Books by Sylvia Croese
Springer, 2022
This volume brings together a unique set of interventions from a variety of contributors to bridg... more This volume brings together a unique set of interventions from a variety of contributors to bridge the gap between research and policy with a distinct focus on Africa, drawing on work conducted as part of multiple interconnected research projects and networks on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and global policy implementation in African cities. Through the framework of the SDGs, and in particular Goal 11, the book aims to contribute to generating new knowledge about approaches to SDG localization that are grounded in complex and diverse local contexts, needs and realities, integrated perspectives and collaborative research.
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African Minds, 2021
Case studies of metropolitan cities in nine African countries – from Egypt in the north to three ... more Case studies of metropolitan cities in nine African countries – from Egypt in the north to three in West and Central Africa, two in East Africa and three in Southern Africa – make up the empirical foundation of this publication. The interrelated themes addressed in these chapters – the national influence on urban development, the popular dynamics that shape urban development and the global currents on urban development – make up its framework. All authors and editors are African, as is the publisher. The only exception is Göran Therborn whose recent book, Cities of Power, served as motivation for this volume. Accordingly, the issue common to all case studies is the often conflictual powers that are exercised by national, global and popular forces in the development of these African cities.
Rather than locating the case studies in an exclusively African historical context, the focus is on the trajectories of the postcolonial city (with the important exception of Addis Ababa with a non-colonial history that has granted it a special place in African consciousness). These trajectories enable comparisons with those of postcolonial cities on other continents. This, in turn, highlights the fact that Africa – today, the least urbanised continent on an increasingly urbanised globe – is in the thick of processes of large-scale urban transformation, illustrated in diverse ways by the case studies that make up the foundation of this publication.
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Routledge, 2020
This book explores the changing dynamics and challenges behind the rapid expanse of Africa’s urba... more This book explores the changing dynamics and challenges behind the rapid expanse of Africa’s urban population.
Africa’s urban age is underway. With the world’s fastest growing urban population, the continent is rapidly transforming from one that is largely rural, to one that is largely urban. Often facing limited budgets, those tasked with managing African cities require empirical evidence on the nature of demands for infrastructure, escalating environmental hazards, and ever-expanding informal settlements. Drawing on the work of the African Urban Research Initiative, this book brings together contributions from local researchers investigating key themes and challenges within their own contexts. An important example of urban knowledge co-production, the book demonstrates the regional diversity that can be seen as the main feature of African urbanism, with even well-accepted concepts such as informality manifesting in markedly different ways from place to place.
Providing an important nuanced perspective on the heterogeneity of African cities and the challenges they face, this book will be an important resource for researchers across development studies, African studies, and urban studies.
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Articles by Sylvia Croese
Urban Studies, 2024
Scholarship on African cities represents a growing yet still scarce subfield in urban studies, es... more Scholarship on African cities represents a growing yet still scarce subfield in urban studies, especially considering the scale and variety of African urbanisation patterns. The purpose of this Virtual Special Issue is to review the scholarship published on urban Africa in Urban Studies over the past five decades. In this Editorial, we reflect on the contributions of African urban scholarship and present a selection of articles to highlight the ways in which it has shaped key fields of urban studies. We also note the challenges that underpin ongoing lacunae in urban knowledge production and suggest directions for future work. This discussion provides a lens on our understandings of the urban condition in Africa and the general trajectory of urban scholarship.
