“From the design of the project, from the design of the tools, to implementation, to data collection and everything, the community should be at the lead, at the forefront, speaking about their issues.”ACRC research in Nairobi has brought together communities, academics, county and government officials and the private sector, to come up with actions that support communities at the city level. Jane Wairutu from SDI-Kenya, and Nicera Wanjiru Kimani and Nancy Njoki Wairimu from Muungano wa Wanavijiji, sat down with ACRC informal settlements domain co-lead Daniela Cocco Beltrame, to talk about their experiences of the first phase of ACRC research in Nairobi. They discuss the challenges of finding language to bridge the gap between academics and local communities, highlight the benefits of bringing stakeholders together outside of their silos, and stress the importance of enabling communities to lead action research and to have ownership of data for advocacy purposes.Nancy Njoki Wairimu is a national federation leader for Muungano wa Wanavijiji and a community mobiliser, with a background in community development and as a community health volunteer.Nicera Wanjiru Kimani is a woman leader in her community, a federation member at Muungano wa Wanavijiji and the founder of Community Mappers.Jane Wairutu is a sociologist and programme manager at SDI-Kenya, working closely with data and project implementation teams.Daniela Cocco Beltrame is a PhD researcher in development policy and management at The University of Manchester, and co-lead for ACRC's informal settlements domain.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

"Informal settlements in Kampala, and in other cities elsewhere across Africa, they are not homogenous, they're very heterogeneous. The kinds of pressures they face – social, environmental, political, economic pressures – they're very different." More than half of people living in African cities reside in informal settlements. Such settlements often share similar challenges – including inadequate access to basic services and infrastructure, and insecure tenure. But when it comes to understanding the political dynamics of urban informality, the differences cannot be ignored.In this episode, ACRC's Kampala informal settlements domain lead Peter Kasaija joins Smith Ouma for a conversation around how politics shapes access to basic services in Kampala's informal settlements. They discuss deficiencies in city systems, the multiple players operating in these spaces and the "invisible hand" of powerful local actors in granting access to basic services. They also talk about the often-overlooked political savviness of informal settlement residents in using political support to protect themselves against eviction. And they reflect on the evolution of informal settlements in the city, and why some might disappear in the near future.Peter Kasaija is a researcher at the Urban Action Lab at Makerere University and leads ACRC's informal settlements domain research in Kampala.Smith Ouma is a Leverhulme Research Fellow at The University of Manchester's Global Development Institute and part of ACRC's informal settlements domain team. ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

Urban reform coalitions can play a critical role in building inclusive, sustainable and productive cities. Made up of diverse stakeholders who collaborate to achieve common goals, these coalitions can work to strengthen relationships between disadvantaged groups and influential state/non-state actors. This collective action can be powerful in challenging socioeconomic inequality and enabling marginalised groups to capitalise on political opportunities for inclusive reform.So where do researchers come in?This podcast episode is a recording from a webinar we held in September 2023 to discuss the role that academics, action researchers and professionals can play in fostering the formation and functioning of urban reform coalitions. In doing so, we wanted to give special focus to how knowledge and evidence can catalyse urban reform coalitions.Chaired by ACRC research associate, Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael, the webinar comprised presentations from three panellists, who talked about their experiences of working with urban reform coalitions and shared valuable lessons learned, followed by a question-and-answer session.Shalini Sinha is the urban Asia lead and home-based work sector specialist at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). She discusses the “I, Too, am Delhi” campaign, including the importance of having multi-sectoral partnerships and an intersectional perspective, along with the need to “demystify the technical”.Catherine Sutherland is an associate professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She shares her experiences and lessons from co-producing knowledge with disadvantaged groups in the Palmiet Catchment Rehabilitation Project, aimed at building flood resilience in Durban, South Africa.Paul Mukwaya is coordinator at the Urban Action Lab and ACRC's city lead for Kampala. He talks about his experiences as part of the Just City and Informality Working Group, led by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Uganda.Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael is a research associate at the African Cities Research Consortium, supporting research across the crosscutting themes of finance, gender and climate change.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

