非洲的城市繁荣乞求本土知识

[NAIROBI] Africa’s cities are booming, but the fastest urbanisation rates in the world need to be met with local urban planning knowledge, sustainable city experts say.

非洲城市are largely shaped by research from the global North, but the continent’s unique needs make local urban research and development critical, a newreportsays.

While the bulk of urbanisation in Africa has not yet occurred, African cities are experiencing the fastest urbanisation rates in the world, the report says. African cities should quickly act to ensure thatknowledgeunique to the continent is used to aid urban development.

“在非洲，有必要在可持续的城市规划和发展中建立强大的人类能力。”

Paul Syagga, University of Nairobi

“Research on African urban issues are predominantly shaped by research from the global North because of its [Africa’s] colonial ties with these nations,” says Sylvia Croese, the report’s co-author and urban sociologist with the African Centre for Cities at South Africa’s University of Cape Town.

Croese tellsSciDev.Netthat the pace and scale of urbanisation in Africa is unprecedented and more than three-quarters of residential areas developed on the continent between 1990 and 2014 were informal and unplanned.

“Although many frameworks and tools for generating knowledge are relevant to African contexts, more attempts should be made to support the development of African research theories and framing to grasp the problems and solutions in their specific context,” the report says.

The report is based on case studies resulting from the five-yearLeading Integrated Research for Agenda 2030 in Africaprogramme being implemented by the International Science Council and the Network of African Science Academies. It calls for African cities to shape their futures in asustainableand resilient manner.

Mabel Nechia Wantim, a co-author of the report and a researcher at the University of Buea, Cameroon, says that the challenges of sustainable urban development in Africa can best be met using science,policyand society.

Wantim says that the success of Africa’s response to complex urban challenges will largely depend on the continent’s ability to mobilise diverse types of knowledge and connect that multifaceted knowledge with decision-making and practice.

The report says that unlike many African cities, those in the global North resulted from industrialisation. In Angola, for example, city growth and development has been largely fuelled by government revenues derived from oil production.

本土跨学科researchand sustainable cities training is urgently needed in Africa to address challenges confronting Africancities, such as informal settlements, according to Wantim.

Paul Syagga, a professor of land economics at Kenya’s University of Nairobi, who was not involved in publishing the report, tellsSciDev.Netthat African cities are mostly based on rural-urban migrations.

“In Africa, there is the need to build a strong human capacity in sustainable urban planning and development, directing how things are being done and with the support of the political class who controls power,” he says.

“雇佣经理本地培训在城市planning, surveying andengineeringthen send them abroad to share knowledge and learn.”

该报告确定了城市发展问题，包括非洲城市的非正式定居点和住房，例如安哥拉的卢兰达，喀麦隆的布亚和林贝，埃塞俄巴州的亚的斯亚贝巴，肯尼亚的内罗毕，肯尼亚的内罗毕，南非的德班和乌干达的坎帕拉。

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.