African Cities of the Future – “Most liveable cities”
According to UN-Habitat, Africa is urbanising at a rate of 4% per annum, particularly in developing countries. Over the next two decades, cities in Africa will experience higher growth rates than other regions of the world. It has been said by the director of UN-Habitat that urbanisation in the Africa of today is an untapped tool for development and economic growth. This rapid rise in the population of African cities, however, presents a range of socio-economic challenges. Urbanisation has the potential to catalyse Africa’s structural transformation, if managed properly. Together with good planning of urbanisation and industrialisation, economic growth and human development can be achieved in a sustainable manner.
Challenges, which need to be addressed, include congestion, infrastructure (water, housing, sanitation, and energy), food security, pollution, social disaggregation, unemployment, service delivery, crime, violence and lawlessness, child and women vulnerability, health issues, environment, proper urban planning and design. These challenges provide an opportunity for all disciplines in the University to come together to work in an interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary synergistic approach to find solutions which are unique and indigenous to the continent that we reside on. In addition, the African City of the Future will encompass concepts such as smart cities, aerotropolis, autonomous vehicles, urban agriculture, as well as the ocean economy for cities that are along the coast.
The proposed research flagship will bring together researchers from across the Institution to work closely with the municipalities, and provincial and national governments to find sustainable solutions to the challenges associated with rapid urbanisation and the vision of developing African cities which are on par or better in terms of liveability than leading global cities.
Approach
In order to have the greatest impact on society, research (knowledge and understanding) and human capital development (teaching and training) need to be aligned with the government frameworks for improving the wellbeing and livelihoods of our people. UKZN plans to work closely with the Provincial KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), which has the mandate for oversight of municipalities within the province, including eThekwini Metro. As the project cuts across government departments, we will also work closely with the KZN Premier’s Office, and other departments such as KZN Agriculture and Rural Development and KZN Economic Development and Tourism. The key cities of focus will be eThekwini and Msunduzi Municipalities as partners.
We intend that the research under the flagship is framed for impact, and we will develop clear value chains of research leading to policy improvement (policy briefs), planning improvements (strategic plans), implementation improvements (implementation and business plans), and innovation and entrepreneurship (innovation hub and aerotropolis, start-ups).
Research will be transdisciplinary, developed and implemented in partnership with government and industry practitioners, and include university staff, students, and collaborators from multiple disciplines. Research support will be targeted to improve capacity to implement and deliver transdisciplinary work, as well as to support career development of South African, African staff to become leaders in African cities research.
We will leverage funds through partnership with a few key global institutions, for joint application to large global funders, and to identify a few additional African cities as case studies. This will be facilitated through a consultative process, followed by seed funding for consortia of academics, for postdocs, and for PhD students, as well as a few strategic fractional appointments for international colleagues.