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This paper examines how residents’ associations in Nairobi and Mombasa engage in collective action to bargain over land rates. It shows how procedural participation expands inclusion without influence, producing uneven bargaining outcomes shaped by organisational capacity and administrative opacity.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how collective action shapes tax bargaining around land rates in Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya. While public participation in fiscal and planning decisions is constitutionally mandated, empirical evidence shows that participation largely operates as a procedural exercise rather than a mechanism for substantive influence. Residents are routinely invited to participate, yet their inputs rarely translate into enforceable decisions or policy change.

Drawing on qualitative fieldwork with residents’ associations, civic networks, the political class and state officers, the paper shows that bargaining outcomes over land rates is shaped less by participation itself than by organisational capacity, access to professional knowledge, and the ability to engage administrative systems. Well-resourced and formally organised residents’ associations are better positioned to translate grievances into administratively legible claims, sustain engagement over time, and deploy alternative strategies such as litigation and alliance-building when participation fails. In contrast, residents lacking stable organisational structures remain trapped in cycles of participation without impact.

The paper further demonstrates how administrative opacity, fragmented land governance, and uneven service delivery shape residents’ perceptions of legitimacy and compliance. Land rates bargaining unfolds through a dynamic mix of contentious and non-contentious strategies, producing uneven and conditional forms of state responsiveness. Rather than resolving conflict, bargaining stabilises contention while reproducing inequalities in voice and influence.

By foregrounding the meso-level role of residents’ associations, the paper contributes to debates on participation, collective action, and fiscal governance in urban Africa, showing how procedural inclusion can coexist with constrained agency and adaptive forms of citizen mobilisation.

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This paper explores howcameroon cities are reimagining governance to build resilience, enhance security, and promote inclusive participation. It focuses on community-led innovations, civic technologies, and decentralized planning that empower urban residents in three major cities.

Paper long abstract

Central Africa, just like the other regions of the continent, is experiencing a rapid urban transition, with its urban population projected to reach approximately 200 million in 2050. This growth is driven by factors including rural-urban migration, demographic growth, and displacement due to socio-political and environmental crises, hence transforming the urban structure of the region. Most of the cities of the region are caractyerised by weak institutions, limited infrastructures, and increased vulnerability to climatic and security challenges. Cameroon, being at the juncture, faces great pressure. Cities like Yaoundé, Douala and Bafoussam, with an urbanization rate of about 3.6 percent and over half the population estimated to be living in urban centres by 2050, have to face challenges of informal settlement, urban and land tenure insecurity, and climate-induced challenges. Based on case studies fieldwork between 2017 and 2025, participative mapping activities, and policy analyses, the study highlights initiatives such as participatory land-tenure mapping in Douala, flood-reduction approaches in Bafoussam, or digital mapping systems in Yaoundé. These cases are illustrative of the shifts in governance towards polycentric models, in which local actors co-create solutions to issues in the city.

The paper advocates for a policy framework that promotes decentralized planning, local innovation, and the institutionalization of multi-stakeholder platforms to strengthen urban resilience in the Central African region. The case study of Cameroon can be considered instructive for urban cities in the ECCAS, as they seek to develop inclusive, adaptive, and democratically managed urban futures aligned with Agenda 2063 of the African Union.

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This study examines five informal settlements in Addis Ababa, highlighting how residents use local knowledge and collective action to meet basic needs amid displacement and housing shortages. It calls for planning approaches rooted in community realities and grassroots agency.

Paper long abstract

Addis Ababa has been facing challenges related to rural-urban migration and displacement driven by conflict and climate change. These pressures have contributed to a shortage of affordable formal housing, leading many citizens to seek informal alternatives. As a result, large parts of the city remain unplanned.

While dominant development narratives often frame informal settlements solely as indicators of poverty, this study also evaluates their strengths, including adaptability, spatial organisation, and community cohesion. The neglect of these qualities often leads to top-down interventions that disrupt existing social structures.

