The International Development Research Centre, Canada, and the Grassroots Justice Network are excited to announce a new open access volume: Legal Empowerment in Informal Settlements: Grassroots Experiences in the Global South. One chapter is co-authored by ACRC’s Smith Ouma, highlighting the role of legal empowerment in establishing the Mukuru Special Planning Area in Nairobi.| ACRC
Community representatives, academic researchers and practitioners from the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) convened for a three-day workshop in Nairobi on 23 November, to advance preparations for the implementation phase of the programme.| ACRC
ACRC is working in a range of focus cities within sub-Saharan Africa with the potential and need for urban reform, building on extensive research, networks and experience.| ACRC
Mainstream urban development interventions in Africa have often been designed through a primarily sectoral and technical lens. But there is abundant evidence that they are also intimately related to questions of power and politics, and that effective solutions must take into account the complex interrelations and interactions between urban processes and systems.| ACRC
Too often, the daily reality of African cities is characterised by the failure of systems to offer basic services. Take affordable transport or high-quality healthcare, for example – or by how the poor integration of systems leads to failures of both performance and accountability to users.| ACRC
A political settlement can be defined as an agreement or common understanding among powerful groups within a society about the basic rules or institutions of the political and economic game. Such institutions provide opportunities for those groups to acquire a minimally acceptable level of benefits, thereby preventing a descent into all-out warfare.| ACRC
Our recent blog series delves into the concepts underpinning the African Cities Research Consortium’s research approach, covering the challenges and opportunities of urban development in Africa, an overview of our conceptual framework, and more detail on how our “city of systems” approach, political settlements analysis and urban development domains will feed into our wider research programme.| ACRC
The ACRC Nairobi team had the privilege of joining residents, government officials, engineers, public health experts and other stakeholders at a recent Water and Sanitation Policy workshop for Nairobi's informal settlements. The post When policy follows practice: Reflections from Nairobi’s Water and Sanitation Policy workshop first appeared on ACRC.| ACRC
A new ACRC working paper explores the complex challenges that a population explosion, mineral rush and conflict pose to food security and access to healthy diets in Bukavu, and identify potential paths forward for the city. The post New research: Unearthing the realities of food security in Bukavu first appeared on ACRC.| ACRC
ACRC has partnered with Strathmore University and Akiba Mashinani Trust to equip the residents of Mathare with the tools and strategies they need to secure greater recognition of their land tenure.| ACRC
The “Informal Settlements as Spaces of Transformative Agency” project focuses on the Okerube community in Lagos to challenge dominant narratives and demonstrate how bottom-up, community-led governance models can deliver sustainable and inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) solutions in informal urban settlements.| ACRC
Mogadishu Mogadishu is Somalia’s capital city and largest port, with population estimates ranging from 1.7 million to 2.9 million. Download the city report Download the city research brief A fragile city, Mogadishu is dealing with the legacy of decades of civil war within a political context characterised by unstable elite bargains and an incomplete constitutional| ACRC
Maiduguri Maiduguri is the largest city in northeast Nigeria and the capital of Borno State. Download the city report Download the city research brief Nigeria's Borno State has been severely affected by the Boko Haram insurgency and the resulting insecurity has led to economic stagnation in Maiduguri, with the city bearing the largest burden of| ACRC
Kampala Kampala is the capital city of Uganda and one of the largest and economically most important cities in East Africa. Download the city report Download the city research brief Kampala is Uganda's financial and economic centre, the official seat of government power and close neighbour to Entebbe where the president sits – therefore forming| ACRC
Freetown Freetown is the capital of Sierra Leone and a city of more than 1 million inhabitants, whose population is expected to double in size over the next 20 years. Download the city report Download the city research brief Responsible for 30% of the nation’s GDP, Freetown’s urban development trajectory has been marked by colonial| ACRC
SDI Kenya, through ACRC, is aiming to co-develop solutions with Mathare community members, by devising a holistic waste management system in the area.| ACRC
Addis Ababa Addis Ababa is Ethiopia’s capital, located in the geographic epicentre of the country and surrounded by the regional state of Oromia. Download the city scoping study With a population of more than 3.6 million people, Addis Ababa is Ethiopia’s largest city, playing a central political, economic and symbolic role, with national political elites| ACRC
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts focusing on how urban reform happens, and where ACRC fits into change processes. This post takes a closer look at how ACRC is helping build community capabilities to address urban challenges. The post How does action research build community and state capabilities? first appeared on ACRC.| ACRC
“From Margins to Models” – a new ACRC action research project being rolled out in the vulnerable coastal informal settlement of Ajegunle Ikorodu, Lagos – seeks to unlock the potential of communities to enhance climate resilience. The post From Margins to Models: Co-creating climate resilience in Lagos community first appeared on ACRC.| ACRC
Earlier this month, our CEO Professor Diana Mitlin participated at the 9th Urbanization and Development Conference, organised by the World Bank and the International Growth Centre in Cape Town.| ACRC
Through the Systematic Land Titling Project, women across informal settlements in Maiduguri are now registering their land – and receiving statutory rights in their own names. The post Land in her name: Legal titles transforming the lives of women in Nigeria’s Borno State first appeared on ACRC.| ACRC
The Mukuru Special Planning Area in Nairobi is home to a population of about 400,000. Akiba Mashinani Trust has partnered with ACRC to document the methodologies, systems and practices employed in expanding water and sanitation services in Mukuru Kwa Reuben through the Special Planning Area, while assessing the outcomes of these interventions.| ACRC
Property taxation could prove to be an important source of financing to pay for the infrastructure and public service investments that Accra requires, but implementing new taxes is always politically contentious and a technical challenge. Over three days, participants from ACRC cities, Ghanaian local and traditional authorities, civil society organisations, academia, professional bodies and the media came together to examine the design and administration of property taxation.| ACRC
Nairobi City County is taking a significant step forward in fostering inclusive development with its newly launched Refugee Integration and Community Building Strategy (NCRIS). The launch immediately provides refugees and other migrants living in the city with access to public healthcare and city-run schools, and the ability to obtain a business license.| ACRC
African cities are dealing with a range of interlocking, dynamic and seemingly intractable challenges. Through research that builds evidence and supports coalitions of urban reformers, we aim to show how complex problems in African cities can be solved collectively.| ACRC
This is the third in a series of blog posts focusing on how urban reform happens, and where ACRC fits into change processes. This post takes a closer look at how ACRC adds value to urban reform.| ACRC
The incorporation of community knowledge into action research projects is central to ACRC’s approach in the implementation phase. In this blog post, we look at how the insights, experiences and perspectives of waste workers are helping to generate a more holistic understanding across the whole value chain, as well as benefiting the community researchers themselves.| ACRC
This is the first in a series of blog posts focusing on how urban reform happens, and where ACRC fits into change processes. This post focuses on how ACRC’s approach links to issue-based programming.| ACRC
We want to grow and develop the ACRC urban reform database further – and that’s where we need you! We're looking for survey participants to share feedback on the database, suggestions for improvement and ideas for case studies.| ACRC
Youth and capability development Download the domain report Download the research summary Africa has the youngest population in the world, with children and young people constituting a significant proportion of the vulnerable segments of the urban population. Young urban citizens face several economic and political challenges in their transition to adulthood, which disproportionately push them| ACRC
