Governing the urban fringes: the impacts of Africa’s urban growth on peri-urban areas Conference

The rapid expansion of Africa’s cities is considered as one of the continent’s main socio-economic challenges.

Unlike in Europe, North America and East Asia, the spatial trend of urban expansion in sub-Saharan Africa is horizontal. Rather than growing upward through taller buildings, Africa’s cities expand into their peri-urban rural outskirts. Thus, peri-urban areas are undergoing considerable spatial, socio-economic and administrative change: farmland is absorbed by buildings and commercial activities, land prices are spiking and new class dynamics can be observed.

The outward expansion of Africa’s cities happens randomly without large-scale urban planning, which makes the governance of peri-urban areas difficult.

The aim of this conference, which is part of the programme “Governing Africa’s Urban Transitions” is to unpack the rapid transformations occurring in peri-urban areas: experts and professionals will zoom into dynamic land markets and land use change, infrastructure development and economic value chains at the crossroads of urban and rural areas.

Speakers :

Divine Asafo, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Hull, England

Alix Beranger, Consulting & Operations, Egis

Bérénice Bon, Research Fellow in Geography, Urban Dynamics in the South, IRD, France

Jackson Kago, Senior Lecturer, Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Kenyatta University, Kenya

Moderation: Sina Schlimmer, Head of the “Governing Urban Transitions in Africa” program, Ifri, France

The event will be held face-to-face and in hybrid format (via zoom) in French, with English translation.

Address:

27 rue de la Procession, 75015 Paris

Contact the organizers:

Pour plus d'informations sur le débat, veuillez contacter ...

Keywords

Geopolitics of African cities Peri-Urban Land Urban governance in Africa Africa