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Land Use Policy, 2023
This paper interrogates the persistence of urban master planning in African cities. Critiques of ... more This paper interrogates the persistence of urban master planning in African cities. Critiques of master planning in Africa label it as a stifling product of colonial legacies, an inappropriate imposition of external ideas, or a device to achieve the goals of global actors, all seen as being at odds with the rapidly changing settlement patterns and needs of many African urban contexts. This paper instead focuses on the role of local planning actors in the demand for and the production of master plans and proposes a different analytical perspective on the role of master planning in African urban contexts. Notably, we point to the weak presence of master planning in colonial contexts, in contrast with the strong activation of master plans to shape the ambitions of newly independent governments. We observe also the nuanced interactions between local actors and transnational circuits and influences in devising and implementing plans. The paper presents three case studies which demonstrate the persistence of master planning practices through the post-independence period and their proliferation in contemporary moments. We document the diverse range of local actors who have chosen to retain or revise colonial planning legacies, initiate new city-wide master planning, or solicit, shape and assume responsibility for master planning promoted by transnational circuits of development and planning. We find that actors embedded in local or national institutions, and a wide variety of transnational actors, are driven by a range of, at times conflicting, interests and ideas about what planning is and is meant to do. Historical surveys and in-depth interviews with current actors, as well as those from the recent past in Accra (Ghana), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Lilongwe (Malawi), help us to identify three aspects of urban master planning which challenge existing interpretations. We observe that master planning has been a persistent presence, although often taking a more ephemeral form in extended “silent” periods when outdated but valued plans remained operative. We note that complex political tensions and institutional landscapes shape enthusiasm for, and control over the nature, preparation, adoption and implementation of master plans, including their being side-lined or resisted – local-national dynamics are crucial here. This leads to a pragmatic engagement with transnational actors to bring forward different kinds of plans. The prolific production of master plans supported by multiple transnational actors in poorly resourced contexts constitutes a dynamic, although at times counterproductive, terrain of visioning and practical planning initiatives seeking to grapple with the pace and unpredictability of urbanisation. Our analysis provides an opening for considering the politics of urban planning from an African-centric perspective and as an active part of African urbanization.
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Area Development and Policy, 2022
This article sheds light on the growing, but understudied role of the Japan International Coopera... more This article sheds light on the growing, but understudied role of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in supporting the local production of master plans across the African continent as a tool for guiding long-term investments in urban development. To explore the multiple logics, actors and interests driving the conception, preparation and implementation of these plans, we approach urban master planning as a transcalar process, through which diverse investment, planning and governance arrangements are produced and mobilized in ways that transcend the city scale. We illuminate these dynamics by building on an analysis of the history of Japanese development cooperation and drawing on case studies of JICA master planning in Malawi, Ghana and Tanzania.
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Urban Geography, 2022
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used as an entry point to consider issues and questi... more The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used as an entry point to consider issues and questions surrounding the forms of urban expertise that are required to achieve transformative and sustainable urban development. The article builds on the authors' experiences as researchers working co-productively with South African municipalities through the African Centre for Cities, an interdisciplinary research hub at the University of Cape Town. Insights from the literature on urban policy mobilities are deployed alongside those from an emerging literature on transdisciplinary research and knowledge co-production for global policy implementation. The aims are, first, to identify emerging kinds of urban expertise that are produced and mobilized by constellations of actors involved in the advancement of global development policies at the city scale and, second, to examine the role of city-university partnerships in producing particular forms of urban expertise to support SDG localization. Locating this work within a longer genealogy of urban governance reform in South Africa, it is shown that the conditions under which effective co-productive relationships can be built and institutionalized are highly context specific and geographically uneven. Understanding and assembling such conditions will enable cities to benefit from the forms of expertise these can engender.
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Planning Perspectives, 2022
Master plans have long been criticized by critical planners who have argued in
favour of more str... more Master plans have long been criticized by critical planners who have argued in
favour of more strategic, collaborative and relational forms of spatial planning
that can more adequately respond to local needs and realities, especially in the
context of the global South. Rather than critiquing master planning, this paper
seeks to interrogate its recent rise in urban Africa. Building on a review of
international planning trajectories, the paper seeks to challenge dominant
narratives in the Western literature around the rise and decline of master
planning. Planning experiences from across the African continent illustrate
how master planning was a limited practice under colonialism and emerged
more strongly in early post-colonial years, while persisting through a quiet
period of planning and proliferating in recent times. By exploring the
diversity in the influences and approaches to master planning for new and
existing cities in Africa over time, the paper positions master planning as the
product of a complex array of transnational circuits and multiple local actors
and ambitions which intersect across different scales. The study of master
planning should therefore be considered as an important entry point into
understanding and rethinking the contemporary politics of urban planning,
implementation, and development in Africa.
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International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 2019
The Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda recognise the role of cities in achiev... more The Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda recognise the role of cities in achieving sustainable development. However, these agendas were agreed and signed by national governments and thus implementing them at the local level requires a process of adaptation or localisation. In this paper, we analyse five aspects that practitioners and researchers need to consider when localising them: (1) delimitation of the urban boundary; (2) integrated governance; (3) actors; (4) synergies and trade-offs and (5) indicators. These considerations are interrelated,
and while not exhaustive, provide an important initial step for reflection on the challenges and opportunities of working with these global agendas at the local level. The paper draws on the inception phase of an international comparative transdisciplinary research project in seven cities on four continents: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cape Town (South Africa), Gothenburg (Sweden), Kisumu (Kenya), Malmö (Sweden), Sheffield (UK) and Shimla (India).
