About
Urbanafrica.net was a project of the ACC based at the University of Cape Town. The project was conceived by a small network of urban practitioners affiliated with the ACC. As an online platform sharing information about urban experiences in Africa, Urbanafrica.net aggregated news and conversations about cities on the continent through contributions from journalists, academics, bloggers and those working in the urban sphere.
News and information was categorised according to seven broad, inter-connecting themes: Built Environment, Culture, Economy, Governance, Human Rights, Infrastructure and Sustainability. The site used to host various platforms, providing the space for feature articles, news, academic and government resources, as well as for communicating opportunities and upcoming events.
Objectives
A key objective of the online news portal was the mainstreaming of progressive debates on African urbanism through the stimulation of a dynamic online community. Furthermore, those credited towards the project’s conception aimed to make current and well organized information and resources on urban development readily available online to practitioners in African cities.
The initiative received generous seed funding from the Department of International Development – UK’s Urban LandMark, the Cities Alliance, the World Bank Institute and the Association of African Planning Schools. Urbanafrica.net had also been generously supported by Mistra Urban Futures, an international centre for sustainable urban development.
