Future Cities Africa podcast

Bronwyn Williams is back and she shares 3 key trends for cities: Haha Cities, DIY Cities and Charter Cities. We also talk about private cities, the Metaverse, crypto trends affecting cities, strategies local governments can implement to do more with less for its people, book recommendations to help us navigate what lies ahead, and much more. Listen or watch to understand:

• HaHa cities: Invisibly walled gardens / 15 minute cities.
• DIY cities: Hacking democracy/ citizen shadow governments.
• Charter cities: Real and unreal semi independent city states.
• Is private cities still a key trend?
• The Metaverse.
• Strategies local governments can implement to do more with less for its people.
• Book recommendations to help us navigate what lies ahead: - Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970) - Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games - Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville
• Key trends in the crypto space that will affect cities. - Decentralised decision making consensus protocols - Central bank digital currencies

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Episode 2 of the Series focussing on urban governance and how to get it right in managing urban growth in towns and cities in Kenya. Show guest: David Gatimu, Corporate Member of the Architectural Association of Kenya Town Planners Chapter. He has over 25 years' experience in Public Service and holds a MSc in Urban Planning from Oxford Brookes University. Listen or watch to understand:

• Key trends in urbanization in Kenya.
• Key factors to consider in the social, economic and spatial development in Kenyan communities (given the explosive growth in population).
• The developments in policy, governance, and inter-governmental relations, and how these are reshaping how we finance, coordinate, and drive urban development.
• How we can get beyond policy, to seeing meaningful change and investment on the ground.
• An essential kit/ model for urban management in emerging towns that can be replicated throughout the country.
• Challenges standing in the way of progress in Urban Governance/ Urban Management and how it c an be addressed?

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Episode 1 of the Series focussing on urban governance and how to get it right in managing urban growth in towns and cities in Kenya. Show guest: Cyrus Mbisi, a Town Planner and Chairperson of the Town Planners Chapter of The Architectural Association of Kenya. Listen or watch to understand:

• Why the management of urbanization and growth is so important in the Kenyan context.
• The place of technology and related innovations (and digitization of Kenya's land Registry).
• The tools that exist for managing urban development.
• Financing the required tasks for improved urban management for local authorities.
• The future of Kenya's cities and towns in terms of urbanization and how to adapt these towns to the threat of climate change and how to build resilience.
• The cities and urban areas that people actually want.
• the magic bullet for resolving the problem of coordination in regards to mandates and responsibilities in managing growth and urban development
• The place of stakeholder engagement in development planning and implementation. Who needs to make it to the negotiating table? Whose city is it? Who has what stake, and who needs to determine what happens in the city? Who has what power, how much power?

About Cyrus Mbisi

Cyrus is a Town Planner and Chairperson of Town Planners Chapter of The Architectural Association of Kenya. He is also the Founder and Managing Director of Greenspace Planning and Environmental Consultants Limited.

GreenCape's Alternative Service Delivery Unit (ASDU) is working with different informal settlements to improve their access to basic services. This episode explores the ASDU, principles of co-design in asset based community development, and the impact of this and other ASDU project partnerships.

This episode is presented in partnership with GreenCape in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Listen or watch to understand:

• Guests in this conversation: Reshmi Wolvers, ASDU Project Manager at GreenCape and Jack Radmore , Energy Programme Manager and Climate Finance Lead at GreenCape.
• Background to the ASDU.
• How the ASDU at GreenCape came about.
• The impact of the work to date.
• The research process to better understand the different and most pressing needs of communities.
• Principles of co-design in asset based community development.
• How to support improved access to basic services in informal settlements.
• Lessons learned from implementing projects in Freedom Farm and Malawi Camp
• The focus of the work that the ASDU is doing with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.
• What the ASDU hopes to achieve over the next few years.
• The importance of effective stakeholder collaboration when it comes to alternative service delivery and what more can be done to improve this collaboration.
• The role of local government in providing alternative service delivery.

All episodes here: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php

GreenCape and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom are running a series of Green Economy decision-makers courses that have a reach into African cities. This episode explores the decision-makers courses, the planned Symposium, and the impact that this initiative is seeing by equipping decision-makers to understand and align their strategies with green economy principles.

This episode is presented in partnership with GreenCape in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Listen or watch to understand:

• Guests in this conversation: Lindiwe van Staden, Project Manager for Skills Development at GreenCape and Genesis Cleveland, Regional Project Manager at Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.
• Background to FNF's involvement in the Green Economy.
• Explanation of the Green Economy decision-makers course and Symposium.
• Who the decision-makers are in this context, and why the training is focused on them.
• How to access the course materials via GreenCape 's Youtube channel. (Waste, Energy and Water courses)
• Examples of positive impact from running these courses.
• The objectives of the Symposium themed: A new vision for delivering green economy solutions for African communities.
• How aligning to green economy principles potentially shape the future of African cities?
• The potential consequences when decision-makers do not understand and align their strategies with green economy principles. Spoiler: We might be left behind if we don't act.

