Africa, on Thursday, 31 August 2023, 13:00-14:00 at the Michaelis Lecture Theatre.

INFO SESSION | DAAD MPhil Southern Urbanism Scholarships

The African Centre for Cities, through Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), are calling for scholarship applications for 2025. DAAD are offering five In-Region Scholarships* for students from Sub-Saharan Africa who enrol for the MPhil Southern Urbanism (Masters in Urban Studies) programme at the University of Cape Town. If you are interested in applying for the scholarship but have questions, join MPhil Southern Urbanism convenor Anna Selmeczi for this information session. WHEN | Monday, 25 March 2024 TIME | 12:00-13:00 SAST JOIN ZOOM MEETING MEETING ID: 874 0499 7882 PASSCODE: 254675

ACC Brown Bag – Living Off-Grid: Reflections from Ghana and Zimbabwe

Studio 1, Environmental and Geographical Science Building, Upper Campus, UCT

Speakers: Percy Toriro – University of Zimbabwe and Issahaka Fuseini – University of Ghana Join this discussion between Percy Toriro and Issahaka Fuseini, who will share findings from their work as city partners in the LOGIC (off-grid) project. Percy will engage the theme of ‘Electricity visits us’: the challenges of living with poor infrastructure and services in an off-grid settlement, with a focus on Dzivarasekwa, Zimbabwe. Issahaka will speak to the realities of off-griddedness and various assemblages to adapt to water scarcity and sanitation challenges in Tamale, Ghana. These inputs will be followed by reflections by Hayley MacGregor (IDS) locating these discussions within the overlooked intersections between urban studies, the “infrastructure turn” and emerging urban food, nutrition and wider wellbeing debates. This brownbag will build on the earlier conversations by Mercy Brown Luthango and Iromi Perera and the LOGIC (off grid) project, speaking to research in two additional project cities. WHEN: Thursday, 11 April 2024 TIME: 15h30 - 16h30 VENUE: Studio 1, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, University of Cape Town ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Percy Toriro has over 20 years’ experience as a city planner, having been the Chief Planner for the City of Harare for 10 years. Dr Toriro also leads the Urban Planning Program at the Municipal Development Partnership (MDP) a network spanning 15 Southern African countries, engaging in urban development challenges. Percy holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town. His research has covered urban infrastructure, urban housing, urban informality, housing, governance, food systems and environment. Percy’s work sees him interacting with national, regional and local governments in different countries and cities. Percy served four terms as President of the Zimbabwe Institute of Regional and Urban Planners (ZIRUP). Percy holds an adjunct lectureship position at the University of Zimbabwe. Issahaka Fuseini is a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Ghana. Issahaka holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University. Issahaka’s research interest spans food systems governance, collaborative local-level governance, and inclusive urban development. Issahaka previously worked at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, during which time he was involved in multi-country, interdisciplinary projects aimed at improving urban food systems governance and nutrition security in nine cities in Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa. Presently, Issahaka is a co-investigator responsible for the Ghanaian component of a UKRI-sponsored multi-country research project (under the Global Challenges Research Fund’s Off-Grid Cities call) that is being implemented in five cities in Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, and Sri Lanka. This project seeks to understand how access to or the lack of infrastructure, broadly defined, impacts the food and nutrition security of marginalised populations in cities in the Global South. Issahaka is also a lead partner in a city dialogue, facilitated by RUAF/FAO, that is aimed at developing a city-level food systems governance agenda for his home city of Tamale, Ghana.