Allan Cain – Presentation to the African Urban Research Initiative Workshop in Nairobi

February 18, 2014

The African Urban Research Initiative (AURI) is a network of applied research centres to inform and enhance the policy actors and networks in each African country responsible for urban policy and management. Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest urbanizing regions in the world, yet it is the least prepared institutionally to deal with the pressures that will be associated with this process. Development Workshop has participated from the inception of the initiative in Addis Ababa in March 2013 and is one of the three member Steering Committee. The 18 member research centres aim to network together to exchange knowledge, know-how, and expertise to foster a layer of credible and resilient institutions rooted in local realities but engaged with broader trends. The secretariat of AURI is hosted by the Africa Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town.

The theme of the Nairobi workshop held on February 18th to 19th, 2014, was, ‘institutional models of knowledge co-production in the African city’. The workshop probed the notion of ‘co-production’ from an African perspective, and to identify the different models and practices of knowledge co-production that exist and are possible in the African context.

Allan Cain made the following presentation on how Development Workshop uses the co-production of urban research to engage with other Angolan non-state actors in ongoing advocacy with public policy makers on:

• land tenure and urban land markets,
• the informal economy that employs more than half of the population, 
• housing strategies and finance
• economic justice issues,
• civil society space and post-conflict peace and reconciliation,
• urban transformations and Chinese financing,
• urban adaptations to environmental & climate change
• community-lead basic services