Header photo credit: peeterv / Getty Images (via Canva Pro). Busy market streets in Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

A major critique of development research in Africa is the poor translation of science-based research and evidence into policymaking and societal outcomes. To address this disconnection between science, policy and society, research uptake should be included as an integral part of the research process. This approach, emphasising inclusivity – and with an awareness that the process is important, not just the findings – has the potential to push the boundaries of innovative policy reform.

But what is research uptake? How is it being foregrounded in the ACRC research process? And what are some of our cities’ experiences with it on the ground? ICLEI Africa – our organisational uptake lead in Freetown and Lilongwe, and uptake support in Accra and Harare – has launched an explainer video series aimed at demystifying research uptake.

Drawing on interviews with experts and researchers on the ground, the series examines what research uptake means in an urban African context; experiences of how it can be, and has been, integrated into the research process; and its potential to underpin successful action and implementation.

Watch the explainer videos below.

Header photo credit: ICLEI Africa. A stakeholder engagement meeting held by the uptake team in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

By David Dodman, Meggan Spires and Kate Strachan

In sub-Saharan Africa, around 60% of the urban population resides in informal settlements. It is these areas that have experienced the most rapid growth in urban vulnerability to climate change in recent years – facing higher exposure to climate risks, while having a lower capacity to adapt.

Despite having the lowest emissions (and hence having contributed least to global warming), Africa faces systemic risks that threaten to undo development gains and exacerbate extreme poverty. This is accentuated by the lack of risk-reducing infrastructure, the high proportion of people depending on natural resources for livelihoods, poor public health, and low levels of formal education. Climate change is projected to put anywhere between eight and 80 million people at risk of hunger by the middle of this century, with sub-Saharan Africa set to be one of the most severely affected regions.

But climate change is not a future problem; it is already affecting African cities, impacting households, businesses, infrastructure and supply chains. It will undoubtedly present one of the most significant risks to Africa’s sustainable development objectives over the next decade. 

The latest IPCC report highlights the significance of extreme climate events, including heatwaves and intense rainfall for cities, with particular health risks from heat stress for low-income urban residents. The effects of higher temperatures are especially severe for people living in dense urban settlements lacking nearby green/blue space and with uninsulated housing, or for those working in physically active (and frequently informal) occupations; more intense flooding affects those living in sites adjacent to watercourses and in poorly constructed buildings. Other effects of climate change, including on water availability and food security, will also disproportionately affect those who already face struggles to meet their basic needs. Responses to climate change therefore need to be developed with an explicit pro-poor focus.

In African cities, climate risk is a consequence of both exposure to climate-related hazards, and vulnerability of residents and urban systems. Vulnerability is driven by high levels of poverty, limited municipal and national resources to invest in risk reduction activities, and inadequate, out-of-date and poorly maintained infrastructure. Climate impacts in one place can create risks to locations far away – for example, drought or extreme rainfall that affects agricultural productivity can have widespread impacts on food security. Prolonged droughts can result in water scarcity in cities and can disrupt hydroelectric generation.

A range of factors shape the risk profiles of African cities, including their physical form, social structures, economic pathways and governance systems. The nature of spatial expansion, city demographic profiles, and the prevalence of informal economies and settlements are particularly important. Governance systems in African cities are often centralised and complex, with separate competence domains often in different city administrative departments, for example, urban planning, water management, energy, housing, and health – and even sometimes at different levels of government. This often results in overlaps or gaps (for example, planning for informality) in mandates, resulting in less governance efficiency within resource-constrained environments. All this increases the vulnerabilities of cities.

Adaptation and mitigation

For cities in Africa, adaptation to climate change and its effects will require immediate action to respond to particular threats, as well as longer-term planning. This will require coordinated action by a range of urban stakeholders, including low-income and other marginalised groups. Mitigation to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is also necessary. Emissions need to be cut from construction of new homes, energy that residents consume, waste they produce and transport they use.

Many African cities are still in the early stages of their development, and have the opportunity to develop in ways that are cleaner and greener. This will benefit their residents, with more liveable cities, and improve their international competitiveness, as climate-resilient development and the connected skills and technologies are sought after globally. So African cities are at a crossroad – they can choose clean, efficient, productive paths or become locked into exclusionary, sprawling and polluting models.

Climate change impacts, and adaptation and mitigation responses, will have major implications across ACRC’s range of urban development domains, which we outline below.

Structural transformation

Global and national decarbonisation efforts have the potential to create new economic opportunities in African cities. Development to improve labour productivity needs to utilise low carbon technologies, including for transport, and energy provision needs to come increasingly from renewable sources. However, a just transition is needed, to ensure that the benefits are available to low-income and vulnerable urban residents.

