From the early 1980s decentralisation became integral to international development and by the mid-1990s 80 per cent of countries were engaged in some form of decentralisation (Crook and Manor 2000).
The purpose of this draft national urban development framework (NUDF) is to provide a common nation-wide view on how to strengthen the capacity of South Africa’s towns, cities and city-regions to realise their potential to support national shared growth, social equity and environmental sustainability.
This report provides a summary of discussions held during the eDialogue on Governance and Participation. The Dialogue ran for three weeks between 16th November and 8 December 2009 and attracted much interest, with a total of 202 postings from 28 countries1 and many more viewers.
Internationally there a few cases where street traders have been sensitively integrate into urban plans. Warwick Junction, the primary transport node in Durban, South Africa was for over 10 years one of the few exceptions.
Cities generally function as sources of economic development and human progress. One of the puzzles about Africa’s urbanization is that it has not been accompanied by greater economic dynamism.
This paper explores the meaning of the developmental state for spatial economic policy in South Africa. Two main questions are addressed: do provincial governments have a role to play in pro- moting economic prosperity, and to what extent do current provincial policies possess the attri- butes of a developmental state?
Visit AFSUN’s website to download some of their recent publications on Food Security related issues
Despite the advances in modern retailing, millions of people throughout the world still make their living partly or wholly through selling goods on the streets.
The global research-policy-action network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) launched this dedicated urban policies research report series in October 2009. The series profiles content that makes either an empirical or theoretical contribution to existing knowledge about the urban working poor, their living and work environments and/or their organisations.
Much has been said about the impact of the global economic crisis on those employed in the formal economy while its impact on those employed informally – in enterprises and as wage workers – has received little or no attention.
Optimism about the role of household food production (urban agriculture) in improving the food security of the urban poor has given way to pessimism and even scepticism. This paper critically examines the views of advocates of urban agriculture and suggests that it cannot be isolated from a broader consideration of the changing nature of urban food supply systems in Southern African cities.
The number of people living in urban areas is rising rapidly in Southern Africa. By mid-century, the region is expected to be 60% urban. Rapid urbanization is leading to growing food insecurity in the region’s towns and cities.
Over 1 billion people in the world are now undernourished. The current international food security agenda focuses almost exclusively on the food insecurity of rural populations and ways to increase smallholder production.
Urbanization is a global multidimensional process paired with increasing uncertainty due to climate change, migration of people, and changes in the capacity to sustain ecosystem services. This article lays a foundation for discussing transitions in urban governance, which enable cities to navigate change, build capacity to withstand shocks, and use experimentation and innovation in face of uncertainty.
Aims: To highlight the potential value of network analysis for conservation biogeography and to focus attention on some of the challenges that lie ahead in applying it to conservation problems.
