Urban Governance in Africa: An Overview

Abstract

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Pathways for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities in Southern and Eastern Africa through Urban Green Infrastructure?

“…Potts [30], on the other hand, stresses the fact that most African cities are integrally connected to rural areas through the practice of circular migration as a livelihood strategy. African cities are traditionally characterized by overlapping and even competing systems of power: the responsibility of key urban governance issues is often fragmented amongst a diversity of actors and stakeholders, such as government and political parties, traditional leaders, private sector, informal business organisations, multilateral agencies, development banks, international donor agencies and civil society [31]. These are usually characterised by conflicting interests and an unequal distribution of power, which hampers a reasonable and timely approach to the complexity of urban issues [31].…”

“…African cities are traditionally characterized by overlapping and even competing systems of power: the responsibility of key urban governance issues is often fragmented amongst a diversity of actors and stakeholders, such as government and political parties, traditional leaders, private sector, informal business organisations, multilateral agencies, development banks, international donor agencies and civil society [31]. These are usually characterised by conflicting interests and an unequal distribution of power, which hampers a reasonable and timely approach to the complexity of urban issues [31]. In the lack of a strong local state, it remains uncertain for urban dwellers, policy makers and researchers how entitlements and access to livelihood assets and contested (public) spaces are negotiated, what is the nature of the institutional framework in which these issues are embedded, and which formal institutions and informal, in many cases traditional arrangements are in place [32].…”

“…In most sub-Saharan African countries, the state and city institutions have weak legal frameworks or lack political capacity, and sometimes maybe will, for effective and adequate implementation of planning strategies and bylaws [31]. As one of many possible causes, Smit [31] identifies the hasty and only partial decentralisation of public administration in Africa since the 1980s, which has led to local governments characterized by weakness, disorganisation, inadequate training and staffing, and overwhelming burdens from new, complex tasks. In addition, local governments have limited opportunities for mobilising the necessary resources to tackle rapid urban growth and the closely associated problematic processes.…”

“…Apart from that, peri-urban and urban dwellers often compete for space with other urban needs and development priorities, or get involved in conflicts with other land uses [126]. This challenge is superimposed by the high heterogeneity of public, institutional and private landowners, making the involvement of a large range of stakeholders in planning and implementation a necessity [31]. This is particularly true for a large number of cities in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance for Dar es Salaam, where the institutional setup of land management is "polycentric and opaque, with formal arenas often inaccessible to the average Dar denizen" [127] (p. 2) and where land management is characterised by socio-political tensions between customary land ownership and state urban planning [31,126,128].…”

“…City authorities have often refused to accept agriculture as a formal urban land use; it is often tolerated as temporary use of land until the space would be developed for other uses [31,126]. Urban agriculture remains an illegal practice in most African cities due to health concerns, the view that it poses a threat to the environment (e.g., through inappropriate use of contaminated irrigation water or improper use of agrochemicals) [143,144].…”