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