Governing Urban Africa

This book explores some of the key challenges confronting the governance of cities in Africa, the reforms implemented in the field of urban governance, and the innovative approaches in critical areas of local governance, namely in the broad field of decentralization and urban planning reform, citizen participation, and good governance. The collection also investigates the constraints that continuously hamper urban governments as well as the ability to improve urban governance in African cities through citizen responsive innovations. Decentralization based on the principle of subsidiarity emerges as a critical necessary reform if African cities are to be appropriately empowered to face the challenges created by the unprecedented urban growth rate experienced all over the continent. This requires, among other initiatives, the implementation of an effective local self-government system, the reform of planning laws, including the adoption of new planning models, the development of citizen participation in local affairs, and new approaches to urban informality. The book will be of interest to students, researchers and policy makers in urban studies, and in particular for those interested in urban planning in Africa.

1. Local government and urban governance in Africa: an overview-. 2. Local government reforms and grassroots development: experiences from selected African countries-. 3. Decentralization and local governance in Lusophone African countries-. 4. Planning law reforms in Africa-. 5. Reforming planning law and practice in Africa: the case of Kenya-. 6. Planning law reforms in Lusophone African countries-. 7. Governing urban informality: unscrambling enclaves of containment in Zimbabwe-. 8. Imagined urban development and real urban lives in the New Luanda, Angola-. 9. African urban plans - the case of Kigamboni, Tanzania-. 10. Limits of acceptable change (lac) as a tool for the management of heritage sites: the case of island of Mozambique-. 11. A responsive urban project in the M' zab Algeria: the case of the new ksar of Tafilalt-. 12. Urban and regional planning: when mining companies take on the government s role. Risks and contributions of public-private collaboration in urbanand regional management in guinea-. 13. Incantations for future bearings: toward participation in Mozambican urban planning-. 14. My water; my choice! The role of citizens in ensuring equitable access to water in Soweto east village Nairobi-. 15. Governance of public spaces: between discourse and reality-. 16. Constituting urban space. A Moroccan case study-. 17. Sub-Saharan African middle classes urban trends: challenges for local governance and critical reflections on the 2030 urban development goals.