Abdullahi Ali Hassan has a Master's in Urban Studies and is very active in the Bellville Somalian community. We explore the importance of multiculturalism in urban centres, narratives and perceptions, the importance of strong leadership, how city governments can better support multicultural populations, and more.

Listen or watch to understand:This episode is presented in partnership with The Greater Tygerberg Partnership (GTP).

• Narratives and perceptions.
• The importance of multiculturalism in urban centres.
• Most significant benefits of a multicultural community.
• Insights into the cultural environment in Bellville.
• How the Somalian community have been able to integrate into Bellville? Challenges and successes.
• Most important factors in building community cohesion in multicultural urban centres.
• Major challenges for multiculturalism in urban centres to be successful and efficient, and how they can be addressed.
• How city governments can and should better support multicultural populations.
• The importance of strong leadership.

See all episodes: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php

The Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) directly responds to the urgency and scale of the climate crisis by supporting highly promising climate projects to become more bankable and appealing to investors, so that they can secure funding more readily. The CFA is part of the UK Government's efforts to help South Africa tackle climate change and support a just transition.

This episode is presented in partnership with GreenCape, in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Read the CFA press release here Listen or watch to understand:

• Guests in this conversation: Ian Callaghan, Originator of the Climate Finance Accelerator, Mike Mulcahy, Chief Executive Officer of GreenCape and John Gibss, Infrastructure Finance Advisor to the Climate Finance Accelerator.
• What the CFA is, how it came about and what it will do.
• Why is it so hard for low carbon projects to find suitable investments.
• How the CFA understands the climate finance landscape in each country it operates in (Nigeria, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Turkey).
• How GreenCape reacted when they heard about the CFA and how it can help in South Africa.
• The kinds of projects that are applying to be part of the CFA, and what kind of needs they have.
• The next steps for the South African CFA projects that have been identified.
• Major challenges standing in the way of the success of the CFA and how each show guest would solve it if they had a magic wand.

All episodes: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php

A free and fair media is critical in a healthy democracy, though while the data age has dramatically enhanced our ability to generate and share news, it has similarly enabled the rise of fake news, programmatic agendas, and media echo-chambers. The Dexter project seeks to leverage modern computational paradigms to monitor and analyze Southern Africa's digital media.

Listen or watch to understand:

This episode is presented in partnership with Open Cities Lab

• Background on guests William Bird, Director of Media Monitoring Africa and Matthew Adendorff , Data Lead at Open Cities Lab.
• What exactly is Dexter and what does it do?
• How Open Cities Lab and Media Monitoring Africa got involved in the project.
• How Dexter can be used for a focussed subject: To track elections or COVID reporting in Africa.
• The elections work that the Dexter project is currently underway with.
• The biggest challenges they've overcome to date and how they did it.
• Application of Dexter beyond news media.
• The key steps to a more free and fair media.

See all episodes: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php

Youtube Channel: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php

Zukiswa Mandlana is Director for Organisational Effectiveness and Innovation at the City of Cape Town.

We discuss the latest innovations at the City of Cape Town, the innovation process they adopted, how they measure success, key milestones reached, overcoming challenges and how the Pandemic has influenced how they innovate.

This episode is presented in partnership with the City of Cape Town

See all episodes: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php

Miriam Maina is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has a particular focus on the role of policy in shaping urban futures in Africa. Listen or watch to understand:This episode is presented in partnership with 1map (Visit them)

• Organic growth vs proactive town planning/city management.
• If organic growth is a good idea for African countries.
• What happens to town planning policies? Who informs them, who implements them? Why don't policies always reach their goals? And why is there a need for improved policies?
• Challenges: Why are all the things that we know are necessary for city management success, not in place? Like Data, access to technology, lack of digital property register, silos in governments, funding
• Kenya's land registry being digitised.
• How secondary cities and towns will grow exponentially.
• Modern skills, like visualisation of data for actionable insights, town planners will need to craft powerful policies that will shape African cities. Examples are GIS knowledge, data analysis, technical proficiency, and more.
• What is hindering the uptake of new technologies.
• Africa is expecting several of its cities to reach mega city status in the near future. Is it too late to implement effective city growth policies for those cities and towns?
• How African cities can adapt and prepare for what is to come?

All episodes here: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php