This research is based on work conducted in five informal settlements in Addis Ababa. It draws from lived experience and professional engagement with UNICEF, incorporating workshops, semi-structured interviews, mapping, observation, and a questionnaire completed by 30 residents. The findings are analysed using an evaluation matrix, focusing on how these settlements enable residents to meet basic needs and maintain a sense of stability and dignity under constrained conditions.

Rather than viewing these areas as temporary or disorganised, the study highlights how residents build and maintain spatial systems through local knowledge, negotiation, and collective action. These settlements represent not only responses to exclusion but also active efforts to create viable urban lives via grassroots agency.

The paper calls for a shift in planning paradigm that begins with the realities of informal communities and works in partnership with them. The evaluation matrix offers a practical tool for identifying development priorities defined by residents themselves, with broader relevance for rapidly urbanising cities in the Global South.

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This paper examines how power and epistemic hierarchies shape urban WASH governance in Nairobi’s informal settlements, arguing that reimagining development futures requires centring grassroots knowledge, community agency, and participatory co-design.

Paper long abstract

Urban development in Nairobi’s informal settlements unfolds amid deepening climate uncertainty and fragmented governance. Yet decision-making in the WASH sector continues to privilege expert-driven, technocratic knowledge while marginalising the situated insights of residents who navigate daily scarcity, risk, and infrastructural failure. This paper examines how epistemic hierarchies shape WASH governance in settlements such as Mukuru and Mathare, and argues that reimagining equitable urban futures requires centring grassroots knowledge as a legitimate and necessary form of development.

Drawing on debates in epistemic justice, Southern urbanism, and feminist political economy, the paper analyses how conventional participation processes often extract community data without shifting power or influencing design. Examples from informal water systems, women’s caregiving practices, and locally developed adaptation strategies illustrate how residents already engage in forms of planning, risk assessment, and climate-responsive innovation that remain unrecognised within official frameworks.

The paper advances three arguments. First, what counts as relevant knowledge in policy spaces is governed more by legitimacy and authority than by technical insight alone. Second, grassroots actors produce essential knowledge on affordability, safety, and climate risk that should inform institutional planning. Third, participatory co-design offers a pathway for redistributing agency by involving communities as co-producers of knowledge central to planning and decision-making.

By reframing informal settlements as sites of knowledge production rather than policy deficits, the paper contributes to wider debates on decolonising development and climate justice. It calls for WASH governance approaches that incorporate community-led insight to build more just, resilient, and responsive urban futures.

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Paper short abstract

Urban markets in Kampala struggle with poor infrastructure and governance.The study emphasizes the need for improved governance and sustainable infrastructure development, suggesting public-private partnerships as a solution to these challenges in Africa.

Paper long abstract

Urban markets in Kampala are key to its economy and social life, but they face challenges as poor infrastructures, poor service provision, and service maintenance that prevents them to develop sustainably. These obstacles are based on the variations in the governance structures of market ownership and management. Publicly owned markets tend to be inefficient, while privately owned markets may prioritize profit over the public interest. This is further worsened by lack of resources and regulation loopholes in Kampala. The detailed comparison of the public and the private market models is necessary to understand how the governance affects the deficiencies in operations and to inform the policy interventions to improve the infrastructure performance, equity, and sustainability.

The study aims to examine how different governance regimes affect the operations of the urban markets in Kampala. It particularly aims to: investigate the formal and informal governance systems that govern these markets; evaluate the impact of difference in governance on the performance of market infrastructure and also offer evidence-based suggestions on how to enhance governance arrangements to create an inclusive and sustainable market infrastructure.

The research focuses on a qualitative, comparative cased design in Kampala city focusing on three markets that reflect different governance regimes, and conditions of the infrastructure. (Kalerwe- a private market/KCCA recognized, Ggaba -a private market, and Nakawa -a government-led market). This research seeks to illuminate urban governance issues in Africa. It will offer practical recommendations for public-private governance models aimed at sustainable market upgrading.