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African cities remain little known. As a result, they are outside the global intellectual arena on urban issues, which justifies the need for more productive research. This article aims to empirically analyze the evolution of urban planning studies in Africa, by identifying the trends that characterize scientific production, through a systematic li...
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... first consisted in identifying for each article the main subjects dealt with based on abstracts and keywords, or the content of the text itself when these were not sufficiently explicit. Thus, several dozen topics were highlighted, and the distribution of their frequencies is shown in Figure 3. We can observe the predominance of certain topics such as housing and informality, urban agriculture, colonial issues, the theorization of the African city, and land issues, in the top 5. ...
Citations
... In addition, the urban dynamics occur in a general context of poverty, unemployment, and underemployment, which are worsening in all the cities of sub-Saharan Africa [8][9][10], leading to a deterioration in the overall conditions of access of households to basic foodstuffs, especially the most vulnerable households. However, ensuring food security also constitutes an essential basis for promoting sustainable urbanization [11][12][13]. ...
In West Africa, the number of people facing food crises increases each year in both rural and urban areas, due to interdependent factors. The city of Grand Lome in Togo faces an increasingly large population that must ensure access to food, which it hardly produces anymore, because of the establishment of housing and infrastructure. In addition, the increase in the price of food products in this city further weakens the purchasing power of city dwellers in the context of poverty. The objective of this article is to determine the state of food and nutritional security of households in Grand Lome. The methodology adopted is based on documentary research and field surveys. A total of 310 households were interviewed on questions allowing the construction of indicators of food and nutritional security. The results show that despite the availability of food in urban markets, the food situation of households in Grand Lome is not very good. Nearly 49% of households do not have good dietary diversity, and 48% have adopted stress and crisis strategies to access food. Similarly, in Grand Lome, the prevalence of global acute malnutrition is 2.6% of children under 59 months.
... /frsc. . governance can promote urban resilience or deepen poverty and inequalities (Esson et al., 2016;Kemajou et al., 2020). In this context, Ghana's urban governance policies are a test case, particularly in rapidly urbanizing communities. ...
Urban resilience experts have highlighted that frequent extreme weather events are a result of rapid, unplanned development and climate change. To ensure coherent urban planning, effective land governance has been a priority since the introduction of the national urban policy in 2012. However, despite implementing this policy for over a decade, poor land governance continues to negatively impact city development, yet this subject has received limited academic attention. Our study focuses on Santa Maria, a community historically neglected by planning officials and currently facing unregulated urbanization and increasing flood risks. We used qualitative research methods, including key informant interviews and document reviews, to unpack land ownership and management complexities. These complexities have led to “planning by the commons,” the creation of green space deserts, and challenges related to residents' mobility and livelihood. Our study affirms that auto-constructed communities like Santa Maria reflect a form of tenacious urbanism that should be acknowledged and respected. Incorporating its logic into proposals for consolidation, informed by the opinions and desires of the residents themselves, can help integrate “planning by the commons” into the urban planning process of Accra. Rather than being viewed as a problem to be cured, this approach should be incorporated into the planning process, incorporating locally specific social functions and traditional structures to ensure equitable and just urban societies. The public sector must recognize that building on local capacity, skills, and expertise is essential in the quest for a resilient city. The experience from Santa Maria provides a great opportunity to nurture local development, fulfill the growing demand for solutions and services without biases, and provide an excellent opportunity for inclusive growth.
... Different studies [30,39,40,43,157] have dealt with urban challenges and strategies in isolated African cities or regions. This study contributes to urban planning discourse and development practices by providing updated and consolidated knowledge on the most pressing urban challenges and the most frequent urban strategies that are shaping African cities' dynamics in the 21st century. ...
