UNU’s Activities in and on Africa
Urbanization
Photo by Keji Ziza, kindly licensed under Creative Commons.
There are currently no ongoing projects in this category.
Completed Projects
Development in an Urban World
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Contact: Ravi Kanbur; Anne Ruohonen
Time frame: 2008–2009
The project started in late 2007 and has been looking at issues related to Development in an Urban World. After a brainstorming workshop on “Beyond the Tipping Point” in London at the end of 2007, the first project conference focused on African urbanization in June 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa. The third conference was organized in Kolkata in December 2008 and the final conference was organized in Buenos Aires in May 2009. A selection of the papers presented at the conference in Cape Town will be published in 2010 in the African journal Urban Forum.
Tags: Africa, urbanization, development, urban, African cities
Urban Training Programme
United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
Contact: Carlota Schneider
Time frame: 2006
UNU-EHS organized an International Training Course within the framework of the annual professional Urban Training Programme in Valabres, France, in collaboration with IPGR (Institut de Prévention et de Gestion des Risques urbains) in September 2006. The professional training targeted francophone African municipality managers and engineers: 14 participants from 7 countries attended (Chad, Mali, Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Central African Republic).
Participants could exchange knowledge and expertise relating to water and fire risk management and sustainable development, in particular with regard to flood-related hazards and risks and the conservation, decontamination and storage of water reserves, including floods and droughts. The training course aimed primarily at developing sustainable policies conducive to the improvement of risk prevention and preparedness as well as early-warning systems.
Ultimately, these policies are intended to develop and enhance human coping capacities at regional and local levels to reduce the vulnerability to such risks of the societies and communities potentially exposed to them. In addition to class-room training and workshops, trainees visited regional and municipal entities, early-warning agencies and meteorological stations, power and gas plants, airport fire-fighting plane units, and other communal risk management institutions.
Tags: Africa, capacity development, urbanization, environment, risk prevention, water, fire, sustainable development, flood, hazards, conservation, decontamination, storage, drinking water, drought
Risk and Disaster Management Training for Urban Planning in Congo Brazzaville
UNU Vice Rectorate in Europe (UNU-ViE)
Contact: Virginie Aimard, Juan Carlos Villagrán de León
Timeframe: 23 November 2008 – 13 December 2008
In partnership with UNU-EHS, UNU-ViE offered a continuing education course on Risk and Vulnerability for city managers from Congo-Brazzaville. In recent years, the city of Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo has been experiencing disasters as a consequence of mass movements, floods, and storms, as well as epidemics. As in the case of other developing countries, these disasters are exacerbated by an uncontrolled and unplanned urban growth. Two municipal officers from the city of Brazzaville were thus offered a tailor-made course on disaster management which comprised theoretical concepts as well as a case study. As part of their training course in Bonn, UNU also organized meetings with further scholars and professionals from the field.
Location: Congo Brazzaville; City of Brazzaville
Tags: disaster management, vulnerability/risk
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Page last modified 2019.04.16.