“The city keeps on growing every day. New infrastructure is being brought in every day. This means we can envisage more and more people coming into Lagos needing housing.”With more than an estimated 3,000 people arriving every day, Lagos is seen as a city of opportunity. But a rapidly increasing population means huge demand for housing in a city where around 70% of the population lives in substandard conditions.Speaking to Miriam Maina, ACRC’s Lagos housing domain lead Basirat Oyalowo discusses her research into the Lagos housing value chain, which is looking at the complex connections between various subsystems to better understand what can be done to boost provision and upgrade existing housing in the city.She talks about how groups including cooperative societies, social organisations and residents’ associations are already working to fill gaps in government service provision and basic infrastructure. With greater recognition and support, she argues, there is ample opportunity for these groups to scale up interventions to deliver housing alongside other neighbourhood improvements. Highlighting the vulnerability of informal communities to climate hazards as well as evictions, she stresses the need for communities to understand the risks they face so they can proactively advocate for better housing conditions.Basirat Oyalowo is a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos in the Department of Estate Management, and leads the housing domain research for ACRC in Lagos. Miriam Maina is a town planner and urban researcher. She recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the African Cities Research Consortium, where she was part of the housing domain team.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

"How can the interest and the commitment of those in charge of this city be galvanised, so that they see service delivery as important as an end in itself? For me, we need first to mobilise citizens."People living and working informally are often the most affected by shortfalls in service provision, impacting their access to education, healthcare, markets, sanitation, roads and more. In this episode, ACRC researchers Badru Bukenya and Buyana Kareem join Junior Alves Sebbanja for a conversation about service provision in Kampala, discussing the systemic and governance challenges underpinning it. Drawing on findings from their ACRC research, they talk about emerging crosscutting issues, including how limited capacities and inconsistent political support are impacting governments' abilities to deliver on policies. They discuss citizen engagement as a key starting point for building sustainable programmes, highlighting the importance of including communities within planning processes in order to understand their needs and priorities, and to deliver contextually appropriate solutions.Badru Bukenya is a senior lecturer in the department of social work and social administration at Makerere University, and political settlements lead for ACRC in Kampala.Buyana Kareem is an interdisciplinary researcher at the Urban Action Lab, Makerere University, and supports ACRC's city of systems research in Kampala.Junior Alves Sebbanja is a project manager at ACTogether Uganda and part of ACRC Kampala's uptake team. ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

ACRC defines inclusive urban reform coalitions as partnerships between government, experts and civil society organisations – often directly involving communities and groups most directly affected by the issues at hand – to drive sustainable urban transformation.In this episode, Shuaib Lwasa, ACRC's capacity strengthening lead and professor of urban resilience and global development at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, talks to Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael about building and sustaining reform coalitions, drawing on his experiences as founder of the Urban Action Lab (UAL) at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.He discusses how knowledge co-production became the most important aspect of the UAL's research, along with challenges around bringing together disadvantaged and advantaged groups, and how academics and researchers in the contemporary urban space should play a bridging role between communities and other actors – to identify commonalities between different interest groups and empower communities to advocate for themselves.Highlighting the importance of decency in urban development, he argues that there is a need to look beyond standardisation to achieve this, and to embrace alternative methodologies and tools – such as reform coalitions and other bottom-up approaches. Shuaib Lwasa is professor of urban resilience and global development at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. He leads the African Cities Research Consortium's capacity strengthening work and is also co-lead for the climate change crosscutting theme. Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, supporting research across the crosscutting themes of finance, gender and climate change. ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

ACRC defines inclusive urban reform coalitions as partnerships between government, experts and civil society organisations – often directly involving communities and groups most directly affected by the issues at hand – to drive sustainable urban transformation.In this episode, Joseph Macarthy, executive director of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC), joins Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael for a conversation around coalition building for inclusive urban reform, drawing on his experiences in Freetown, Sierra Leone.Discussing SLURC's ongoing work with with the Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA) and the Federation of Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP), Joseph talks about collaborating with community residents as co-researchers, the development of a Community Action Area Plan, and how City and Community Learning Platforms can provide a space for genuine dialogue among different actors in Freetown. Joseph Macarthy is executive director of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) and ACRC's Freetown city lead, also overseeing city of systems and housing research in the city.Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, supporting research across the crosscutting themes of finance, gender and climate change. ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

As the capital and the seat of the Somali government, Mogadishu has undergone a slow process of urban recovery over the course of the past decade. The city is experiencing rapid urbanisation, growing up to as much as 4% per year by some estimates, with a concomitant building boom driving up land prices. However, central tenets of the political settlement remain unresolved, including Mogadishu's constitutional status. Drawing on current political settlements and domain studies, ACRC researchers Surer Mohamed, Afyare Elmi, Abdirizak Muhumed and Abdifatah Tahir discuss urban politics and power dynamics, issues of security and citizenship, and the trends they are seeing  that give them hope for urban reform in Mogadishu. Surer Mohamed is the current Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, focusing on  the politics of urban belonging in Africa and the aftermaths of political violence in cities. She is the ACRC uptake lead and domain lead for land and connectivity in Mogadishu. Afyare Elmi is the executive director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, as well as the ACRC city lead and political settlements co-lead in Mogadishu.Abdirizak Muhumed is a senior researcher at the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies and co-leads ACRC's political settlements research in Mogadishu. Abdifatah Tahir is a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Manchester and former member of Somalia’s federal parliament. He is working on the land and connectivity domain within ACRC.  ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

