"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.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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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.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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“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.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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"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.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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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.
 
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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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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.
 
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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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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.
 
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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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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.
 
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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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"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.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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“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.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This 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:

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