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International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 2021
The New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Agenda 2030's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise the k... more The New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Agenda 2030's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise the key role of 'sub-national entities', including cities, in achieving sustainable development. However, since these global policy agendas were agreed and signed by national governments, implementing them at the local level requires a process of localisation to fit local realities. This paper analyses the national guidance (or lack of) and the resultant collaborations emerging between various levels of government in the implementation of these agendas in African cities, namely Kisumu, Kenya and Cape Town, South Africa. It argues that effective implementation of the SDGs requires a strong framework for multi-stakeholder engagement and coordination at all levels of governance, which is possible if both top-down and bottom-up approaches are used concurrently and harmonised.
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Npj Urban Sustainability, 2021
The need to make cities in Africa more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (Sustainable De... more The need to make cities in Africa more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (Sustainable Development Goal 11) is undisputed as rapid urban growth rates are set to make the African region a key hub in the global transition to a predominantly urban world. This perspective presents findings from a research project conducted in the cities of Luanda, Angola and Maputo, Mozambique, which used citizen science to generate data on selected indicators of the urban Sustainable Development Goal and use this data to inform more inclusive, sustainable and participatory urban planning and policymaking. Based on the research, we argue that meeting SDG 11 will ultimately depend on the spaces and mechanisms for knowledge co-production and sharing that are produced in the process.
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Frontiers, 2020
A body of work is starting to emerge that seeks to build on the challenges and lessons of the cur... more A body of work is starting to emerge that seeks to build on the challenges and lessons of the current global coronavirus crisis for long term sustainability planning and development. This perspective article argues that central to such reflections should be an acknowledgment of the intense territorial impact of the crisis, especially in the places where most of the world's population is increasingly living: cities. We review existing frameworks for SDG implementation in the cities of Bengaluru (India), Medellin (Colombia), and Cape Town (South Africa) and use this as the backdrop for an analysis of local responses to the pandemic. We build on this analysis to reflect on three main avenues for SDG implementation going forward: multi-level governance, the science-policy interface and citizen and society engagement. We argue that strengthening these structures and collaborations will be central to more sustainable, long-term inclusive, and evidence-based decision-making processes and global policy implementation in cities in a post COVID-19 world.
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Sustainability, 2020
Urban resilience is increasingly seen as essential to managing the risks and challenges arising i... more Urban resilience is increasingly seen as essential to managing the risks and challenges arising in a globally changing, connected, and urbanized world. Hence, cities are central to achieving a range of global development policy commitments adopted over the past few years, ranging from the Paris Climate Agreement to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, knowledge of the ways in which cities are going about implementing resilience or of how such efforts can practically contribute to the implementation of global agendas is still limited. This paper discusses the experience of cities that were members of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) network, an entity pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation. It reviews the resilience strategies developed by 100RC members to show that 100RC cities are increasingly aligning their resilience work to global development policies such as the SDGs. It then draws on the case of the city of Cape Town in South Africa to illustrate the process of developing a resilience strategy through 100RC tools and methodologies including the City Resilience Framework (CRF) and City Resilience Index (CRI) and its alignment to the SDGs and reflects on lessons and learnings of Cape Town's experience for the global city network-policy nexus post-2015.
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Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2019
This article uses the concept of political society to examine the case of the socialhousing proj... more This article uses the concept of political society to examine the case of the socialhousing project of Zango, which was created to resettle evicted shack dwellers in Luanda. While in the initial stages of the project responses to resettlement were marked by bouts of protest and resistance against the state, over time these shifed to the formulation of informal strategies and arrangements to claim and gain access to housing in the project, ofen in collaboration with state ofcials. This resonates with Chatterjee’s use of the concept of political society in his dis cussion of practices of resettlement in India, as representing “a site of negotiation and contestation opened up by the activities of governmental agencies aimed at population groups".