Since the 1950s, African cities in a quest for modernity and prosperity have been urgently playing catch up to deal with the increasing demand for adequate urban systems and infrastructure. At the turn of the 21st century, many spatial planning models, technological trends, environmental challenges, and socio-economic realities are influencing African cities’ dynamics largely causing confusion and a lack of consistent planning policies. To efficiently guide a coherent and coordinated vision, frame an integrated long-term spatial logic, and give a precise direction for sustainable urban development, this paper aims to develop a localized and contextualised analysis of urban planning challenges and development strategies shaping African cities. The study provides a broad perspective looking at the potentiality of spatial planning practices to envision and transform urban life by prospecting integrated urban planning and development strategies to face increasing urban challenges in Africa. Through Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and machine-learning tools, the study brings, for the first time, consolidated and updated knowledge of urban planning practices in Africa. We analysed 243 urban studies, published between 2000 and 2023, in 107 African cities. We identified and scrutinised 17 most pressing urban challenges and 16 most applied urban strategies to address those challenges. Accordingly, the study’s findings suggest shifting the spatial planning paradigm towards urban resilience as an interoperable system of different spatial planning policies and their relevant urban development strategies. Furthermore, the study’s key arguments are to improve urban infrastructure and optimize existing cities to reverse environmental degradation and guide urban fast transformation to adapt and mitigate growing climate change catastrophes.
... However, the hypothesis is that Africa would benefit from publishing much more in the areas of UA and health studies in Africa. On one level, the studies would be even more relatable because they would have been developed by people immersed in the realities of the context [28][29][30]. On another level, these publications could highlight innovations of which the Western world is not yet aware, confirming the concept of reverse innovation, which would consist of a South-North movement of "low-tech cutting-edge" methods, i.e., techniques that do not require a great deal of material resources but that solve real problems using technology [28,29]. ...
... On one level, the studies would be even more relatable because they would have been developed by people immersed in the realities of the context [28][29][30]. On another level, these publications could highlight innovations of which the Western world is not yet aware, confirming the concept of reverse innovation, which would consist of a South-North movement of "low-tech cutting-edge" methods, i.e., techniques that do not require a great deal of material resources but that solve real problems using technology [28,29]. ...
Urban agriculture (UA) is an ancient practice in Africa that meets social- and health-related needs. However, it is unclear whether architects and urban planners have incorporated the topic into their research and practices. This study aimed to assess the scientific contributions of these fields to UA and their relevance compared to other disciplines. The research objectives were to evaluate the trends in the subject, architects’ and planners’ involvement, and the effects of UA on health in Africa. As a method, a review was conducted using Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The research query was (“urban agriculture” OR “urban farming”) AND Africa AND (“health” OR “global health” OR “urban health”), and the time frame considered was January 2000 to December 2020. Zotero, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Excel, and VOSviewer were used to collect and analyze metadata. After excluding duplicates, a total of n = 390 articles were involved. The results displayed the mixed health effects of UA, a growing interest in the topic with prominence on food security, and evidence from public health, not architecture and planning. The study recommends more theoretical research on UA by architects, which should be translated into policies and implementation.
... On the one hand, the studies would be even more relatable because they would have been developed by people immersed in the realities of the context [33][34][35]. On the other hand, these publications could highlight innovations of which the Western world is not yet aware, confirming the concept of reverse innovation, which would consist of a South-North movement of "low-tech cut-edge" methods i.e., techniques that don't require a great deal of material resources, but that solve real problems using technology [36,37]. ...
Urban agriculture is an early practice, especially for cities in the Global South that are expanding at an unprecedented rate, and in African cities, it can be a way to attend to essential social and health needs. However, it is unclear whether architects and urban planners have expressed interest or already incorporated urban farming within their designs of African cities. This literature review was conducted to understand to what extent architects and urban planners have researched urban agriculture and health. Comprehensive searches based on urban agriculture, health, and Africa were conducted in Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science from 2000 to December 2020. Zotero, Mozilla Firefox search engine, and Google Chrome were used to collect paper metadata. The duplicate articles were excluded, and all the n = 240 publications remaining were included in the analysis. Food security and the immediate health impact of urban agriculture on health were the most addressed topics. These studies reported the harmful effects of urban agriculture on malaria and the wastewater irrigation of plants. The evidence on urban agriculture is increasing from public health researchers, but not in the field of urban planning or architecture. Future research on urban agriculture's impacts on urban health should be increasingly done by architects and planners to help shape urban planning practices and regulations that could help create urban agriculture that benefits urban health.
