Paper short abstract:

Using Lilongwe as an illustrative example, this paper highlights an important problematic in how the relationship between urban governance and financial investment in African cities is being understood by mainstream spatial policy, and how it functions in practice to bring forward new developments.

Paper long abstract:

Privately held capital continues to be heralded as a crucial resource for bridging the so called ‘infrastructure-gap’ in African cities. Increasingly, efforts are being made to encourage private sector actors and city authorities to work together in bringing forward new projects. Reviewing existing literatures on the relationship between spatial governance and capital investment in the urban however, this paper points to an important disconnect in prevailing logics. On the one hand, increasing attention is being paid to the way in which city governments and their development partners are overtly Territorialising the urban via policy as they attempt to connect into (and thus reap the benefits of) regional and international flows of privately held capital and resources. Meanwhile, close analyses of how private-led urban development projects actually get brought forward are highlighting the varying and complex ways in which private actors are involved in an ongoing De/Re-territorialisation of the urban as it is rendered investable. These processes involve considerably more complex forms of private speculation on the future than can be accounted for in the currently dominant policy regimes. And yet, these speculations also rely heavily upon the agency and support of various government actors who elsewhere maintain a commitment to such regimes. Using Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, as an illustrative example of this problematic, the paper argues for critical engagement with the specific kinds of governable urban territory which are emerging through speculations on the future involving a host of governance actors.

Paper short abstract:

The paper draws on research conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to foreground the dominant role played by national government actors and agencies in channelling and territorializing urban development finance in ways that limit the fiscal autonomy of municipal governments.

Paper long abstract:

Much attention has been paid in recent years to the range of different transnational actors and corporations involved in the design, financing and construction of large scale urban real estate and property development in ways that bypass existing cities and urban governance systems in Africa. This paper instead engages with the (literature critical of the) ways in which global actors seek to contribute to the development of existing cities by funding infrastructure development and regulatory reform in order to improve urban service delivery and facilitate local access to new financial tools and global capital. The paper draws on research conducted on the World Bank funded Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project (DMDP, implemented between 2015-2022), as part of a multi-year comparative project on the transcalar politics of large-scale urban development in urban Africa, to interrogate the ways in which the roll out of the World Bank’s growing urban development portfolio in Tanzania is shaped by local political actors and interests. Specifically, the paper foregrounds the dominant role played by national government actors and agencies in channelling and territorializing urban development finance in ways that limit the fiscal autonomy of municipal governments and thereby the pace and form of local government financialization and the type of infrastructural investments and governance that global development finance may produce in urban Africa.

Paper short abstract:

Using the case of Konza technopolis in Kenya, a 2000-hectare, greenfield new town designed to boost the country's most advanced economic sectors, this paper charts some of the technopolitical rationalities that have been mobilized in its financing.

Paper long abstract:

The ideation and construction of new cities in Africa have long been a hallmark of postcolonial statecraft. From the resolution of ethnic conflicts to the production of domestic real estate markets, from the seclusion of nation-wide administration to the attraction of foreign capital, different rationalities of government have been given effect through new cities like Abuja and New Cairo City. An interesting, recent example of this is Kenya’s Konza Technopolis, currently under construction some 70 km outside of the country’s capital Nairobi.

Conceived as part of the national development plan that was launched in 2008 (Kenya Vision 2030), and later on included in the metropolitan masterplan, Konza Technopolis is a 2000-hectare, greenfield new town gazetted in Kenyan law as a special economic zone for the enhancement of the BPO (business process offshoring) and ICT sectors. Owing to the difficulty in finding the right leverages to mobilize domestic, international and developmental finance, the gestation of the project has been long and thorny, prompting commentators and critics to describe Konza as a fantasy city, or a failed promise. In this paper, however, I challenge this reading by charting some of the technopolitical ambitions that the national governments materialized in the new city. Whether or not Konza delivers on its programme, the vision of a city dedicated to a broadly defined high-tech economy is also indicative of a speculative logic of state-building that combines entrepreneurial and developmental goals in order to access local and international finance.

Paper short abstract:

The trajectories of a paradoxical constitutional mandate for basic service provision by Local Governments in Nigeria also entangle them in a financial and political dependency on state governments. T his presentation highlights how the situation deepens urban dysfunctionality in Nigerian cities.

Paper long abstract:

There are seven hundred and seventy-four Local Governments in Nigeria, operating as the third tier of governance below the state and federal government. Spread across the country’s 36 states and federal capital territory, their constitutional duties are uniform and sources of revenue, similar. The core functions of local governments are defined in the Fourth Schedule of Nigeria's Constitution to include the provision of basic services such as pre-schools, primary and adult education, primary care and health protection, town planning functions, roads and transportation, refuse collection and disposal, cemeteries, environmental protection, sports, leisure space, and religious facilities. These are recognizably critical to urban functionality and well-being. However, the states are, in practice, primarily carrying out these functions. This happens because not only are states constitutionally responsible for initiating the creation of local governments, but they also have constitutional oversights over local government elections. Critically, funding of local governments from Nigeria’s Federation Account is managed by the state governments through the ‘State Joint Local Government Account’. State governments are therefore in a very powerful position that has relegated local governments and impacted on urban service provision. While Local Governments regularly demand for re-structuring of the system, the paradox of constitutionally mandated duties and electoral, fiscal, and administrative dependency on the states has created political tensions and clientelism that perpetuates abysmal performance and lack of access to basic services in urban areas. Citizens’ demand for good governance can be a tool to drive transformational change.

Paper short abstract:

Shopping malls have proliferated across African cities, reflecting the continent’s growing middle class and deepening neoliberal globalization. Yet, little is known about the transcalar nature of these investments and more importantly their spatial implications on African urban territories.

Paper long abstract:

There has been a surge in shopping malls usually consisting of elegant and exotic architectural designs across many African cities reflecting what some scholars view as the continent’s growing middle-class and deepening neoliberal globalization. This phenomenon has attracted research attention, especially narratives and analyses focusing on the socio-economic characteristics of customers of malls and customer experience value; adverse impact on traditional retail structures (including informal retailing and open-air markets); projections of images of modernity and of centres for promotion of foreign consumables and their economic impacts (in terms of employment creation, wealth creation and poverty reduction). Other studies have also depicted shopping malls as grandeur and class-based in the context of low-income and poverty levels in African cities and therefore serving consumption needs of the relatively limited wealthy households. Yet, little research has been done on the transcalar nature of these investments and more importantly their spatial implications in African cities. Using the West Hills Shopping Mall, located on the western part of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) as a case study, we assess the proliferation of shopping malls in Ghanaian cities, the transcalar nature of these investments (how multiple actors with their technology, policy and financial resources are mobilized from diverse scales) and their spatial implications for urban territories and everyday life in cities such as GAMA.