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International Journal of Urban and Regional Research , 2018
A burgeoning literature looks into the processes and actors involved in the adoption and emulatio... more A burgeoning literature looks into the processes and actors involved in the adoption and emulation of best practices and models of urban policy and development across the globe, often with the aim of attracting investment and making cities more competitive. With its focus on leisure, tourism and global capital, the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda, in the capital of Angola, echoes the rhetoric, policies and projects underpinning such practices. Yet, a deeper interrogation reveals that the redevelopment forms part of a predominantly inward-looking project driven by the highest echelons of the national government and its ruling party. While these actors mimic and appropriate the language and tools of entrepreneurial cities, their aim is not necessarily to make the city more internationally competitive but to achieve domestic political legitimacy and stability. The argument presented in this article builds on McCann's (2013) call for scholars to also consider the 'introspective' politics of urban policy boosterism from the perspective of a context in which power is highly centralized. The article thus contributes to a growing literature that advances more adequate and provincialized theorizations of urban policy and city governance in the global South, with a particular focus on the African context.
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Urban Studies, 2017
The urban studies literature has extensively analysed the modernist, developmental or neoliberal ... more The urban studies literature has extensively analysed the modernist, developmental or neoliberal drivers of urban restructuring in the global South, but has largely overlooked the ways in which governments, particularly those with authoritarian characteristics, try to reinforce their legitimacy and assert their political authority through the creation of satellite cities and housing developments. From Ethiopia to Singapore, authoritarian regimes have recently provided housing to the middle class and the poor, not only to alleviate housing shortages, or bolster a burgeoning real estate market, but also to 'order power' and buy the loyalty of residents. To evaluate the extent to which authoritarian regimes realise their political objectives through housing provision, we survey nearly 300 poor and middle class respondents from three new housing projects in Luanda, Angola. Alongside increasing social and spatial differentiation brought about by state policies, we document unintended beneficiaries of state housing and uneven levels of citizen satisfaction. We explain that internal state contradictions, individual agency and market forces have acted together to reshape the government's efforts to order power.
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African Affairs, 2016
This article examines state-led housing delivery in postwar Angola as an instrument of developmen... more This article examines state-led housing delivery in postwar Angola as an instrument of developmental patrimonialism. It draws on a growing literature on political settlements to highlight the role of rents, informal institutions, and power arrangements in managing political stability and economic growth. In the case of postwar Angola, key forms of rent distribution take place at the level of the presidency through the centralized use of actors and institutions that emerged historically outside of the ambit of regular government structures. These involve foreign business allies and special state agencies such as the state oil company Sonangol that respond exclusively to the Angolan president. While this has kept regular state institutions weak, the approach has been successful in terms of fast-tracking public investments that are important for rent distribution to key constituencies while keeping political competition at bay. The case of a resource-rich country such as Angola provides insight into the context-specific ways in which developmental patrimonialism translates into practice and the actors, interests, and institutions driving state-led housing delivery.
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Habitat International, 2016
The ‘challenge of slums’ is a global challenge, but particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa wher... more The ‘challenge of slums’ is a global challenge, but particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa where in 2001 71.9% of the urban population lived in slums. This article reviews the housing programmes of a selected number of African countries (Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia and South Africa) to argue that while until recently African shelter policies at least in name continued to be mostly in line with international enabling and participatory approaches to dealing with the challenge of slums, in practice mass scaled supply-driven approaches to housing provision are on the rise. The article situates this practice historically and seeks to provide insight into some of the perceptions and factors that have underpinned and enabled its emergence. While noting a number of shortcomings of this supply-driven approach, it concludes that with Habitat III on the horizon it is important to confront the disjuncture between global policy and local practice in African cities.
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Journal of Southern African Studies , 2015
This article explores the workings of public authority in post-war Angola through an analysis of ... more This article explores the workings of public authority in post-war Angola through an analysis of the history and current functioning of residents' committees at neighbourhood level in peri-urban Luanda, based on case-study research in the Zango housing project. While recognising that power in Angola is highly centralised, and the autonomy of regular state structures limited, it argues that, when power is studied from below, state officials and those they engage with can be seen to produce, recognise and negotiate public authority in multiple ways that are embedded in the country's political history. In doing so, the article aims to bring a sense of history and agency to what is commonly seen by scholars as a top-down and repressive project of state-building. Yet the twilight existence of residents' committees – as institutions that function, but are not officially recognised, as part of the state – also illustrates the deeply ambiguous nature of this endeavour as one that, although formally aimed at building a democratic state that follows the rule of law, continues to be deeply entrenched in informal practices that ultimately serve to preserve the ruling party's hold on power.