Neighbourhood and district economic development

The informal economy is the backbone of most African cities. Low-income urban residents, whose work is often physically intense and/or outdoors, are most likely to be affected by climate change, and also lack capital to adapt their livelihoods. Flooding and extreme heat negatively impact the health and wellbeing of informal sector workers. They must be provided with opportunities and safety nets that take account of increasing environmental uncertainty.

Land and connectivity

The distribution of climate risk in African cities will be uneven. Low-lying coastal zones and areas along rivers will potentially become more susceptible to flooding, and settlements on steep slopes more vulnerable to landslides following intense precipitation. Climate change has the potential to undermine connectivity within and between cities through disruption to infrastructure, including roads and railways. Land use planning and zoning will be critical for managing risk.

Housing

Secure, safe and affordable housing is core to individual and community climate change resilience. Housing location and construction methods (materials, ventilation, aspect) are key in determining exposure to climate hazards. To address African cities’ housing deficit, new approaches need to be affordable to the lowest-income households. Innovative housing design – solar shading, cross-ventilation, reflective finishes and decentralised solutions – can substantially reduce energy consumption.

Informal settlements

Responses to climate change have uneven implications, with potential negative consequences of mitigation and adaptation projects for low-income and other marginalised groups. Political marginalisation of the residents of informal settlements is associated with low prioritisation of their needs in planning and investment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience, including through upgrading water and sanitation systems.

Health, wellbeing and nutrition

Climate change impacts, together with increasing population densities, in close proximity to animal species, are expected to increase the emergence of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Other local health security implications include mental health challenges faced by residents forced to migrate due to climate change, disruptions to food supply, and lack of access to health and wellbeing services. Effective solutions are likely to be found by addressing the broader urban environment, rather than focusing solely on the healthcare system.

Safety and security

As the effects of climate change displace large numbers of people, this can increase the likelihood and intensity of conflict and violence. If African cities become uninhabitable, mass migration may contribute to radicalisation and trigger inter-communal violence, as tensions arise between hosts and displaced people over access to resources, livelihoods and services.

Youth and capability development

The WHO estimates that the youth will suffer more than 80% of the illnesses, injuries and deaths attributable to climate change. The consequences of climate-related disasters – food insecurity, loss of livelihoods, rising air pollution, vector-borne diseases and malnutrition – can have a markedly detrimental impact on a child’s early development. Conflict over dwindling resources can affect children’s ability to grow up in safe, secure and healthy environments.

Header photo credit: Moiz Husein / Getty Images (via Canva Pro). Flooding in the Jangwani area of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

“Better communication of scientific evidence is therefore critical for research uptake and integration. It strengthens the dialogue and collaboration required to work at all levels of the research spectrum and builds an understanding of the methods and values of communities engaged.”

Deepening science-policy-practice interaction

Despite increased recognition of the need to ensure research uptake, mainly with the adoption of the New Urban Agenda III, local governments are still predominantly focused on a compartmentalised framing of urban issues. In many cases, the resulting interventions are not supported by science or place-based knowledge at the national and local levels. Insufficient uptake of scientific evidence is mainly related to the communication gap in the scientific, policy and practice domain. This is intensified by a lack of institutional structures and spaces for dialogue to facilitate the transfer and co-creation of knowledge.

The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for such structures, and for a more institutionalised role for science, to ensure that policy responses and solutions were supported by the latest and best available scientific knowledge, as well as place-based knowledge. Dealing with such a complex and multidimensional issue, with multiple drivers and potential impacts, also required a systems approach, engaging a wide range of actors beyond the scientific sphere.

Better communication of scientific evidence is therefore critical for research uptake and integration. It strengthens the dialogue and collaboration required to work at all levels of the research spectrum and builds an understanding of the methods and values of communities engaged. For example, role-playing in workshops can communicate urban challenges in experiential ways that make them more accessible to policymakers and social actors. In addition, dialogue platforms can unlock the wealth of scientific knowledge published in academic journals that is often beyond the reach of policymakers and local actors. Beyond the networking opportunity of these platforms (forums, festivals, conferences and workshops), they create an enabling environment to share knowledge and galvanise action for change in science, policy and practice.

ICLEI Africa’s RISE Africa Festival of urban innovations and practice, is a dialogue platform which showcases these important connections inherent in science, policy and practice. A movement of urban thinkers, doers and enablers committed to inspiring action for sustainable cities, RISE Africa breaks down the complexities of urban challenges and makes them accessible to a broader audience.

