Sam Hickey
(University of Manchester)
Diana Mitlin
(University of Manchester)
Tim Kelsall
(ODI)
Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai
(University of Ghana Business School)
Format:
Panel
Streams:
Politics and political economy
Sessions:
Wednesday 6 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
The political economy of urban reform in Africa: from analysis to action.
Panel P11b at conference DSA2022: Just sustainable futures in an urbanising and mobile world.
New research on the political economy of African cities, with a dedicated focus on dealing with covid-19, and on the role of coalitions in promoting more just and sustainable urban futures.
Long Abstract:
Urbanisation with little structural transformation has left urban economies under considerable stress. The Covid-19 crisis is acute and has had a disproportionate effect on urban areas primarily because of over-crowded under-serviced low-income neighbourhoods and the impact of lockdowns and other restrictions on mobility of urban economic activities. Gender disadvantages are acute, with women having relatively low remuneration and a considerable burden related to their role in social reproduction. African cities are also increasingly threatened by climate change.
These and many other challenges facing African cities are firmly embedded in problems of political economy and governance at multiple levels. Cities offer a valuable source of both rents and political legitimacy for elites at national and city levels. However, the frequently oppositional nature of urban populations often leads to tensions between urban voters and national governments. City governments seldom have the autonomy to deal with their challenges, being located within multi-levelled systems of governance that are often dysfunctional and which fail to afford them the fiscal, political and bureaucratic capabilities to address complex problems.
This panel will showcase new work that uses a political economy perspective to understand both the challenges facing African cities and the prospects for interventions and reforms that can address them. At least three sessions will be organised by the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), an international partnership based at the University of Manchester. This will include:
(a) One or two sessions based on the use of ‘political settlements’ analysis to help advance our understanding of the challenges facing African cities. A conceptual paper plus case-studies drawn from Accra, Freetown, Harare, Lilongwe, Maiduguri, Mogadishu and Nairobi will be submitted in advance. Expert chairs will ensure that an active discussion is organised around key themes.
(b) A session on the politics of covid -19, drawing both on “top down” interventions and the remaking of bottom-up coalitions pressing for reform in Kampala, Lilongwe, Mogadishu and Nairobi. Examines urban management and governance under the stress of the pandemic.
(c) A roundtable session focused on a paper on the role that ‘coalitions’ can play in navigating the politics of African cities in pursuit of more just and sustainable solutions. The lead author is Diana Mitlin and ACRC will compose a panel of both academic and policy experts, including from the global South, to discuss the paper and its implications for a new generation of reforms in African cities.
We will welcome other papers into this panel also use political economy analysis to unpack the challenges facing African cities and/or on how a new generation of politically feasible reforms aimed at tackling these challenges might emerge.
A comparative analysis of the collaborative responses and political settlements of COVID-19 responses in African cities
Paper long abstract:
Over 95% of all Covid-19 cases have occurred in urban areas, posing acute risks to urban populations, especially those in countries with weak healthcare systems and fragile or contested governance arrangements. In this paper, we provide an overview of research conducted into the experience of Covid-19 in four African cities: Kampala, Lilongwe, Mogadishu and Nairobi. The research has two themes: the first examines the way in which political settlements and city politics have influenced government policy, programming and practice throughout COVID-19. The second examines how different kinds of urban coalitions and grassroots-led initiatives came together to address pandemic's complex, highly inequitable impacts. We consider the contributions of private-sector, INGO/NGO, and bottom-up responses in the 4 cities, as well as how to support more equitable, inclusive responses to urban crises more generally.
This study investigates the politics of Uganda's Covid-19 response. It explores the major players within the Covid-19 policy domain particularly those with a strong bearing on Uganda's capital Kampala, their motivations, and the implications of their (in)actions on the response.
Paper long abstract:
This study investigates the politics of Uganda's Covid-19 response. It explores the major players within the Covid-19 policy domain particularly those with a strong bearing on the country's capital Kampala, their motivations, and the implications of their (in)actions on the response. The study employed a qualitative research approach involving analysis of data from well-placed key informants and secondary evidence collected from presidential speeches and Ministry of Health briefs on Covid-19 as well as research and media reports among others. Borrowing from a rich history of managing dangerous epidemic outbreaks and informed by strong scientific advisory structures, pundits claimed that Uganda convened an effective Covid response apparatus that kept both infections and deaths among the lowest in the world. Yet, a more nuanced interpretation of the situation in Uganda reveals that the seemingly centralised response effort was in fact quite ad hoc characterized by political instrumentalization, confusion, and rivalry among actors at central and city levels. Current and former military officers were intimately involved in the pandemic response, which seems to have gone hand in hand with an increased concentration of power and militarisation of the state apparatus. Overall, the pandemic served as a pretext to stifle political opposition in Kampala and help President Museveni secure his re-election bid in 2021.