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Papers by Sylvia Croese
The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies, 2021
This chapter examines urban climate resilience. It provides a conceptual introduction, followed b... more This chapter examines urban climate resilience. It provides a conceptual introduction, followed by an explanation of how urban areas have been recognized in recent global agendas related to sustainability, climate change, and disaster risk reduction. The chapter provides a picture of the complexity and diversity of urban climate resilience experiences, through seven case study cities on four continents. The sample of cities includes small, medium, and larger cities, both coastal and landlocked, in diverse political, socioeconomic, and geographical contexts. Drawing on comparative research using co-production between academic researchers and local authority counterparts, the detailed case studies illustrate the climate resilience challenges faced by each city, the work in terms of strategies and initiatives they have carried out and are planning to increase their resilience, as well as the geographical and policy contexts in which those strategies are embedded.
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Books by Sylvia Croese
Rather than locating the case studies in an exclusively African historical context, the focus is on the trajectories of the postcolonial city (with the important exception of Addis Ababa with a non-colonial history that has granted it a special place in African consciousness). These trajectories enable comparisons with those of postcolonial cities on other continents. This, in turn, highlights the fact that Africa – today, the least urbanised continent on an increasingly urbanised globe – is in the thick of processes of large-scale urban transformation, illustrated in diverse ways by the case studies that make up the foundation of this publication.
Africa’s urban age is underway. With the world’s fastest growing urban population, the continent is rapidly transforming from one that is largely rural, to one that is largely urban. Often facing limited budgets, those tasked with managing African cities require empirical evidence on the nature of demands for infrastructure, escalating environmental hazards, and ever-expanding informal settlements. Drawing on the work of the African Urban Research Initiative, this book brings together contributions from local researchers investigating key themes and challenges within their own contexts. An important example of urban knowledge co-production, the book demonstrates the regional diversity that can be seen as the main feature of African urbanism, with even well-accepted concepts such as informality manifesting in markedly different ways from place to place.
Providing an important nuanced perspective on the heterogeneity of African cities and the challenges they face, this book will be an important resource for researchers across development studies, African studies, and urban studies.
Articles by Sylvia Croese
favour of more strategic, collaborative and relational forms of spatial planning
that can more adequately respond to local needs and realities, especially in the
context of the global South. Rather than critiquing master planning, this paper
seeks to interrogate its recent rise in urban Africa. Building on a review of
international planning trajectories, the paper seeks to challenge dominant
narratives in the Western literature around the rise and decline of master
planning. Planning experiences from across the African continent illustrate
how master planning was a limited practice under colonialism and emerged
more strongly in early post-colonial years, while persisting through a quiet
period of planning and proliferating in recent times. By exploring the
diversity in the influences and approaches to master planning for new and
existing cities in Africa over time, the paper positions master planning as the
product of a complex array of transnational circuits and multiple local actors
and ambitions which intersect across different scales. The study of master
planning should therefore be considered as an important entry point into
understanding and rethinking the contemporary politics of urban planning,
implementation, and development in Africa.
and while not exhaustive, provide an important initial step for reflection on the challenges and opportunities of working with these global agendas at the local level. The paper draws on the inception phase of an international comparative transdisciplinary research project in seven cities on four continents: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cape Town (South Africa), Gothenburg (Sweden), Kisumu (Kenya), Malmö (Sweden), Sheffield (UK) and Shimla (India).
Papers by Sylvia Croese
Rather than locating the case studies in an exclusively African historical context, the focus is on the trajectories of the postcolonial city (with the important exception of Addis Ababa with a non-colonial history that has granted it a special place in African consciousness). These trajectories enable comparisons with those of postcolonial cities on other continents. This, in turn, highlights the fact that Africa – today, the least urbanised continent on an increasingly urbanised globe – is in the thick of processes of large-scale urban transformation, illustrated in diverse ways by the case studies that make up the foundation of this publication.
Africa’s urban age is underway. With the world’s fastest growing urban population, the continent is rapidly transforming from one that is largely rural, to one that is largely urban. Often facing limited budgets, those tasked with managing African cities require empirical evidence on the nature of demands for infrastructure, escalating environmental hazards, and ever-expanding informal settlements. Drawing on the work of the African Urban Research Initiative, this book brings together contributions from local researchers investigating key themes and challenges within their own contexts. An important example of urban knowledge co-production, the book demonstrates the regional diversity that can be seen as the main feature of African urbanism, with even well-accepted concepts such as informality manifesting in markedly different ways from place to place.
