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The outbreak and spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is probably the most serious global challenge since World War II. While research has paid considerable attention to the technical, epidemiological and public health aspects of the pandemic in Africa, it neglects the social, economic and political dimensions. Relying on analysis of data on trends of COVID-19 infections from the World Health Organization and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and a rapid review of available international and national policy/programme documents on COVID-19 control responses in Africa, this study assessed the extant protocols and responses to COVID-19 in relation to urban governance principles. Utilizing the political economy framework, the social conditions of informal labour and business activities during the COVID-19 pandemic are explored with accession to social habitus of informality. The paper argues that in as much as the COVID-19 pandemic is a pervasive health problem it should be treated more as a social and political economy challenge given the large informal nature of urbanism in Africa. The study concludes that urban governance that incorporates collective organization, community groups, non-state and informal actors offers scope in the battle against COVID-19 in Africa. Rethinking African urbanism in line with the principles of the Global Campaign on Urban Governance is also canvassed.

Rapid urbanisation is precipitating wide-ranging and often irreversible changes in cities and at the shifting peri-urban areas around the world. As a significant factor of change in the 21 st Century, urbanisation is irreversibly transforming everything on its path-air, land, water, and ecology, including institutions, customs, and lifestyles. The subject scope of urbanisation research is therefore quite wide and diverse. Yet, urbanisation-induced attritions and substitutions of customary tenure practices, coupled with the associated politics and resistances, remain utterly overlooked. Using a mixed method approach (involving desktop research, remote sensing data and stakeholder interviews), this paper examines the clashes between customary tenure regime and statutory practices dictated by urban laws, and how different stakeholders are appropriating them both to promote and resist displacement or eviction. Amidst growing encroachment pressures on peri-urban communities in Nigerian cities, a new imperative for enhanced tenure security and integrated planning approach are proposed.

Forced eviction is unquestionably a global humanitarian crisis. Africa and, particularly, Nigeria bear a major brunt of this 'global epidemic', which carries enormous material and human costs. Yet, eviction is frequently hidden behind forms of displacements which operate within the law, and are justified on the basis of public interest rationales. Drawing on a research project into urban infrastructure-related displacement in Nigeria, , this paper explores the reported incidence, patterns and trends of urban displacements and their impacts in Nigeria over a period of six years (2010 -2016). Through the prism of the holistic approach, it interrogates the conflicting 'publics' and 'interests' in the diverse displacement contexts, and argues that the 'public interest' behind official rationale for displacement is, in reality, a highly contested affair. The paper recommends that displacements, where unavoidable, ought to be planned with a human face.

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Background The widely available informal healthcare providers (IHPs) present opportunities to improve access to appropriate essential health services in underserved urban areas in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, they are not formally linked to the formal health system. This study was conducted to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders about institutionalizing linkages between the formal health systems and IHPs, as a strategy for improving access to appropriate healthcare services in Nigeria. Methods Data was collected from key stakeholders in the formal and informal health systems, whose functions cover the major slums in Enugu and Onitsha cities in southeast Nigeria. Key informant interviews (n = 43) were conducted using semi-structured interview guides among representatives from the formal and informal health sectors. Interview transcripts were read severally, and using thematic content analysis, recurrent themes were identified and used for a narrative synthesis. Results Although the dominant view among respondents is that formalization of linkages between IHPs and the formal health system will likely create synergy and quality improvement in health service delivery, anxieties and defensive pessimism were equally expressed. On the one hand, formal sector respondents are pessimistic about limited skills, poor quality of care, questionable recognition, and the enormous challenges of managing a pluralistic health system. Conversely, the informal sector pessimists expressed uncertainty about the outcomes of a government-led supervision and the potential negative impact on their practice. Some of the proposed strategies for institutionalizing linkages between the two health sub-systems include: sensitizing relevant policymakers and gatekeepers to the necessity of pluralistic healthcare; mapping and documenting of informal providers and respective service their areas for registration and accreditation, among others. Perceived threats to institutionalizing these linkages include: weak supervision and monitoring of informal providers by the State Ministry of Health due to lack of funds for logistics; poor data reporting and late referrals from informal providers; lack of referral feedback from formal to informal providers, among others. Conclusions Opportunities and constraints to institutionalize linkages between the formal health system and IHPs exist in Nigeria. However, there is a need to design an inclusive system that ensures tolerance, dignity, and mutual learning for all stakeholders in the country and in other LMICs.

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As the world shrinks into a 'global village', cities have come into focus as dominant nodes in the global transactions and flows of capital, commodities, people and services. The resulting economic cum information order is not only transforming the architecture of discrete cities everywhere but is also motivating new patterns of inter-city relations and networks. Global urban network is now synonymous with the trans-state processes that make up the global economy (Taylor, Political Geography 19:5-32, 2000). Hence, cities are increasing perceived as a new 'resource' and 'spring board' for connecting to and operating at the global level. The article explores these issues with reference to the place and function of African cities in the global urban network. A citybased assessment of this nature offers a fresh and fluid scope to African development question and quest as against the more conventional 'state-centric' benchmarking.