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Abstract

In a global context marked by uncertainty, multiple crises, and the reconfiguration of power relations, rethinking development requires a critical reassessment of modes of public action and of local capacities to shape future trajectories. Situated within this broader framework, this study examines urban governance in Africa through the lens of the tensions between security, participation, and resilience, in cities confronted with rapid urbanization, structural informality, and the intensification of climatic and social risks. The central problem addressed concerns the capacity of existing governance arrangements to strengthen local action while reconciling security imperatives, population inclusion, and the sustainability of urban responses. The research seeks to address a persistent gap in the literature, characterized by the limited consideration of power relations and local forms of organization, as well as by an insufficiently critical reading of approaches associated with “smart cities.” The study is based on a documentary and conceptual analysis, drawing on scholarship in African urban geography, political science, and critical development studies, complemented by the examination of illustrative frameworks and tools of participatory governance and community resilience. The findings indicate that participation contributes effectively to the strengthening of urban resilience only when it is accompanied by a genuine sharing of decision-making power, the reinforcement of local institutional capacities, and robust accountability mechanisms. The main contribution of this research lies in proposing an integrated reading of urban governance in Africa, shedding light on the conditions under which local action can become a credible lever for development in an uncertain world.

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The rapid growth of African cities has raised urban fragility and insecurity issues to which local communities try to adapt. Whether through law enforcement forces (Police and gendarmerie), private security companies or vigilante groups, each social class is trying to ensure its own safety through the means they can afford. With its buoyant economy and fast rising population, the city of Kumba in the South West region of Cameroon has long been known as a hotweb of insecurity. The advent of a separatist crisis which has been ongoing since 2016, critically increased insecurity in the city as armed groups both separatists or common robbers roamed the city. This paper studies how communities organise their resilience through the creation of vigilante groups in the neighborhoods of Kumba. Known in other cities as “Auto-Defence”, these groups are genuine community policing instruments for local populations. How they are created? How do they operate and interact with various stakeholders including local communities, administrative authorities and law enforcement forces? Eventually, how do these community-based solutions manage to cope with daily security challenges? These are some of the questions this paper will seek to address.

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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 assesses community-led flood adaptation in Lagos coastal slums. It explores how informal agency creates alternative governance where state systems fail, seeking to shift narratives from mere resilience to transformative climate justice in Nigeria.

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This study assesses community-led flood adaptation strategies through a comparative analysis of three coastal slum communities in Lagos, Nigeria: Ajegunle, Ijora-Badia, and Makoko. In an era of intensifying climate precarity, these coastal slums exist at a critical intersection of environmental risk and rapid, unplanned urbanization, where formal urban governance has historically marginalized the urban poor through exclusionary planning and a lack of protective infrastructure. We utilized a mixed-methods approach; structured questionnaires were administered to residents to capture lived experiences of flood risk, while Key Informant Interviews (KII) were conducted with community leaders and local stakeholders to understand localized decision-making processes. Preliminary findings reveal that formal top-down policies often reproduce systemic spatial inequalities, forcing residents to deploy their own "informal agency" to fill the vacuum of state-led interventions. These inventive communal strategies—ranging from the iconic stilt-supported architecture of Makoko to indigenous drainage engineering and localized social alert networks in Ajegunle and Ijora-Badia—constitute a vital, alternative form of urban governance. By evaluating these practices, we seek to move the discourse beyond simple coping mechanisms toward a transformative adaptation framework that demands a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between the state, nature, and society. Ultimately, the paper highlights the political significance of grassroots innovation, arguing that formal development paradigms must learn from and support the informal, justice-driven futures already being built by actors on the frontlines of the climate crisis in Nigeria.

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This paper examines the impact of subnational governance quality on wellbeing in Africa. Using survey data from over 223,000 respondents across 40 countries and an IV strategy, it shows that better local governance reduces economic insecurity and improves living conditions.

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Research has extensively demonstrated the importance of national governance quality for economic performance ad societal wellbeing. Yet, such aggregate analyses often overlook the impact of subnational governance, the level of government closest to the people. Consequently, we know little about the relationship between subnational governance quality (SGQ) and socioeconomic outcomes. This study examines how perceived SGQ - capturing local government performance, responsiveness, trustworthiness, and corruption - influences subjective wellbeing using individual-level survey data from more than 223,000 respondents across 40 African countries. OLS estimates show that a one-standard deviation increase in SGQ decreases economic insecurity - a index of shortages in food, water, fuel, medical care, and cash income - by about 3 percentage points (pp) and increases the probability of reporting "fairly good" or "very good" living conditions by about 7 pp. Because these estimates maybe biased due to potential endogeneity, I construct a leave-out-one mean instrument that averages the governance evaluations of all other community members to instrument for an individual's own assessment. Using this instrument, the results confirm the causal impact of SGQ on subjective wellbeing. Specifically, a one-standard deviation increase in SGQ reduces economic insecurity by over 5 pp and increases the likelihood of reporting "fairly good" or "very good" living conditions by about 14 pp. These effects attenuate in rural areas, strengthen with education and waged employment, but show no meaningful differences by gender.

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This project investigates the intersection of adaptive reuse of cultural landscapes and urban resilience in Lagos. It explores how repurposing historic sites and heritage spaces can contribute to the city's ability to withstand environmental, social, and economic stresses.

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This project investigates the relationship between heritage conservation and urban development in Lagos (Nigeria) through the specific lens of adaptive reuse and city resilience. It posits that the city's cultural landscapes, including historic districts, markets, waterfronts, and colonial-era structures, are not merely relics of the past but vital, untapped assets for a sustainable future. The core inquiry explores how strategically repurposing these cultural assets can strengthen Lagos's capacity to withstand and adapt to acute shocks (like flooding and economic crises) and chronic stresses (including housing deficits, infrastructure overload, and social fragmentation). The methodology involves "mapping the nexus" employing spatial analysis, case studies, and stakeholder engagement to document and analyse existing and potential adaptive reuse projects. This mapping seeks to reveal the multi-functional benefits of such interventions: preserved heritage can enhance social cohesion and identity; retrofitted buildings can improve environmental performance and reduce material waste; and reactivated public spaces can stimulate inclusive local economies. Ultimately, the project argues that adaptive reuse presents a pragmatic third path, moving beyond the binary choice of preservation versus development. By synthesizing cultural heritage management with urban resilience theory, the study produced a framework of actionable strategies to demonstrate how Lagos, and similar rapidly growing cities in the Global South, can leverage their unique historical fabric to build adaptive capacity, foster equitable development, and create a more liveable and resilient urban environment for all its inhabitants.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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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.