The African continent is currently in the midst of simultaneously unfolding and highly significant demographic, economic, technological, environmental, urban and socio-political transitions. Africa’s economic performance is promising, with booming cities supporting growing middle classes and creating sizable consumer markets. But despite significant overall growth, not all of Africa performs well. The continent continues to suffer under very rapid urban growth accompanied by massive urban poverty and many other social problems. These seem to indicate that the development trajectories followed by African nations since post-independence may not be able to deliver on the aspirations of broad based human development and prosperity for all. This report, therefore, argues for a bold re-imagining of prevailing models in order to steer the ongoing transitions towards greater sustainability based on a thorough review of all available options. That is especially the case since the already daunting urban challenges in Africa are now being exacerbated by the new vulnerabilities and threats associated with climate and environmental change. Also available in French Version.  

The African Urban Agenda (AUA) is an initiative by UN-Habitat tailored to establish and strengthenpartnerships between state and non-state actors towards advancing a new urban agenda. The project aims at raising the profile of urbanization as an imperative for development in Africa. It contributes to promoting democratic governance through mobilization, sensitization and strengthening of non-state actors to partner effectively with the national governments of sub-Sahara African countries in articulating Africa’s priorities for the next 20 years with a focus on a transformative national urbanpolicy, compact cities at a human scale, undertaking institutional and legal reform and improved collaboration.It also aims at building an understanding between non-state actors and national governments, thereby building an African consensus with a strong momentum of support for a continent-wide urban agenda for the next 20 years.The project will especially contribute to building collaboration between state and non-state actors through inclusive and participatory preparation for the Post-2015 agenda and national reports for Habitat III, creating a strong balance for the urbanization tripod of Government, CSOs-including academia and the private sector.

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This report presents an overview of the state of planning in Africa. It is the result of research carried out by the African Planners Association among 15 of its affiliate member countries - Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The research, carried out in 2012, provides a perspective of the roles of urban and regional planners within the process of settlement formation, urbanization and rural development. It focuses on the spatial manifestation of the problems Africa faces and assesses the legislative, policy, human, institutional and educational capacity that exist within the planning profession.

Anambra, with its population of over 4 million people in 2006, is the second most urbanized states in the country, having 62% of its total population living in urban areas. Unfortunately, past Governments since creation of the State in 1991 have failed to adopt city development strategies for the many fast growing cities in the State to cope with rapid urbanization.

Following decades of neglect and poor urban governance, the profiles of these cities indicate that they are characterized by decayed inner and suburban sprawling slums, inadequate sanitation, uncontrolled street trading, mountains of uncollected wastes, overcrowded and congested transport systems and roads with poor drainages, noise and air pollution.

It was for the purpose of reversing this ugly and undesirable trend that His Excellency Government of Peter Obi forged a viable technical cooperation agreement with the UN-HABITAT in 2007 to provide technical assistance in the preparation of structure plans for three cities, namely Awka Capital Territory, Nnewi and Onitsha.

The publication is a toolkit specifically prepared to help local authorities raise internal and external resources to finance implementation of priority projects and programmes. It provides useful steps, skills and resources to aid the process of financing a City Development Strategy.

This Handbook introduces key economic and related concepts explaining the functioning of urban land markets. You will find in this Handbook tools for engaging in a critical analysis of conventional economics, particularly in the understanding of how African urban land markets work. Of great importance is the understanding of how land use, supply and demand unfold in African context. It provides a basis for strengthening urban policy in ways that enable poorer people in African cities to access well-located living and work spaces.

This Handbook equips you with a better understanding of how interventions affect the market, and also how markets affect, enable, constrain and shape interventions by governments, developers, traditional authorities, banks, micro-lenders or any of its actors. It provides a sense of the dynamics of the urban land market – how particular decisions in one sector affect other sectors. This understanding provides practitioners in the field with a framework and tools to make informed decisions when formulating policies or making recommendations.

This report evaluates the role of infrastructure in promoting economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa. It is devoted to the study of the complementary physical infrastructure - telecommunications, power, transport (roads, railways, ports and airports), and water supply.

This Report is a synthesis report of the participatory and Rapid Gender Assessment (RGA) Reports that were conducted in the 17 cities of the Water for African Cities (WAC) II Programme. They represent the first stage of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy Initiative of the WAC.

The objective of this Quick Guide is to introduce some of the key concepts of housing finance and to provide a quick overview of how a housing finance system works.

The guide presents information about both the formal and informal systems of housing finance and suggests ways in which the two can be better integrated. It sets out the different kinds of housing finance, and offers tips for policy makers to enhance access to affordable housing finance especially by the urban poor.