DPU at the ACC International Urban Conference

The African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town are hosting an International Urban Conference to celebrate its ten-year anniversary. The conference draws together leading urban scholars and practitioners from all corners of Africa and the world to take stock of ground-breaking urban research, to explore new avenues for enquiry and collaboration, and to make visible the vibrant state of our broad and heterogeneous field. The present and future of African cities is central to DPU’s work and several staff members will attend to share perspectives and research insights. In attendance from the DPU will be Adriana Allen, Cassidy Johnson, Rita Lambert, Pascale Hofmann, Andrea Rigon and Emmanuel Osuteye.

The DPU and partners will be contributing to a number of events spread across the three day schedule, and are listed below. In addition, you can find the full schedule here.

DAY 1: 1 February

PANEL 13: Public space place and city practices

TIME: 10:30-12:00

VENUE: Cantlivres Building Classroom 3B

Beyond formal and informal sector: an analysis of the livelihoods of informal settlement residents in Freetown – Julian Walker, Braima Koroma, Andrea Rigon, Austina Sudie Sellu
 

ROUNDTABLE 01: What (global) science-policy futures for African cities? Reporting from the UCL-Nature Sustainability Expert Panel [including DPU Prof. Adriana Allen]

TIME: 15:00-16:30

VENUE: New Lecture Theatre

Urban policy and urban science are at a critical juncture. Many policymakers and scientists, gathered for a once-in-twenty-years opportunity at the Habitat III summit that launched the UN’s New Urban Agenda in Quito in October 2016, reiterated how this momentous occasion was flawed by poor science-policy interfaces. Urban research remains “disparate, marginalised and ill-prepared to interact effectively with global policy” (MacPhearson et al. 2016), whilst at the city level, evidence-based policymaking is “dysfunctional in many parts of the world” (Acuto and Parnell 2016).

To redress these limits and advance the development of more integrated (cross-disciplinary) and policy-engaged research on cities, Nature Sustainability, the new interdisciplinary journal of Nature Research, and the City Leadership Lab at University College London (along with Yale University and the University of Cape Town) have established a ground-breaking Expert Panel on the urban science-policy interface for global sustainability. Gathering 30 internationally-recognised experts on urban research, and seeking to understand the role of science in the future of cities and urban politics, the panel is investigating challenges, opportunities and practical policy pathways to facilitate a more effective, accessible and sustainable science-policy interface in and for cities. Engaging with a set of panel experts and co-chairs, this roundtable will focus on gathering lessons learned from the Panel, with a specific focus on how to redress these science-policy interaction limits in the Africa context, but also on what cutting-edge practices the African context can contribute to the global urban governance landscape ‘on the road’ to the 9th World Urban Forum.

PAPERS

PANEL 7: Water Governance: Policies and Practice

TIME: 10:30-12:00

VENUE: Lslie Social Sciences Lecture Theatre 1E

• The dialectics of urban water poverty: Exploring water infrastructure and services through everyday trajectories - Pascale Hofmann

DAY 2: 2 February

PANEL 36: Untaming methodologies: reframing urban risk through methodological innovations. Chaired by Adriana Allen

TIME: 10:30-12:00

VENUE: Leslie Social Sciences Lecture Theatre 1D

PAPERS

• A spectrum of methods for a spectrum of risk: generating evidence to understand and reduce urban risk in sub-Saharan Africa – David Dodman
• Documented and public knowledge of hazards and disasters: exploration of twin methodologies for understanding urban risks in Africa – Ibidun Adelekan, Eze Nwokocha, Femi Olaniyan
• ReMapRisk: mapping for transformative resilience in Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Karonga (Malawi )– Rita Lambert, Adriana Allen, Emmanuel Osuteye, Mtafu Manda, Braima Koroma
• Floods of Memory: oral history methodologies for understanding everyday risk and resilience in northern Malawi – Naomi Roux
• Urban Textures: simple techniques to understand urban infrastructure risk in data-poor scenarios – Faith Taylor, Bruce Malamud, James Millington

DAY 3: 3 February

PANEL 56: Risk governance and urban development in cities of sub-Saharan Africa (1): implications for risk accumulation and reduction. Chaired by Hayley Leck

TIME: 10:30-12:00

VENUE: Leslie Social Sciences Lecture Theatre 1B

PAPERS

• The risks related to the liberalisation of the land market in a decentralisation context in Niamey – Hamadou Issaka, Cassidy Johnson
• Governance of urban development and its influence on risks in Karonga, Malawi – Cassidy Johnson, Emmanuel Osutye, Donald Brown, Mtafu Manda, James Gondwe
• Examining the urban planning and development trajectory in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the persistence of risks – Emmanuel Osutye, Cassidy Johnson, Braima Koroma
• The role of local government institutions in mitigating or reducing disaster losses and vulnerabilities in Ibadan, Nigeria - Femi Olaniyan, Ibidun Adelekan, Ezebunwa Nwokocha

PANEL 66

TIME: 13:30-15:00

VENUE: Leslie Social Sciences Lecture Theatre 2D

• From risk accumulation to transformative change: actionable knowledge to disrupt urban risk traps in Malawi and Sierra Leone – Adriana Allen, Cassidy Johnson, Braima Koroma, Mtafu Manda, Rita Lambert, Emmanuel Osuteye