Providing an important nuanced perspective on the heterogeneity of African cities and the challenges they face, this book will be an important resource for researchers across development studies, African studies, and urban studies.
favour of more strategic, collaborative and relational forms of spatial planning
that can more adequately respond to local needs and realities, especially in the
context of the global South. Rather than critiquing master planning, this paper
seeks to interrogate its recent rise in urban Africa. Building on a review of
international planning trajectories, the paper seeks to challenge dominant
narratives in the Western literature around the rise and decline of master
planning. Planning experiences from across the African continent illustrate
how master planning was a limited practice under colonialism and emerged
more strongly in early post-colonial years, while persisting through a quiet
period of planning and proliferating in recent times. By exploring the
diversity in the influences and approaches to master planning for new and
existing cities in Africa over time, the paper positions master planning as the
product of a complex array of transnational circuits and multiple local actors
and ambitions which intersect across different scales. The study of master
planning should therefore be considered as an important entry point into
understanding and rethinking the contemporary politics of urban planning,
implementation, and development in Africa.
and while not exhaustive, provide an important initial step for reflection on the challenges and opportunities of working with these global agendas at the local level. The paper draws on the inception phase of an international comparative transdisciplinary research project in seven cities on four continents: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cape Town (South Africa), Gothenburg (Sweden), Kisumu (Kenya), Malmö (Sweden), Sheffield (UK) and Shimla (India).
overview of the governance dynamics of African cities
and their implications for mobility in cities, to unpack key
trends in the governance of mobility infrastructures in
SSA cities, and to craft a compelling and interdisciplinary
agenda for future research.
Luanda has been the main beneficiary of Angola’s economic boom that started in 2002 fuelled by oil revenue. Two projects were undertaken as part of efforts to turn the city around: the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda and the construction of the New City of Kilamba. The Bay of Luanda work included the redevelopment of the waterfront to create pedestrian spaces, cycle lanes, sports fields and spaces for cultural events, while the New City of Kilamba consisted of the construction of 710 buildings, kindergartens and schools, along with water and electricity infrastructure.
Both projects have benefited many people as measured by the high use of the waterfront and the occupation of Kilamba homes. Their symbolic value as a part of efforts to project Luanda as a world-class city is also considerable. The central government’s control over the execution of the projects allowed their rapid completion, but this stifled accountability and affected the ability of local administrations to manage them or adequately respond to citizen needs. A more integrated, decentralised and participatory approach to the management of urban and economic growth will have to be a central theme in Luanda’s governance if the city’s turn-around is to become more inclusive and adaptive in the long term.
Key words: Turn-around city, Luanda, Bay of Luanda, New City of Kilamba, world class
Examining specific yet diverse regional and local contexts across Europe, this book uses original research to evaluate differences in scope, approach, orientation, and objectives. It examines the embedding of LLL policies into the regional economy, the labour market, education and training systems and the individual life projects of young people, with a focus on those in situations of near social exclusion. "
joined other countries across the world, first in
lobbying for and then in adopting a number
of global development policy commitments.
These include the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, the Paris Agreement on climate
change, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda
(AAAA) on financing for development, the
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction,
and the New Urban Agenda. This global
policy realignment by Africa is rooted in a
continent-wide policy shift towards sustainable
development, as formulated in the Africa Union
Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. This shift
reflects a growing recognition of the role of
cities and territories as key sites and actors of
development, and the African region as a major
hub of the global transition to a predominantly
urban world. Thus, it will not be possible to
achieve sustainable development at a global
level without sustainable urbanization in Africa.
Urbanization is key to economic development
and growth in Africa, with cities combining
labour, skills, knowledge and capital. However,
fulfilling the potential of sustainable urbanization
in Africa will depend on overcoming significant
challenges, ones that are at the heart of the
2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs).
África Austral que, ao longo da última década, se tem servido dos recursos
naturais para alcançar níveis impressionantes de crescimento económico
sem atingir desenvolvimento económico, político ou social transformador,
conforme especificado neste livro. Como consequência, Angola é o país com o mais elevado PIB per capita da Comunidade de Desenvolvimento da África Austral (SADC), a seguir á África do Sul, mas, a par de outros países ricos em recursos naturais como o Botsuana, é igualmente uma das sociedades mais desiguais da SADC.