ACRC defines inclusive urban reform coalitions as partnerships between government, experts and civil society organisations – often directly involving communities and groups most directly affected by the issues at hand – to drive sustainable urban transformation.In this episode, George Masimba from Dialogue on Shelter Trust – support NGO to the SDI-affiliated Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation – talks to Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael about the trust's experiences of working within reform coalitions to improve access to urban services for marginalised communities in Harare, through initiatives including the development of an inclusive framework for participatory informal settlement upgrading.He highlights how coalitions have been instrumental in securing buy-in for SDI's approach to informal settlement upgrading in the city, and explores their value in leveraging financial and technical resources, strengthening engagement processes, and creating a community of likeminded stakeholders who can push for change together.George Masimba is head of programmes at Dialogue on Shelter and is the lead for ACRC's city of systems, uptake and informal settlements domain work in Harare. George appeared on a previous episode, discussing knowledge co-production in the city.Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, supporting research across the crosscutting themes of finance, gender and climate change. ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

"We really see these reform coalitions as very key. They're key to nurturing new ideas, they're key to articulating ideas that perhaps are working elsewhere and making sure they're understood within their local context. They're key in translating frustrations into practical solutions, they're key in holding governments to account as they go forward... So our coalitions are really a glue – a glue that makes sure that the process sticks together to build a critical mass and the moment is not lost."  Diana Mitlin talks to Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael about her new paper on how reform coalitions can contribute to inclusive equitable urban change in the global South, her experiences of working with coalitions in Africa and Asia, the future of the urban reform agenda in African cities, and an upcoming conference being organised by ACRC.Diana Mitlin is CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium and professor of global urbanism at The University of Manchester's Global Development Institute. Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, supporting research across the crosscutting themes of finance, gender and climate change.Diana Mitlin's new open access paper in Area, Development and Policy – "The contribution of reform coalitions to inclusion and equity: lessons from urban social movements" –  is available to download. ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

“This is kind of a hub, if you will, that's bringing in goods and services to the wider group of people in the informal settlements. And you can think about anything that you need in your life, in your home. So things to do with food, clothes, anything that you need in your house or maybe maintenance of your house – carpentry works, metal works, hardware. For people that are in the informal settlements, they access all this through the HMEs.” In this episode, Ademola Omoegun talks to two city-based researchers from the neighbourhood and district economic development domain – Selina Pasirayi (Harare) and Rollins Chitika (Lilongwe) – about the critical role that household microenterprises (HMEs) play in African cities.Drawing on their research in Harare, Lilongwe and Lagos, they discuss the centrality of HMEs in the lives of informal settlement residents, the blurring boundaries between formality and informality, challenges around accessing finance and critical infrastructure, and how neighbourhood and district economic development intersects with the seven other domains being explored by ACRC.Selina Pasirayi leads ACRC's neighbourhood and district economic development domain research in Harare. With research interests in urban social movements, urban informality and urban development, she has also worked as a practitioner for civil society organisations and NGOs around resilience work, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.  Rollins Chitika leads ACRC's neighbourhood and district economic development domain research in Lilongwe. He is a consultant with Equip Consulting Group and has a background in private sector development, project management and research. Ademola Omoegun is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, working in the neighbourhood and district economic development domain.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

"Beyond patrolling, beyond the police, beyond anti-terror police activities which come from a global war on terror, what are people doing every day and what have they been doing every day to keep themselves safe?" In this episode, Wangui Kimari talks to Patience Adzande about the unfolding safety and security domain research in Nairobi, how she hopes it will contribute to decolonising ideas and practices for security in the city, and the importance of cross-domain coordination for achieving urban transformation. Wangui Kimari is a  junior research fellow at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town, participatory action research coordinator for the Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC) and co-lead for ACRC's safety and security domain research in Nairobi.Patience Adzande is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, working in the safety and security domain.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

"It's not our data as SDI, it's not ACRC data, it's not their data. It's the community's data. So you have to have that understanding that, at the end of the day, it has to benefit the community."In this episode, Miriam Maina talks to Charity Mumbi and Jane Wairutu from SDI-Kenya about community-led mapping and data collection, participatory planning processes, and the role of research in inclusive urban transformation.Charity Mumbi is an urban and regional planner and a projects officer at SDI-Kenya, supporting community-led planning, research and data management activities.Jane Wairutu is a sociologist and programme manager at SDI-Kenya, working closely with data and project implementation teams.Miriam Maina is from Nairobi and is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

