Urban Governance and Turning African Ci

This working paper presents the findings of the study on the process to turn around the city of Luanda, the capital of Angola.1 Decades of civil war that followed the country’s independence in 1975 saw millions of people internally displaced, large areas mined and most of the country’s physical, economic and social infrastructure and services destroyed or degraded. Although most of the conflict took place in the countryside, the impact was felt in Luanda, the main recipient of the massive influx of displaced people seeking safety. The failure to invest in the infrastructure needed to handle this influx resulted in the severe degradation of the city’s urban core and the growth of sprawling slums.