Keywords

1.1 Background to the Concept of the Book: Planning Cities in Africa

Urbanisation and climate change were at the centre of our dialogue when the idea of this book was initiated. Its topics have been the focus of global and national policies and research such as the Sustainable Development Goals, for example, Goal 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities, (United Nation 2015) and the New Urban Agenda (UN-HABITAT 2017), which vows to “commit … to strengthening the resilience of cities and human settlements, including through the development of quality infrastructure and spatial planning (…), especially in risk-prone areas of formal and informal settlements.” The topics are linked with key local, regional and global factors posing a huge challenge to socioeconomic and natural systems and assets (Parnell and Walawege 2011; Addaney et al. 2017; Cobbinah et al. 2017; CRED and UNDRR 2020; Biesbroek et al. 2022).

Cities in the Global South are overwhelmed by an ever-growing demand for affordable housing and urban services. This is indeed a paramount challenge that African cities must deal with albeit their encumbered capacity. For instance, the absolute number of people living in urban areas has almost doubled, despite the fact that the proportion of residents living in slum settlements of African cities has slightly declined (UN-Habitat 2016). In cities such as Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam, people living in slum or informal settlements account for more than 50 per cent of the total urban population (ibid.). This means that these cities must find a way to improve the substandard housing and sanitation conditions, and supply basic services for more than half of their population, while managing all other urban development issues related to environment, mobility, waste management and the like (Blanco et al. 2009; Parnell and Walawege 2011; Alem and Namangaya 2021). In addition to this dire situation, flood-related risks and the frequency and intensity of the resulting disasters are increasing. These are to some extent impacted by global climate change which causes erratic rainfall patterns and an increase in temperature (Addaney et al. 2017; Cobbinah et al. 2017; Addaney and Cobbinah 2019). However, the flood risk is a sum of these problems affecting the pattern of urban settlements, degradation of green and blue infrastructure and encumbered urban management capacity. Increasingly, informal settlements on hazardous and eco-sensitive areas are almost the norm in African urban landscapes and also in Latin America and Asia (Blanco et al. 2009; Greiving et al. 2018).

Concurrent to this, the body of literature and focus of discourses on urban studies are bringing new perspectives and approaches to understand urbanisation in Africa and sociocultural resources. These new perspectives and approaches enable an understanding of cities and urbanisation in Africa from their own sociocultural and historical perspective (Simone 2004, 2010; Fourchard 2011; Robinson 2011; Connell 2014). These approaches help to correct and update the Euro-American centric view that mostly sees African cities as synonymous with crisis and disaster (Fourchard 2011; Myers 2011; Robinson 2011). Despite the trends towards a change of perspective and calls to actualise and reform planning in Africa, in practice, there seems to be little change (Robinson 2006; Watson 2009, 2011, 2014b; Comaroff and Comaroff 2012; Cain 2014; De Satgé and Watson 2018). For the most part, planning education and practice in Africa are rooted in and originated from its colonial past. Theories, the ideal of “city” and urbaneness are hence derived from a Euro-American urbanism and sociocultural context (Diouf and Fredericks 2014; Wesely and Allen 2019). In fact, planning practice in the region is associated with rationalist master planning approaches and inappropriate strategies, which are developed for other sociocultural and economic contexts, in dealing with actual urban problems (Watson 2014a; Cirolia and Berrisford 2017; Ewing 2021). In several occasions, urban planning and urban development interventions are associated with injustice and marginalisation of the poor (Watson 2011; Alemu 2015; McClelland 2018; Alem 2021).

In view of this, the research team, under the four-year research-cum training programme on Governance and Planning of Resilient Cities in East Africa (GOPLAREA), developed three key thematic areas for a series of events which have become the background of this book.

1.2 Key Thematic Areas of GOPLAREA Research Project

The main thematic areas developed under the GOPLAREA research project are localising planning theories, innovation of planning education and participatory and multi-governance planning approach. The research and discourse on these topics were structured by several questions, which guided the research and development of concepts for building public dialogue and co-production of knowledge.

  • Localising planning theories: What are the prospects of planning theory in the continent’s urban planning landscape, which actual issues are important to address the conceptual gaps in planning practice and education?