Since May 2020, the platform has facilitated monthly online activities, including showcases, roundtables and thematic webinars, to engage a growing community of over 1,400 scientists, policymakers, practitioners, citizens and city officials. The May 2022 edition of the Festival took the theme of Creativity, Agency and Urgency. It was organised around three core sessions and daily parallel sessions from a wide range of speakers, facilitators and hosts across the science, policy and practice spectrum.

One session delved directly into how we can craft sustainable development research that matters. Two speakers from either end of the knowledge system — researcher Professor Shuaib Lwasa and practitioner Dr Beth Chitekwe-Biti — were invited to advance the debate from a more reflective perspective.

Professor Lwasa underlined the need to consider the interests of local communities, including young people’s aspirations, in conceptualising and designing research. He cited the inappropriate application of European housing standards to communities in informal settlements, and made the case for considering local innovations.

Dr Chitekwe-Biti stressed the importance of strong advocacy to connect with local communities, and for authorities to ensure a shared understanding of the importance of research, in order to co-create new ideas to improve the livelihoods of low-income households.

In order to facilitate interaction between science, policy and practice that catalyses meaningful sustainable development in African cities, and to ensure that we are producing research that matters, ICLEI Africa makes five key recommendations:

1. In cooperation with scientific, academic and research institutions, and community practitioners, subnational entities must establish multi-stakeholder knowledge-sharing platforms to unlearn entrenched biases and re-learn new forms of collaboration in addressing complex issues. These platforms will enable local urban stakeholders to access scientific knowledge and technological innovations and to learn from practical local solutions. Access to lessons learned, and best practices that are compatible with local conditions, governance and development contexts, is essential to ensure inclusion of local communities.

2. Enhance the capacity of local communities to interface between the science and policy spaces. This requires building skills and capacity to develop interactions and establish bridges between institutions and local actors, enabling more efficient and productive use of knowledge. Knowledge brokerage and synthesis can help to identify the necessary fit for the locality to support implementation and help co-produce knowledge with decision-makers and communities.

3. Local authorities and scientific communities should foster a new support function, in the form of “facilitators”, in collaboration with local universities, research institutions and community practitioners. The facilitators could assist on-site stakeholders in discovering and sharing needs, raise awareness of problems, and facilitate access to information to support problem resolution. They could also disseminate good practices, success and failure stories and lessons learned from other locations. Their role could be formalised with long-term partnerships or multi-sector alliances.

4. Universities and research institutions should incentivise students and scientists by offering training opportunities for supporting on-site implementation, thus developing holistic thinking. Universities should promote systemic approaches, so that undergraduate students not only acquire knowledge and concepts but are also taught how to link these to lived realities.

5. Establish mechanisms at national, regional and international levels to create enabling environments for young scientists to play a central role in co-creating and sharing knowledge and to support evidence-based local practices to translate knowledge into action. Further, governments and international organisations should explore concrete means of support, including technical training, best practices promotion, and seed funding.

Header photo credit: Hannah van Rooyen. ACRC’s consortium-wide meeting in Nairobi.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

What do you think is the most important aspect that ICLEI Africa brings to the consortium? 

We bring experience of working with transdisciplinary methods, in collaborating with local governments. ICLEI Africa has worked hand-in-hand with subnational governments for the past 20 years, assisting cities, towns and regions across the continent in forging forward on their sustainability journeys. We therefore understand how cities work and how to collaborate most effectively with them for local impact and change.

A key goal of ACRC is to ensure that our research will be utilised by city governments. We aim to harness our experience of supporting local governments in working effectively with civil society, researchers and business, to ensure, with our ACRC partners, that we leave a lasting legacy in the project cities, and across the continent.

How did you become involved with ACRC? 

With ICLEI Africa’s focus on meeting cities where they are at, and serving city needs, we have been tackling poverty and inequality within Africa cities, through a sustainability lens, since our inception. ACRC also has an explicit focus on tackling inequality and poverty head-on, so it made sense to work together. We feel strongly that development in Africa has to be carried out in a sustainable manner, always mindful of the significant climate change impacts that manifest at the local level. Being a part of ACRC allows for the continuation and development of our mutually held goals for the benefit of African citizens.

“We feel strongly that development in Africa has to be carried out in a sustainable manner, always mindful of the significant climate change impacts that manifest at the local level.”

What do you think is most interesting thing about ACRC’s approach to urban development?

This programme will be tackling the root causes of the problems at hand – it looks at the systemic challenges experienced in African cities, and will develop transformative solutions, rather than just dealing with symptoms. We are very excited about being involved in a programme that will lead to long-term and lasting positive change in the cities we serve.

What do you think is the most crucial challenge for development in African cities?

