Latest News + Insights
Tell us your thoughts about the ACRC urban reform database
We want to grow and develop the ACRC urban reform database further – and that’s where we need you! We’re looking for survey participants to share feedback on the database, suggestions for improvement and ideas for case studies.
New research: Unlocking urban finance for African cities
A new working paper by Astrid RN Haas and Gundula Löffler highlights trends and lessons on municipal financing in African cities, providing a valuable overview of this crosscutting issue across ten of ACRC’s focus cities: Accra, Dar es Salaam, Freetown, Harare, Lagos, Lilongwe, Maiduguri, Mogadishu and Nairobi.
Of politics and development: Stakeholder perspectives on urban reform in Lagos
As the old saying goes: all politics is local. In Lagos and elsewhere, political dynamics manifest at various levels – the committee, the community, and the city – and often shape the degree of urban transformation that is possible.
Podcast: Improving access to healthy school meals in Nairobi’s informal settlements
Veronica Mwangi joins Chris Jordan to talk about the issue of healthy diets and nutrition in African cities – particularly among children living in Nairobi’s informal settlements.
Handing on the African Cities Research Consortium
The University of Manchester has recently advertised a new role – which involves taking over as CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium. In this blog post, our current CEO, Professor Diana Mitlin reflects on her own career, experiences and what comes next.
New research: Assessing climate change impacts and solutions across 12 African cities
For ACRC research, climate change was a key crosscutting theme, which we investigated across all of our 12 cities and eight urban development domains. The synthesis report was led by ICLEI Africa and co-authored by Hayley Leck, Zakiyya Atkins, Luka Dreyer, Yakhuluntu Dubazana, Clara Marais, Lorena Pasquini, Tashi Piprek, Meggan Spires and Kate Strachan.
Catalysing change in Nairobi: Launching the city foundation phase report
On 7 February 2025, ACRC convened more than 100 stakeholders in Nairobi to officially launch the city’s foundation phase report. This report brings together diverse perspectives on Nairobi’s urban trajectory, offering an in-depth analysis of the political dynamics that drive urban change and examining the key city systems influencing access to services across the city.
New research: Productive partnerships and citizen agency key to urban reform in Kampala
A new report by Paul Isolo Mukwaya, Judith Mbabazi and Henrik Ernstson draws on ACRC’s holistic conceptual framework components – politics, systems and domains – to analyse urban development in Kampala.
New research: Pathways towards inclusive urbanisation in Nairobi
Nairobi is central to the Kenyan economy, as a key political battleground and a hub for business networks and national and transnational trade. Yet it faces an increasingly complex set of socioeconomic, health and spatial inequalities.
Magicians, powerbrokers and workhorses: The keys to structural transformation in African cities
Structural transformation involves the movement of workers from low-productivity to high-productivity sectors – often from agriculture to manufacturing and services – and is a necessary condition for sustained economic growth.
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