"Lagos is a city of migrants… migrants are shaping the city in ways that are evolving per day. We are where we are now as a city through the action of migrants. And, more recently, we find that the actions of migrants are changing the spatial configurations of the city, determining some of the political narratives and political ideologies as well as political practices around the city; that the actions of migrants are also determining, to a large extent, the kinds of ways wealth is being distributed across the city."In this episode, researchers from ACRC’s Lagos team discuss how migration into the city is shaping debates around place, identity and citizenship, how it impacts on urban governance, and how the political obstacles holding back sustainable reform can be overcome.Ismail Ibraheem is director of International Relations, Partnership and Prospects (IRPP) at the University of Lagos and uptake lead for ACRC in Lagos.Taibat Lawanson is professor of urban management and governance at the University of Lagos and city lead for ACRC in Lagos.Sa'eed Husaini is a research fellow at the University of Ghana, Legon and the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja, Nigeria, and is the political settlements lead for ACRC in Lagos.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

What opportunities does urbanisation present for people living in African cities? How much does it really contribute to the economy? And what wider advantages can it have for rural dwellers?In our latest podcast episode, Philipp Heinrigs – head of unit at the OECD – talks to Stephen Gelb about the recent Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2022 report, delving deeper into the key findings and what the analysis reveals about socioeconomic development opportunities in Africa’s fast-growing cities.Philipp Heinrigs is head of the OECD’s Sahel and West Africa Club secretariat at the OECD and co-author of Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2022.Stephen Gelb is a principal research fellow and team leader of the international economic development group at ODI and leads ACRC’s neighbourhood and district economic development domain research.Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2022 is available to download via the African Development Bank, UNECA and OECD.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

"A project comes, a project leaves. The community will always remain. But now, what do you leave in that community?"In this episode, Miriam Maina talks to Eva Muchiri and Nicera Wanjiru from Muungano wa Wanavijiji – the Kenyan federation of slum dwellers – about data collection and mapping, the importance of communities in driving research agendas and outcomes, and the legacy that programmes like ACRC leave behind in communities.Eva Muchiri is from the informal settlement of Mathare in Nairobi and is a youth federation member and woman leader. Nicera Wanjiru is a woman leader and community data collector and mapper from Nairobi's Kibra informal settlement.Miriam Maina is from Nairobi and is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

What is ACRC’s research in Freetown all about? How does housing connect with land, youth employment and the rising costs of imported materials? How do political systems both help and hinder meaningful change? What attention is paid to informal settlements? Does the government’s agenda intersect with residents’ needs, and where are the gaps? And how can these gaps be explored and understood, to drive forward urban reform processes?These are some of the key questions explored as part of a recent radio segment on Radio Democracy 98.1 FM’s Freetown Urban Talk, which brought together key ACRC researchers from the housing and informal settlements domains for a conversation about ongoing work in the city.Francis Reffell is the founder of the Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA), a non-profit organisation providing technical support to its community counterpart and SDI affiliate, the Federation of Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP). He leads ACRC’s research on informal settlements in Freetown alongside Braima Koroma.Joseph Macarthy is executive director of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) and leads ACRC’s work on housing in Freetown alongside Zuzana Hrdlickova.Alexandre Apsan Frediani is a principal researcher in the human settlements group at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and leads ACRC’s housing domain alongside Ola Uduku.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

In this episode, Amani Abou-Zeid – African Union Commissioner in charge of infrastructure, energy and ICT – talks to ACRC's city of systems lead Seth Schindler about energy security and infrastructural development in Africa.They reflect on Africa's energy "evolution" in relation to climate change, why integration is key to bridging the continent's infrastructure gap, the impact of rising interest rates on foreign and local investment, and the regional innovation and cooperation that has emerged in response to multiple crises, including Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.Amani Abou-Zeid is the twice-elected African Union Commissioner in charge of infrastructure, energy and ICT, and is also chair of ACRC's consortium advisory group. She holds a PhD in social and economic development from the Global Development Institute at The University of Manchester. Seth Schindler is senior lecturer in urban development and transformation at The University of Manchester's Global Development Institute and co-research director of ACRC.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

