The recent IPCC Climate Change and Land Report [1] lays out evidence of the need for urgent shifts in the global systems in light of climate change. This commentary reflects on Chapter 5, the Food Security chapter, from our perspective as researchers focused on urban food systems and non-communicable disease in Africa. (more…)
To deliver on the Coalition for Urban Transitions‘ project — a major global initiative to support national governments to accelerate economic development and tackle dangerous climate change by transforming towns and cities — the African Centre for Cities applied versions of the ‘citylab’ model that have been used elsewhere (see Anderson et al. 2013) in […]
DAKAR, Senegal — The European Union’s top brass headed to Africa Thursday, aiming to cast relations between the two continents in terms of opportunity. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took 19 commissioners and the bloc’s foreign affairs chief to meet the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At the same time in Dakar, […]
Visiting scholar Constance Smith from Social Anthropology at The University of Manchester presents Collapse: Grey development and fake buildings in Nairobi, on Tuesday, 8 October 2019, at 15:00. ABSTRACT Nairobi has recently experienced a spate of residential tower block collapses resulting in significant casualties. In an attempt to understand this precarious architecture, I juxtapose two different, […]
by Dorothy Ndhlovu and Gilbert Siame The launch of the Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme (GI-ACE) Cities of Integrity project was held on the 19 July 2019 at Protea Hotel Towers in Lusaka, Zambia. The launch was jointly organised by the Center for Urban Research and Planning (CURP) at the University of Zambia (UNZA), Zambia Institute […]
The Global Development Institute is pleased to host Edgar Pieterse as part of the GDI Lecture Series, talking about: Ambitious and ambiguous public investments in African cities Urban governance in most African cities is marked by weak regulatory enablement by national governments, limited autonomous fiscal resources, limited managerial capacity, overlaid by distortionary politics—read a combination […]
This working paper was prepared by the African Centre for Cities. It was developed in partnership with the Coalition for Urban Transitions, which is a major global initiative to support national governments to accelerate economic development and tackle dangerous climate change by transforming towns and cities. (more…)
ABSTRACT This paper examines African urban infrastructure and service delivery as an entry point for connecting African aspirations with the harsh developmental imperatives of urban management, creating a dialogue between scholarly knowledge and sustainable development policy aspirations. (more…)
The Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) is a policy initiative of the South African government, coordinated by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA). The IUDF seeks to foster a shared understanding across government and society about how best to manage urbanisation and achieve the goals of economic development, job creation and improved […]
On Tuesday 11 August, the ACC and District Six Museum co-hosted a conversation between Bonita Bennett and Rike Sitas with clinical psychiatrist, Dr Mindy Thompson Fullilove. Dr Fullilove’s research into HIV/Aids in the US in the 1980s led to her interest in the psychology of place. Her subsequent research focused on urban planning and displacement, concerned with […]
In this paper, Professor Vanessa Watson argues that Sub-Saharan Africa’s larger cities are currently being revisioned in the image of cities such as Dubai, Shanghai and Singapore, which claim top positions in the world-class city leagues. Draped in the rhetoric of “smart cities” and “eco-cities”, these plans promise to modernize African cities and turn them […]
