networks may be required to build the information, data and knowledge base from which the trajectories of different urban locales can be assessed and evaluated. These networks should be extended to include stakeholders. Participatory processes require strong feedback mechanisms between communities and institutions. Top-down strategies for urban change require grounding in grassroots realities, which is the primary role of participatory processes. A secondary, but equally beneficial, role is the engenderment of political constituency at the grassroots level. Organizations such as Slum/Shack Dwellers International141 and African affiliates such as the Ghana Federation for the Urban Poor142 have implemented participatory-based development planning that employs peer-to-peer learning and exchange as a vehicle for replication and scaling up. These projects are usually focussed on specific local settlements and their needs. They engage directly with the urban poor in mobilizing savings, establishing skills and management capacity within communities, and facilitating partnerships between poor communities and municipalities wherein community-led development agendas take precedence. In Kitale (Kenya), the “Building in Partnership: Participatory Urban Planning� project worked with government agencies, civil society and the private sector, demonstrating that neighbourhood level participatory processes can be scaled up to municipal levels.143 In Accra (Ghana) participatory water governance has been facilitated through establishing Local Water Boards to help overcome disproportionate access and exclusionary practices at local levels, as well as resolving difficult, conflicting demands over access to water.144 Mainstreaming these community-led approaches more broadly, however, still requires concerted effort from funding agencies, local authorities and city governments that use the learning and momentum of such projects to broaden the scope of participatory governance in African cities.
CHAPTER ONE
Planning for Human Security
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Planning for human security in African cities involves engaging with a wide range of destabilizing factors such as socio-spatial segregation, religious and youth radicalization, war, as well as transnational trafficking and crime. Functional diversification (e.g. separation of residential and industrial zones) as well as history, class and ethnicity can play roles in urban segregation. With high rates of urban growth, however, segregation along class divisions will increasingly impose undesirable spatial segregation patterns and urban fragmentation. Overcoming this in African cities requires rethinking urban systems such as formal and informal public transport and putting in place systems that enhance mobility. This is particularly important for the urban poor who are generally those who must travel farthest to places of work, as well as to access services such as healthcare. Overcoming spatial segregation requires engaging with all sectors of society, promoting inclusion in urban governance and development decisions, especially at local scales. It requires sharing the diverse opinions without fear or favour
on matters critical to the citizenry and which requires inclusion to be resolved. Segregation is fed by particular perceptions of otherness, including fear, which can only be overcome through dialogue and inclusion, even if that may be difficult at first. Climate Change and Disaster Risk Vulnerability Mapping Africa is projected to be the world’s region worst-affected by climate change due to pre-existing vulnerabilities and dependence on rain-fed agriculture.145 Drying and desertification due to climate change constitutes one of the significant threats, since over 40 per cent of the continent receives less than 400 mm of rainfall per year. Understanding regional variation in vulnerability to climate change impacts is critical to informed decision-making at city scales. Accurate city-regional-scale modelling of climate change variations is necessary to plan for climatic extremes that may affect a city within the modelled region or sub-region, as specific contextual factors differ significantly from one city to another depending on location and other factors. In general, however, climate change introduces greater levels of variability and uncertainty into urban planning and development. Climate change impacts can also combine with other global or local change effects to produce unexpected outcomes. Planning for climate change thus requires greater appreciation of how this phenomenon integrates with other factors (e.g. changes in the global economy, or specific local factors) to impact at local scales. It also requires that urban planning and development are focussed on producing urban systems that have greater capacity to absorb shocks and adapt to impacts. Detailed discussion of the sub-regional impacts of climate change in Africa is included in the respective sub-regional chapters of this report. Mitigation requires improving efficiencies in existing systems for reducing greenhouse gas emission;146 for example through recapture (sequestration), recycling and reuse. Improving energy efficiency would constitute a key byproduct of emission strategies. Climate change adaptation focuses on how societies and economies may moderate the impacts of climate change, thus building adaptive capacity is a logical and appropriate response. Decentralization, whether of technology or governance, is essentially an adaptation. Its purpose is to build and reinforce adaptive capacity at local scales. It is critical to engender local resilience with supportive conditions. However, since the climate change threat is simultaneously global, regional and local, responses must be implemented at all levels. Regional and national cooperation is critical147 for appropriately framing and funding local responses, combining top-down and bottom-up responses. Cities need multilevel governance strategies, including strong national policies; more experimentation at local scales; close cooperation between local and national authorities; and crosssector regional and urban strategies to respond adequately to threats. In urban Africa, climate change presents a very real and