Since the start of the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), we’ve been interested in trying to create more equitable partnerships and processes through the process. The rupture of the Covid-19 pandemic provided us with some opportunities, plus added impetus following reflections within the sector catalysed by the Black Lives Matter movement.From the outset, we’ve been exploring ways in which we could decolonise the ACRC approach by helping to shift the culture and practice of knowledge creation, which is currently built upon hugely unequal power systems. Of course, we are not starting from scratch but building on traditions of knowledge co-production between diverse groups involved in urban research. As such, we’re focusing on three main areas: structural issues, communication practices and methodological practices.To explore some of these issues, ACRC's uptake director Martin Atela and strategic alignment group member Professor Ola Uduku sat down with our communications manager Chris Jordan, to give their perspectives on decolonisation. Ola Uduku is head of school at the Liverpool School of Architecture, a member of ACRC's strategic alignment group and co-lead of the housing domain.Martin Atela is research and policy programme manager at the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and ACRC's uptake director.Chris Jordan is communications and impact manager for the Global Development Institute at The University of Manchester, and ACRC's communications manager.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

Despite gender equality policies at the national level in many African countries, there are persistent gender-based disparities, inequalities and exclusions faced by many women, particularly among low-income urban residents. And while urbanisation may offer greater opportunities for women – for example, in employment, access to services and changes in social and household dynamics – this is not always the case.Along with climate change and finance, gender is one of the key crosscutting themes being explored throughout ACRC's research into the political economy of urban development in Africa.In this episode, Rachel Tolhurst – social scientist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and research director of the ARISE Hub – talks to Elizabeth Dessie about her background in gender, development and health, the politics of gender and equity, and why understanding how gender intersects with other key urban development domains and city systems is central to ACRC's research. Rachel Tolhurst is co-lead for both ACRC's gender theme and health, wellbeing and nutrition domain.Elizabeth Dessie is a postdoctoral fellow at ACRC and part of our youth and capability development domain team.Read more about gender as a crosscutting theme on our blog.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

Collaborations between academia and grassroots organisations are not without tensions and power imbalances. For low-income urban communities, engaging with academics may mean enduring disqualification of their knowledge.Systematic reflection and assessment are key to preventing or reverting this. ACRC’s research approach integrates these notions to build strong, horizontal collaborations with a diverse range of research partners including Slum Dwellers International (SDI).In this episode, George Masimba and Teurai Nyamangara from Dialogue on Shelter – support NGO to the SDI-affiliated Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation – speak to Daniela Beltrame and Smith Ouma about their approach to working with academic institutions, knowledge generation strategies and collaboration processes within ACRC, and their ongoing work in Harare's informal settlements. George Masimba is head of programmes at Dialogue on Shelter and is leading ACRC's city of systems, uptake and informal settlements domain work for Harare. Teurai Nyamangara is a project officer at Dialogue on Shelter and works alongside George in coordinating informal settlements domain research in Harare. Daniela Beltrame is a political scientist and urban planner, working on ACRC's informal settlements domain. Smith Ouma is a postdoctoral fellow at ACRC, conducting research into informal settlements as part of our domain team.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

In this episode, Urban Action Lab founder Shuaib Lwasa talks to ACRC’s co-research director Seth Schindler about "unlearning" mainstream urban planning, ways to scale up micro-level innovations to drive transformation in African cities, and how coproducing knowledge goes beyond just empowering research participants.Shuaib Lwasa is professor of urban sustainability at Makerere University in Uganda. He recently joined the African Cities Research Consortium's senior management team to lead its capacity strengthening work.Seth Schindler is senior lecturer in urban development and transformation at The University of Manchester's Global Development Institute and co-research director of ACRC.Find out more about Shuaib's role in ACRC on our blog.----This conversation was originally featured on the Global Development Institute podcast.----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube

In most African cities, more than half of the population live in informal settlements. Residents often lack basic services and infrastructure, also facing unsafe housing and insecure tenure.Yet upgrading informal settlements is complex and can be contentious. While some successful models have been developed, too little upgrading has taken place in African cities, existing upgrading has lacked affordable options for the lowest-income residents, and tenants are frequently displaced. Moreover, upgrading efforts have not addressed the growing significance of adverse climate change and the risks this poses for residents.In this episode, social activist and leader of Muungano wa Wanavijiji, Joseph Muturi, talks to Smith Ouma about the challenges of informal settlement upgrading, the importance of youth in climate change advocacy, and why communities have to be at the centre of upgrading initiatives.Joseph Muturi is leader of Muungano wa Wanavijiji, the Kenyan Slum Dweller Federation, and chair of SDI's board of directors.Smith Ouma is a postdoctoral fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, conducting research into informal settlements as part of our domain team.Read more about informal settlements on the ACRC blog. ----Music: Brighter Days | Broke in SummerSounds: ZapsplatThis podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.Stay up to date with the latest publications, announcements and insights from the African Cities Research Consortium:> Website> E-news> Twitter> LinkedIn> YouTube