In Ghana, local governments (e.g. AMA) have been legally sanctioned to have control over their jurisdictions. However, in the AMA, informal actors appear to have more control over informal traders in Accra than the officially sanctioned institutions due to the power struggle in the jurisdiction
Paper long abstract:
The data shows that 89 per cent of the currently employed population, in Ghana 15 years and older are in the informal sector. In the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the informal sector accounts for 80 per cent of the economically active population: the informal sector in AMA employs about 64 per cent of men and 82 per cent of women (AMA, 2019). Despite the importance of the informal economy, especially informal trading to employment and livelihoods, traders in Ghanaian urban areas such as Accra face considerable obstacles and challenges in pursuing their livelihoods. Using a political settlement approach, this study seeks to examine the intersection between bylaws, institutions, and local actors and how they impact informal traders in Accra. A multiplicity of methodological approaches was adopted for this study. First, in-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen officials of the AMA who provided information on the regulatory frameworks for informal markets. Second, four focus group discussions made up of seven discussants were conducted with informal traders. Lastly, all the AMA bylaws pertaining to the market were reviewed. The findings showed that informal traders in Accra stacked in the middle of local government bylaws, institutional overlap, and more importantly power struggle among the various actors in the AMA jurisdictional space. The findings give an indication that whereas the AMA appears to have control over markets, informal traders joggle daily rather with several powerful informal actors.
The paper reconsiders Lagos' urban reforms between 1999 and 2015. Widely regarded as successful, a different picture emerges when they are assessed from the perspective of slum residents, two thirds of Lagosians. A political economy analysis is used to explain this outcome and explore alternatives.
Paper long abstract:
Lagos' urban reform programmes between 1999 and 2015 have been widely regarded as successful. Based on an analysis of documents and stakeholder interviews, this paper reconsiders these reforms from the perspective of the two thirds of Lagosians who live in slums and makes the following contributions. First, it finds that the reforms have not only not benefitted slum residents but have often endangered their livelihoods even further. Second, the paper provides a historical political economy analysis of this outcome and of the varied results of Lagos' urban reforms more broadly. Third, it discusses why slum residents continue to be marginalized in urban planning in Lagos as compared to cities in Latin America, for example, how this may change in the future and which lessons can be drawn for urban political economy analysis from this case.
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Diana Mitlin (University of Manchester)
Tim Kelsall (ODI)
Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai (University of Ghana Business School)
Short Abstract:
New research on the political economy of African cities, with a dedicated focus on dealing with covid-19, and on the role of coalitions in promoting more just and sustainable urban futures.
Long Abstract:
Urbanisation with little structural transformation has left urban economies under considerable stress. The Covid-19 crisis is acute and has had a disproportionate effect on urban areas primarily because of over-crowded under-serviced low-income neighbourhoods and the impact of lockdowns and other restrictions on mobility of urban economic activities. Gender disadvantages are acute, with women having relatively low remuneration and a considerable burden related to their role in social reproduction. African cities are also increasingly threatened by climate change.
These and many other challenges facing African cities are firmly embedded in problems of political economy and governance at multiple levels. Cities offer a valuable source of both rents and political legitimacy for elites at national and city levels. However, the frequently oppositional nature of urban populations often leads to tensions between urban voters and national governments. City governments seldom have the autonomy to deal with their challenges, being located within multi-levelled systems of governance that are often dysfunctional and which fail to afford them the fiscal, political and bureaucratic capabilities to address complex problems.
This panel will showcase new work that uses a political economy perspective to understand both the challenges facing African cities and the prospects for interventions and reforms that can address them. At least three sessions will be organised by the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), an international partnership based at the University of Manchester. This will include:
(a) One or two sessions based on the use of ‘political settlements’ analysis to help advance our understanding of the challenges facing African cities. A conceptual paper plus case-studies drawn from Accra, Freetown, Harare, Lilongwe, Maiduguri, Mogadishu and Nairobi will be submitted in advance. Expert chairs will ensure that an active discussion is organised around key themes.
(b) A session on the politics of covid -19, drawing both on “top down” interventions and the remaking of bottom-up coalitions pressing for reform in Kampala, Lilongwe, Mogadishu and Nairobi. Examines urban management and governance under the stress of the pandemic.
(c) A roundtable session focused on a paper on the role that ‘coalitions’ can play in navigating the politics of African cities in pursuit of more just and sustainable solutions. The lead author is Diana Mitlin and ACRC will compose a panel of both academic and policy experts, including from the global South, to discuss the paper and its implications for a new generation of reforms in African cities.
We will welcome other papers into this panel also use political economy analysis to unpack the challenges facing African cities and/or on how a new generation of politically feasible reforms aimed at tackling these challenges might emerge.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 6 July, 2022, -