  • Innovating planning education to address the combined challenges of rapid urbanisation and climate change: How far have the curricula of urban planning education changed following the call for discourse on postcolonial planning theories and in particular the perspective from the south? Are there reforms on methods of knowledge acquisition and co-production? What were the impacts of increasing urban risks, and how have concepts such as sustainable development, urban resilience and risk adaptation? How have these influenced the teaching and training of planners?

  • Participatory and multi-level governance approach towards the combined challenges of rapid urbanisation and the impact of climate change: Challenges posed by rapid urbanisation and climate change-related risks have further exacerbated the weak institutional and financial deficits of cities in Africa. On the other hand, a considerable amount of resources are used in networks and initiatives in informal and pseudo formal systems. Among other things, these resources aim to address shortages of or inaccessible urban services, mitigation and adaptation to disaster-related risks. Some of the emerging questions are: What kind of resources are available and how best to deal with challenges in order to exploit opportunities of participatory and multi-levels governance approaches? How are resources at the local level mobilised and coordinated? How to coordinate and exploit such resources and make them effective for sustainable urban development and resilience building?

From 2016 to 2021, a series of workshops and a conference were organised by the research project. The workshops focused on discussions of critical issues of urban planning and the challenges of climate change impacts in East African cities. The aim of the workshops and conference was to create knowledge production platforms where researchers, practising planners and actors at the local and grassroots level could meet and discuss the burning issues in urban areas. In particular, the workshops facilitated to co-assessment, co-planning and administration needs of important planning and development agents. They also discussed issues, such as urban flood risks, ongoing initiatives of risk mapping and database building, nature-based solutions which could make African cities resilient, participatory management of urban river valleys and flooding and capacity building for resilient risk and urban management.

An international forum, which was organised as the fifth conference of AAPS (Association of African Planning Schools), brought together scholars from several countries in Africa and as well as international scholars. The conference had several parallel and plenary sessions, which facilitated opening the dialogue to a wide range of participants. More than 70 papers were presented and discussed in the three-day event. However, it is not the ambition of this book to summarise all the discussion of the papers presented and the keynote speeches, but to present a selection of topics, which provide a glimpse into the discussed topics in planning theory and education as well as current issues of urban governance and risk management.

1.3 Book Chapters and Key Thematic Areas

The book is organised in 11 chapters including the introduction. The chapters are organised in three thematic groups: Planning theories and models—application and local challenges; the state of planning education and planning capacity and; participatory and multi-level governance approach towards current urban challenges. The chapters cover several issues in climate change impact adaptation, participatory planning, co-production of services, housing and planning education. Implications of Euro-American centred planning models, concepts and theories are also critically assessed, as well as the prospects for contextualisation and local perspectives of urban challenges.

In Part I, Lia Gebremariam Woldetsadik, Wafae Boullala and Raffael Beier, the authors question, in different ways, the application of imported planning theories, models and concepts. They have sought to highlight the implication of theories and concepts that draw ideals from foreign sociocultural and economic contexts and experiences. Woldestadik, taking the case of neighbourhood upgrading initiatives in Addis Ababa, discusses the application of collaborative planning and how it is affected by government systems. She notes that democratic culture, trust and cooperative norms are linked to government systems shaping the planning process and cooperation. Hence, the state, in dominantly authoritarian regimes, penetrates the society and shaping social norms and the worldview of actors. She argues that the collaborative planning process should be designed taking into consideration contextualised state-society relationships. Wafae Boullala, in Chap. 3, thematises the issue of street vending and the modernist view of “informality” using historical research in Rabat. She notes that imported planning models have led to the marginalisation of people, who, as peddlers, were part of a centuries-old tradition of the “Souk.” Boullala argues that street vending is an economic activity linked to the historical development of Rabat, which has been pushed out of the downtown by colonial planning models and urban policies. In her view, street vending is a form of resistance against alien policies and urban forms; and a struggle to claim back urban spaces. Raffael Beier, in his chapter titled “Revisiting Stokes Theory of Slums,” discusses the concept of the slum and its implications in the development of large-scale housing programmes. Using cases of different housing programmes in various African countries, he analyses the conceptual underpinning behind adequate housing. Beier notes of the implications of conceptualisation that neglects social capital embedded in the communities living in informal settlements and the social entrepreneurship in self-help housing development. He argues that concepts such as “slums” are developed from colonial planning and mostly concerned with the notion of shelter. Hence, he calls for a contextualised concept of adequate housing which goes beyond material decency.