... The disposal of MSW in landfills has only been reported in some metropolitan areas of SSA, including Kampala in Uganda (Kabera et al., 2019), Cape Town in South Africa (Barnes et al., 2021), and Accra in Ghana (Oduro-Appiah et al., 2020). However, publications are scarce concerning urban planning in SSA, including solid waste management, as reviewed by Kemajou et al. (2020). ...
The present work aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the municipal solid waste (MSW) management system in Kuito, Angola, using an efficiency index (MSWEI) adapted to African conditions. Four dimensions constitute MSWEI: governance; gravimetry and logistics; sorting, valuation, and composting; and final disposal. The MSWEI reached 37.6%, corresponding to an inadequate MSW management system. The main MSW management guidelines include the development of environmental education; selective collection, sorting of dry recyclable materials and shipping to the capital Luanda; composting of the organic waste; creation of an inter-municipality consortium to share the costs of a landfill.
The transportation industry is a key player in shaping today’s economy and society, but the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 drastically reduced services as governments implemented containment measures which drastically reduced services offered by transportation systems. Developed countries are already analyzing the pandemic's impact on transportation and proposing sustainable solutions. However, little is known about how developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with high urban population densities and unique mobility patterns, have responded. This study focuses on Cameroon, specifically Douala city, to examine the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on mobility patterns, transport operators, and provide recommendations to transport authorities in responding to future pandemics in the region. Interviews with 190 key informants, including taxi, bus drivers, and bike riders revealed a significant decrease in passenger demand, lower occupancy rates, reduced intra-urban and inter-urban mobility, and financial struggles for drivers, leading to layoffs. The study underscores the need for collaboration among stakeholders in the transport sector, involving public transport operators, government agents, policy makers, and the civil society in decision-making to create sustainable solutions for future pandemics.
Crowdsourcing could potentially have great benefits for the development of sustainable cities in the Global South (GS), where a growing population and rapid urbanization represent serious challenges for the years to come. However, to fulfill this potential, it is important to take into consideration the unique characteristics of the GS and the challenges associated with them. This study provides an overview of the crowdsourcing methods applied to public participation in urban planning in the GS, as well as the technological, administrative, academic, socio-economic, and cultural challenges that could affect their successful adoption. Some suggestions for both researchers and practitioners are also provided.
Sub-Saharan suffers from a poor transport system failing to address equity and sustainability. The system can be affected by several factors; however, this study explores how African historical transport infrastructure development and socio-economic changes affect institutional changes and preferences of available transport modes. We used recently published systematic reviews, case studies, analytical cross-sectional studies, policy review papers, and available relevant studies reports and some grey literature to understand the impacts of these factors. Our analysis shows that the transport demand is affected by local socio-economic contexts shaped by historical pretexts, socio-technical changes, economic transitions, and related value systems. These is essential to understand the operational characteristics of the formal and informal transport modalities, their roles and contribution to meet the mobility needs of the people and designing of an effective management system. This paper can provide insights to policy-makers, urban transport planners and researchers in the field on the complementary modalities involving formal and informal transportation.
In the face of the ever-evolving and emerging urban, environmental and socioeconomic transformations of Africa cities, a growing body of literature advocates for new attitudes towards urban planning theory and practices. Within this frame, place-based approaches are a recurring trope vested with the bivalent capacity to challenge the preconceptions of African urbanity inherited from colonial-era and Western modernist thought, and to bring out alternative knowledge grounded in the concrete reality of African cities. However, this notion has multiple and oft-diverging meanings, potentially nullifying its conceptual and operational validity. This introductory essay puts forward five place-based specifics based on an extensive literature review and against which the contributions collected in this book are tested: (1) the shifting meaning of place from a changeless physical entity to a dynamic social-cultural one, (2) the added value of including local to expert knowledge into multiple knowledge systems, (3) the collaborative or non-collaborative nature of place-based practices and the range of tools and methods for implementing them, (4) democratisation and empowerment objectives in place-based approaches, and (5) the role of institutions in establishing place-based initiatives in the long term. As a result, while reinstating the relevance of contextuality in urban planning and design for African cities, this essay calls into question some undesirable aspects of place-based approaches: the limitations of case study-based empiricism, romanticising informal and bottom-up initiatives, and justifying the historical retreat of institutionalised public action from responsibility for steering urban change.