Good governance underpins good development, and enhancing how governance occurs, particularly in these unprecedented times, is essential. Inequality is also a significant challenge that must be tackled for development achievements to be built upon, and not undermined. We know that effective governance plays an essential role in unlocking the resources necessary for development that prioritises the most vulnerable in our societies.

“The diverse set of organisations within the consortium all bring versatile skillsets to the project, which unlocks new networks, new opportunities and new ways of working. With all hands-on deck, we are excited, as ICLEI Africa, to be involved in a project that can leave a lasting legacy in the cities we care so deeply about.”

What is the most exciting thing for you about this project?

The amount of time, space and resources offered for this project is really exciting, as it makes achieving real, long-term change possible. The diverse set of organisations within the consortium all bring versatile skillsets to the project, which unlocks new networks, new opportunities and new ways of working. With all hands-on deck, we are excited, as ICLEI Africa, to be involved in a project that can leave a lasting legacy in the cities we care so deeply about.

Read more from ICLEI Africa:

• Socially inclusive development: stories from African cities
• New tool supports deep explorations on data and circular initiatives: here’s what it means for African cities
• Innovations that could ensure universal energy access by 2030: stories from the Global South

Follow ICLEI Africa’s work:

• Twitter
• YouTube

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

Catch up on our webinar introducing the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) and outlining how the Consortium and its international partners are planning to tackle complex, political and systemic problems in some of Africa’s fastest-growing urban areas.

ACRC has been awarded a contract of £32 million from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) over the next 6 years. Building on the political settlements analysis established by the Effective States and Inclusive Development research centre, ACRC will adopt a city as systems approach to addressing complex urban problems. Through engaged action research we aim to catalyse progress for disadvantaged communities in a number of focus cities and beyond.

Speakers

• Professor Diana Mitlin, The University of Manchester
• Professor Sam Hickey, The University of Manchester
• Dr Martin Atela, Partnership for African Social and Governance Research, Nairobi
• Chaired by Dr Admos Chimhowu

Find out more

• The African Cities Research Consortium
• The Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre
• Follow the African Cities Research Consortium on Twitter
• Sign up to the African Cities Research Consortium newsletter

This post originally appeared on the Global Development Institute Blog.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

Researchers from the Global Development Institute have been awarded a new research contract of £32 million to establish the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of UK Aid.

Led by Professor Diana Mitlin, ACRC and its international partners will tackle complex problems in some of Africa’s fastest growing urban areas. Over 6 years, research will generate new evidence to catalyse integrated, sustainable, inclusive approaches to urban development.

African Cities will approach urban areas as complex systems, undertaking engaged political analysis, in order to address large scale development challenges. A ‘city as a system’ approach aims to move beyond the sectoral silos of research and interventions by treating each city as a complex system. It builds upon the political settlements analysis establish by our Effective States and Inclusive Development research centre, and will integrate political and technical analysis undertaken alongside key players on the ground.

The African Cities Research Consortium brings together engaged partners including the UK-based IIED, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and ODI, African-based groups such as ICLEI Africa, PASGR and SDI, as well as international organisations, such as the IRC and UNU-WIDER. Closer to home, it will utilise expertise from across The University of Manchester,  particularly within the Manchester Urban Institute and the Global Inequalities research beacon.

CEO Diana Mitlin said, “The long term prospects for much of Africa will hinge on creating more sustainable, equitable and inclusive cities. The African Cities Research Consortium will enable us to tease out the complexities and highlight potential solutions to improve urban centres across the continent.”

ACRC has the ambitious aim of generating new evidence to catalyse integrated, sustainable, inclusive approaches to urban development challenges. An initial focus on 13* African cities will allow us to undertake focused, inter-connected research that delivers real insights for local authorities, civil society and donors. 

Tade Akin Aina, Executive director of the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR), based in Kenya will be the Uptake Director for the Consortium. He said, “Covid-19 is highlighting structural inequalities within cities across Africa. By taking a holistic approach and bringing together communities with local authorities and donors, I’m confident the African Cities Research Consortium will play a vital role in improving urban areas.”

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester commented, “The University of Manchester is proud of its contribution towards tackling global challenges and the new African Cities Research Consortium epitomises this approach. With rigorous research, combined with the engaged networks and insights of partners from very different spheres, we’re confident that great progress will be made.”

* The initial 13 African cities are: Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Bukavu (DRC), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Harare (Zimbabwe), Kampala (Uganda), Khartoum (Sudan), Lagos (Nigeria), Lilongwe (Malawi), Maiduguri (Nigeria), Mogadishu (Somalia), and Nairobi (Kenya).

Photo by Virgyl Sowah on Unsplash

This post originally appeared on the Global Development Institute Blog.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.