The chapters in Part II discuss the state of planning education and planning capacity in different planning systems in Africa. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the education and training of planners, analysing the content of course modules. Geetika Anand and Nadini Dutta, Chap. 5, and Abraham Matamanda, Jennilee Kohima, Veran Nel and Innocent Chirisa, Chap. 6, present assessments of planning education curricula and how planners are trained and equipped to deal with contemporaneous urban challenges. Geetika Anand and Nadini Dutta present us a comparative study of different planning curricula in ten universities in Africa and Asia. The chapter is also a reflection on the state of planning education in a postcolonial context. The authors note that the reviewed planning curricula exhibit a dependency on education philosophy, pedagogy and literature, which are mainly derived from Euro-American experiences. In addition, current issues, such as informality, access to land, sustainability and justice remain either on the periphery or at a very abstract level. Abraham Matamanda et al., also review curricula, but focus on to what extent knowledge of the implications of climate change and adaptation are taught in planning schools of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The authors argue that the contents show acknowledgement of the impacts of climate change, but it fails to include teaching module which deal with contextualised challenges, such as flooding and draught.

In contrast, Wilbard Kombe and Samwel Alananga and Dawah Magembe-Mushi and Ramadhan Matingas, analyse the capacity and skills of planners and officials on the ground. The authors assess the capacity and skills of planners and officials of local authorities in managing planning processes and understanding issues related to climate change. Kombe and Alananga, Chap. 7, discuss the link between the knowledge that planning professionals have and the achieved urban resilience in Tanzania. Assessing the case of Arusha Municipality in Tanzania, they observe the capacity gaps related to the training and education of professional planners. The authors argue that education and awareness on climate change impacts are key pillars to meet the aims of climate change-related policies at local level. Magembe-Mushi and Matingas, Chap. 8, take the case of sea level rise in the Pangani Divison, in Tanzania, and assess the role of authorities in working with the community and implementing localised adaptive measures. The authors underscore the role of capacity building to equip local authorities with adequate leadership quality and skills in managing initiatives in climate change adaptation and mitigation. In addition, a conducive information sharing environment and efficient resource mobilisation contribute to community resilience building.

In Part III, three chapters discuss the landscapes of participatory planning and multi-level governance using the cases of planning process in Bahir Dar, in Ethiopia and co-production of urban spaces in Maputo, in Mozambique, and infrastructure in Wa, in Ghana. In Chap. 9, Behailu Melesse Digafe, Achamyeleh Gashu Adam, Gebeyehu Belay Shibeshi and Mengiste Abate Meshesha present the process through which the Structure Plan of Bahir Dar, in Ethiopia, was prepared. The authors underline a conflict emerging from combining participatory planning process with the top-down planning, i.e. pre-set planning standards. They argue that stakeholder participation and acceptance of plans by the community could be improved if planning standards were flexible and limited to a general framework guiding the participatory planning process. The authors call for due attention to communal interests and local priorities, while making information on important planning requirements available to the communities and stakeholders in general.

Milousa Ibraimo António, Chap. 10, and Francis Dakyaga, Chap. 11, bring the issue of participatory and multi-level governance to the fore. António examines self-production practices within the context of the production of collective spaces. Using the concept of alternative informality, she discusses how the incremental housing construction at the household level is linked to community level informal land administration practices. Using the case of a neighbourhood at the periphery of Maputo, she notes the interplay of different levels of governance with informal ones at the grassroots level. The chapter underlines that there is a wide consensus that makes local leaders, informal actors of land governance, responsible for managing and guiding the production of collective spaces. In Chap. 11, Dakyaga discusses post settlement planning and development of infrastructure for clean water supply. Using the networked city concept, the chapter explores the co-production of infrastructure and management of clean water supply systems in different level of governance. He notes that the heterogeneity of supply models is essential to support the effort towards universal water access. Dakyaga argues that collaboration among the different types of actors is decisive for filling the institutional gap in supplying basic services.